Suspected gapeworm

[mdc05]

I've been searching the site for info about our sick flock. Our chickens looks like everything I have seen about gapeworm - head bobbing and shaking, yawning, gurgling if you pick them up, etc. So we are going to TSC to pick up the treatment. But how do we need to treat the yard to get rid of it there? Our chicken pen is huge, so they essentially free range, and I have no idea how to treat that area - or one that large. What do we do to disinfect their coops?

Edited to say they are not a year old yet. Started laying this summer. Got them at TSC this spring.

As a side note, should we also treat our guineas and ducks who have shared the same yard?

 

[mdc05]

Just bumping - looking for help still!


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[Eggcessive]

Gapeworm is not that common, but respiratory diseases such as MG, coryza, ILT, infectious bronchitis, and aspergillosis are more common. If a chicken dies, you can only see gapeworms in the trachea or airway after death when it is cut open. I would try some Oxytetracycline or Tylan in the water to see if there is improvement in symptoms. Chicken antibiotics will be leaving the shelves by the end of this year. Is there a bad odor, as is common in coryza? Gapeworm treatment is to give SafeGuard Liquid Goat wormer 1/4 ml per pound of weight orally to each chicken for 3-5 days in a row. Here is a good link to read about the symptoms seen in common diseases including those above:
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/ps044

 

[mdc05]

We've been giving them oxytetracycline for several days with no improvement. We've lost 2 hens already. I'm thinking now maybe not gapeworms because from what I've read you should be able to see them in their throat and my husband didn't see any. The sickest ones are also keeping their eyes shut, but they can open them. They have nasal discharge, gurgling, coughing, gaping or yawning, fatigue, and don't seem to be eating or drinking much. I'm kind of torn now between IB or MG, less the IB since I read the eggs are laid soft, no shell or wrinkly, and our eggs were normal, then just stopped.

 

[Eggcessive]

You can't see gapeworms by looking in the throat or swabbing the throat--only after death by opening the airway. Nasal drainage and all other symptoms are signs of respiratory infection. Try to contact your local extension agent or state vet (dept. of agriculture) to get one or two birds tested. Separate sick birds from healthy ones, and treat sickones. Sick birds may not drink enough of the medicated water, so you can try Tylan 50 injectable given orally or by injuection twice a day for 3-5 days.

 

[mdc05]

We lost another one today Taking one of the Roos to the university AG vet on Friday. They said they've seen a lot of MG in the area the last couple of weeks, but of course they can't say it's that over the phone.


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[mdc05]

Just following up in case anyone reads later. Our vet said super high infection of infectious bronchitis, with secondary infections of MG and a mild strain of Newcastle disease I posted another thread for input specifically related to those. Thank you, eggcessive, for the info.


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[Eggcessive]

Oh my, that is pretty serious. It is a shame that your flock is so young, and that you have other types of birds. Thank you for updating your thread with this information. It's always a good thing to get a necropsy to find out what disease is going around, and this is a good example of how secondary infections can complicate a milder virus of bronchitis. Good luck to you with your flock.

 

[Lexis1322]

Hello,

mdc05, I'm so sorry for your losses. Were you able to treat your flock? Did you have much success?

I had a very healthy flock before I added more chickens. In October, I bought 10 six week old girls from a popular site. I have lost three of them already, and one who is currently very, very ill. I've been to our vet several times but I feel like I'm not getting anywhere. When my little one (Peaches) got sick this week, I decided to try out the Denegard/Tetracylcline combo on my own (I'm a medical student so very familiar with pharmacology). She is still hanging on, but her color doesn't look great. I'm doing everything I can to help her through this crisis: isolated in a cozy room, she has a heating pad, vaporizer running with VetRx in it, electrolyte solution for drinking, Prozyme in her food (which she has barely touched). I've made her mash with warm milk; she was uninterested. She has had nibbles of apple flesh and she drank some NutriDrench recently.

Just wondering if anyone is able to kick these awful respiratory diseases. I'm terrified that once I put the young new girls in with my current flock, they will all be ill. Culling for me just doesn't feel like an option at all. I know that for the sake of biosecurity it makes sense, but I'm not comfortable with that at all.

Any advice is really appreciated.

Thank you.

 

[casportpony]

Just following up in case anyone reads later. Our vet said super high infection of infectious bronchitis, with secondary infections of MG and a mild strain of Newcastle disease

I posted another thread for input specifically related to those. Thank you, eggcessive, for the info.


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So sorry for your losses, but thanks so much for posting this.

-Kathy