Upper respiratory/ eye discharge

[SaraBrook]

Hi! This morning I isolated one of my hens because she was breathing heavy and raspy and sneezing and coughing and I ordered some baytril. Tonight my daughter noticed that two other hens had large amounts of white discharge coming from their eyes so we isolated the both of them in a separate cage and I ordered some Tylan. We recently got a couple of new hens who are doing fine but maybe brought something into the flock and we didn’t do a good job of quarantining them when we got them because we thought they had come from a reliable source. Anyway I’m just wondering if anyone knows which antibiotic I should use and what they think that my hens may have. Thanks in advance!

 

[SilkiesnFrizzle]

Are the eyes have bubbles in them or a thicker discharge?

 

[SaraBrook]

Are the eyes have bubbles in them or a thicker discharge?

Hi thank you for your response! This morning it looks like this… One other chicken it looks very similar to this and then the one who has audible respiratory issues has clear eyes

 

[Eggcessive]

I would,try to get some testing done just to find out if you are dealing with mycoplasma gallisepticum (MG) or coryza or something else. Those are the 2 common ones that cause eye and sinus symptoms. Coryza is said to smell bad, but I haven’t dealt with it. Your state vet or local NPIP may be of help with testing. Sometimes there can be more than 1 disease. Baytril will treat MG symptoms, but it is banned for chickens, and would require a long egg withdrawal time. Tylan will treat MG as well, and has no egg withdrawal. I might save the Baytril for the mist serious case, and perhaps try Tylan first.
Since the new hens probably brought in the illness from non-symptomatic carriers, it would be good to know what they a
have. If you lose one, you can get a necropsy, and getvit identified, if you can find testing. Zoologix is a place nationally where you can get testing for about $95 with a respiratory panel for most diseases. Here are links for that and your state vet:
http://www.zoologix.com/
https://www.metzerfarms.com/PoultryLabs.cfm

 

[SaraBrook]

I would,try to get some testing done just to find out if you are dealing with mycoplasma gallisepticum (MG) or coryza or something else. Those are the 2 common ones that cause eye and sinus symptoms. Coryza is said to smell bad, but I haven’t dealt with it. Your state vet or local NPIP may be of help with testing. Sometimes there can be more than 1 disease. Baytril will treat MG symptoms, but it is banned for chickens, and would require a long egg withdrawal time. Tylan will treat MG as well, and has no egg withdrawal. I might save the Baytril for the mist serious case, and perhaps try Tylan first.
Since the new hens probably brought in the illness from non-symptomatic carriers, it would be good to know what they a
have. If you lose one, you can get a necropsy, and getvit identified, if you can find testing. Zoologix is a place nationally where you can get testing for about $95 with a respiratory panel for most diseases. Here are links for that and your state vet:
http://www.zoologix.com/
https://www.metzerfarms.com/PoultryLabs.cfm

Thank you so much for your thorough reply! We are under a shelter in place order here so trying not to leave the house but I will try the Tylan first. The only problem is it doesn’t get delivered until the 28th so I’m a little worried about that. The baytril will be here on the 26th but as you said I don’t want to over medicate them with the wrong thing so I don’t know. Maybe I should try to find a Tylan I can get faster. I know that these things can move really fast once you start to notice symptoms and we would like to give the little chickens the best shot at recovery that they can get! Thanks again!

 

[Eggcessive]

The Baytril will work, but you wouldn’t be able to eat their eggs for a month. Only treat birds with symptoms, so you may want to divide the sick birds from the ones not sick.

 

[SaraBrook]

I found a place that I can get tylan today via curbside pickup so I will go grab that if you think it’s the best first response. We have the sick ones Quarantined in a separate coop so hopefully that will help it not spread! Thanks!

 

[Eggcessive]

You are lucky because Tylan has disapppeared from shelves and online recently. Is it Tylan soluble powder for the water or Tylan 50 or 200 injectable?

 

[SaraBrook]

It’s from a vet nearby who has some. I think it soluble that they have but I haven’t picked it up yet.

 

[Eggcessive]

The tylan powder can be used 1 tsp per gallon of water, but the chicken needs to drin enough of it to get the proper dosage.