Two sick roosters and possibly my whole flock! HELP!

[chickenaddict18]

I had four rooster who were too rough with my layers so I sent them- two at a time- to my grandmas house until I could find them a new home. I recently brought home three roosters back from my grandmas flock. There was originally 4, but one recently died. I brought the two Easter Egger roosters to my grandmas because they weren't getting along with my other roosters. They were at my grandmas for probably 2-3 weeks tops. One died on Tuesday night, my grandma says he died of a heart attack. He just fell over and died but he was 5 months old so I think he died of an illness because they don't keep things clean whatsoever, nor do they care or check on their chickens. They are very old school and don't keep up with proper cleaning or care practices for the chickens. The other two roosters, a silver spangled Hamburg and a buff brahma, were only at my grandmas for one day and night. So out of the three remaining roosters, two are sick with different illnesses. The buff brahma is healthy as far as I can tell. My Easter Egger roo is acting normal but has a slight cough and clear snot coming from his nose. He has a very good appetite and is constantly eating. The silver spangled Hamburg is much worse, at first he had watery eyes, one swollen area under an eye, yellow snot coming from his nose, rattling noises when he breathes, keeps his beak open to breathe, and has a yellow mucus type thing lining his top and bottom beak. He doesn't eat or drink much and just wants puff up and sleep. The silver spangled Hamburg has been sick since last Saturday. He doesn't seem to be improving much- he still rattles, has some yellow snot and has the yellow mucus in his mouth.

I went to the vet- who is not a bird specialist- on Monday and he gave me some antibiotic (doesn't say what it is on the bottle.) So the Hamburg has been on the antibiotic since Monday and the Easter egger has been on it since Wednesday. I'm afraid the Hamburg has wet fowl pox and the Easter Egger has infectious bronchitis. This terrifies me because I have 17 other chickens in their coop and I'm terrified that I will accidentally give it to my flock. I check their noses and eyes every night and I haven't seen anyone that's sick yet. However when I let them out today I saw my Australorp had clear snot coming out of her nose but my whole flock acts normal. They are all eating, drinking and laying. I read on a forum on this site that shaking heads indicates illness and some of my chickens where shaking their heads but I'm not sure what from. I have sand as flooring in my coop and I clean all the poo out every morning and night with a kitty litter scoop. I didn't know if the the dust from sifting the sand could give my Australorp the runny nose or not. I'm praying that's all it is and that she hasn't gotten the infectious bronchitis. I try to keep things clean as possible and always take care of my healthy chickens before my sick chickens. I wash my clothes and gloves everyday and wash my hands constantly. I've kept the sick Roos in my garage in separate cages. I've also cleaned everything in my garage with Clorox in hopes that I don't spread the bronchitis.

Today I gave my Roos one cc of the antibiotic and rubbed vet rx on the nose and in their beak. I also gave them electrolyte water. I swapped the yellow gunk from the hamburgs beak. I put a couple of drops of vet rx in one of the waterers in my coop but I'm not sure what else to do for them.

I was going to give the three roosters to someone to add to their flock but I'm afraid I can't do that if these Roos live. I will be upset if these Roos die but I will be crushed if my entire flock gets sick and dies.

Obviously I'm a big time worrier. I just love every one of my chickens and I will be devestated if I lose any. What can I do the keep my flock healthy and try to save my two sick Roos? I bought terra-vet 10 but I'm not sure how much to put in one gallon of water. The instructions are too confusing and the measurements are in mg so I'm not sure how much to use per gallon. Please help!

 

[cafarmgirl]

Welcome to BYC, sorry it's not under the best of circumstances.

Unfortunately whatever this is is most likely going to slowly spread through your whole flock. It is never a good idea to expose your birds to another flock and then bring them back, even more so if the other flock is poorly kept. There are many respiratory diseases chickens can get, symptoms are similar in many of them so without having a bird tested, or having a dead bird necropsied, it's almost impossible to know what they have. It may be IB or it may not. It would be very wise, if you loose a bird, to find out where to send or take it in your state for a proper necropsy. Some state poultry pathology labs do them for free others don't. It would just help you a lot to know exactly what you are dealing with and how best to treat/manage it, what meds are best and what you will deal with in terms of it recurring in the future. Some of these diseases are so troublesome that it is sometimes best to cull a flock and start over rather then deal with endless flare up's and sick birds.

As far as the 5 month old bird who died? I would suspect coccidiosis was a much more likely culprit then heart attack. They are at high risk for coccidiosis any time they are moved to new property and are then exposed to new strains of the cocci protozoa. Same goes for your flock at home, the birds you brought back from your grandparents house can easily bring along cocci strains new to your flock and infect everybody.

And no, definitely do not rehome any birds at this point.

 

[chickenaddict18]

For some reason I thought my grandma took better care for her chickens and coop but I had to learn the hard way that she doesn't. I will never bring another chicken to her house. I called my vet today and he said to keep the two birds separated from my other chickens and that's all I can do. He said to keep giving the antibiotics to the roosters and that they shouldn't die but does not specialize in chickens or birds. These roosters haven't been housed with my flock, will they still most likely get whatever the roosters have?

 

[chickenaddict18]

The chicken with the eyes watering is not sick after all! But my two sick Roos are still alive. I cleaned the coop with bleach and sterilized feeders and waterers. Last night I saw another chicken with the skin around her left eye swollen and left nostril was running. I checked on her this morning and the eye is still swollen but her nose stopped running, does anyone know what this could be?