To medicate or not to medicate

[chickenmom1]

Hi everyone,
Well, I had a run of a cold through my coop and I while I was debating (stupid me) whether to use antibiotics or not I lost a couple of chickens. The old ones. Now spring is here and everyone else seems to be okay. Do you think I should still treat the flock or do you think the rest are going to be okay. I haven't seen any symptoms in a while, but I am still worried about CRD or if anyone else still has it.
Thanks,
J

 

[CMV]

The thing about CRD is that they will always have it. The C in CRD stands for chronic. Once a flock is infected it is always infected until you destroy the lot of them. You should probably close your flock (nothing in, nothing out) and keep some antibiotics on hand to treat the problems as they come up.

I have a zero tolerance policy for respiratory illness.

Good luck.

 

[dawg53]

Quote:
Ditto.

 

[speckledhen]

Quote:
Ditto.

Double ditto.

 

[chickenmom1]

Yeah,
I understand. Being a newbee I closed the vents for part of the winter. God, I feel so stupid. It was so cold and I was so worried about them getting cold I didn't realize what I was doing. Do you think I should still treat the flock? I have duramycin on hand and I have to put babies in there in a couple of weeks.
J

 

[speckledhen]

Well, first of all, you don't know what they have. If viral, no antibiotics will help. Even if it's bacterial, fixing the symptoms won't keep them from becoming carriers of whatever they have, for example, Coryza is bacterial but leaves carriers.

If you have high ammonia levels from too much moisture, that could cause sneezing and runny eyes, so you'll have to stoop down, stir around the shavings and take a huge whiff. Might need a complete clean out then keep those vents open, even in the dead of winter.

 

[Katy]

Quote:
Ditto.

Double ditto.

triple ditto

 

[chickenmom1]

Thanks so much. I have been cleaning the coop every day since Feb to keep up. I appreciate the advice and will heed it.
Thanks again.
J

 

[speckledhen]

I'm all about informed decisions with chicken keeping. If you know they have some carrier disease, then you must decide to either remove the infected flock and disinfect the surroundings or you may decide to keep them, treat them (if there is a treatment for what they have) and close your flock, meaning you don't sell chicks, adult birds or hatching eggs from your flock, if the disease is one that may be passed down through the egg. Whatever you decide to do, I think you should always think how you'd want to be dealt with when buying birds from someone else. JMHO.

Here's a short general article on Mycoplasmosis/CRD for you:

http://www.ruleworks.co.uk/poultry/M-Gallisepticum.htm

Mycoplasma Gallisepticum (MG)

Contagious disease of poultry, gamebirds, pigeons, and passerine birds of all ages. Younger birds are more susceptible than older or mature birds.

At one time the most common means of MG spreading was by trans ovarian passage from infected breeders. Today, however, breach of sound management and biosecurity measures is more often the cause.

MG can spread within the poultry house by direct bird to bird contact and by exhaled respiratory droplets (indirect contact).

Clinical signs may be slight when uncomplicated. Sticky exudate from nostrils, foamy exudate in eyes, and swollen sinuses. Airsacculities with yellow exudate in air sacs. Infected birds develop respiratory rattles, sneeze and flip their heads.

Many infections display similar symptoms especially cold type symptoms. It is a mistake to presume that every bird with rattly breathing or other cold like symptoms has MG. Without a proper lab test one sometimes cannot be really certain what the infection is.

May spread slowly through a flock or maybe acute. Affected birds often are stunted and unthrifty. Infection can be acute in an individual bird, but take considerable time to spread throughout a flock. Recovered birds remain carriers.

Treatment is erythromycin, tylosin, spectinomycin and lincomycin. Tylosin consistently gives good results. Administration of most of these antibiotic is by feed, water or injection.
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[Talisman]

It's really sad to keep chickens around that have any type of chronic disease, because they don't really thrive that well, you always have to worry about flare-ups.I think it's best to put them down and wait awhile to start over. I'm really sorry for you and your chickens. I'm dealing with the same thing myself. I manage to have chickens for 36 yrs. with no problems except those pesky predators,kids,etc.Having chickens is a wonderful experience and not always bad I still get soooo excited when a new chick hatches:

I hope the best for you chickenmom1.. I also have zero tolerence for crd.I hope this helps you out. Heather