Swollen eye, nasal discharge and sneezing hen- picture!

[cbasser]

My poor black sex link has been sneezing for 2 1/2 weeks. She wasn't showing any other signs until today when I let her out of the coop. One side of her face is swollen. There is a membrane that is completely covering her eye. She now has an eye discharge and a nasal discharge. I took her to the local vet (who admitted he didn't see too many chickens) and he found her to be very thin. (I'm new to chickens so I didn't know anything was wrong!) He put her on cephalexin twice a day. I'm just wondering if anyone has any experience with this particular antibiotic or if I should use something else for this particular infection. Also, should I treat all the other birds in my flock with antibiotics? Thanks for any input.

 

[dawg53]

Cephalexin is an antibiotic. I've used it before with my dogs for ear infections, worked good. It might work for your sick Black Star, but not if it's a viral infection.
Keep your bird seperated from the others. Dont handle your sick bird and then pick up one of your other healthy birds. Most likely you are dealing with a respiratory disease and it is contageous to other birds, all the symptoms are there.
If there's a foul odor around her head, it coryza. No foul odor, most likely it's mycoplasma gallisepticum (MG) or infectious bronchitis (IBV.)
Here's a link for you to read. Scroll down and read about these diseases I mentioned. Symptoms are basically the same for each one, except coryza (foul odor.) I suspect MG.
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/ps044
Another link about MG:
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/ps034