Washingtonians

[4cats3kids1hubby2many]

Quote:
You know, I have kept my mouth shut...cuz I do not wanna scare you, but this is exactly how my issue started, with 1 hen who had "a sinus infection" most of you avid posters will remember...she got quiet, held against my cheek she was HOT!
eyes closed, moaning and then a sneeze or gurgling, some do, some do not.
What type of antibiotics are you using ?
Switch to a Penicillen base or synthetic like Amoxicillen, see if that helps, most have to be administered Intra-muscularly by syringe...Penicillen and it's synthetics suffer easily and cannot go the drinking water route that I have seen...Good luck sweetheart !
I wish you the best with your baby!

P.S. I ordered Tylosin from Jeffers.com 2 days ago...it is a great gram positive antibiotic...how can I help you ?

Actually, I have been reading your posts thinking they sound very similar. I think I was in denial. She seems a bit better today, but still sick. Doesn't seem hot. I thought for sure she would be gone this morning. I will call vet about antibiotic. She got one shot and the rest of the antibiotic have been orally. Do you have any clue as to what, yet? How do I watch for similar in the other chickens? Do I just start administering medicine? Do I give some type of vaccine? what do you think it was that you had? Mine would definitely have to be from wild birds as I have been no where where there are chickens and I have no chickens close. I gotta go and feed her and give her the antibiotic. Before I go this is her current state: She is not really moving her body...I am moving all her limbs for her for a bit of stretching (kind of like physical therapy). She will flap her wings. Her eyes are closed. Her mouth is open. She will swallow when food is put in the back of her mouth. She tires easily. I actually propped her up with towels on either side so she was not lying flat. She opened her one eye (a bit) to look at me this morning. She does not seem to be hot. She has been on antibiotic for 24 hours. Should I get some Tylosin? I am so sorry for your losses and I hope I am not bothering you....any help to an uneducated chicken "farmer" would be great.

 

[4cats3kids1hubby2many]

Quote:
Regarding Redrooster: I can so feel for them. My husband is a 6' 240 lb guy, and 15 years ago (when we last had chickens) this exact same thing happen to us. He went out to do chickens and came in the back door in tears. He had a pet turkey that had to be some 50+ lbs, it followed him everywhere. Well we had been gone and it was dark and we needed to lock up the hen house. Dale walked into a massacre. carcasses everywhere. It was awful. He stacked the carcasses up and layed in wait the next night. Sure enough, pack of 5 dogs came back the next night. He shot and killed 4 in one shot gun blast. Not the dog's fault, unfortunately you can not do this to people who are irresponsible and let their dogs run loose. That was the last time we had chickens until we got the better pen, in our backyard built this last year. I did not subscribe to the thread, keep us updated please.

 

[Chickielady]

Quote:
I was thinking tequila for this....but Mudslide ice cream will work too.

DH went to town and got a bottle of R&R 2 nights ago when Cuckooroo past...hence the tears and sniveling.
So the next step is Tillamook mudslide, you guys gotta try it!
THEN we will all have to get a tredmill !
Too bad we are all so far apart or we could meet up and jogwalk...couse no one wants to be my friend right now !!

(sniff!)
Actaully I am prepared to get the pellet gun out and do the rest of the infected birds done..over.
You get tired of death everyday, feeding, antibiotics, bleach bleach bleach, door handles, buckets, shoes, dirt !
And then there is the burn barrel of dead chickens...
After a week or two of this you just want it over with.
It has done enough internal damage maybe even stunted growth or effected genetics and recovering birds may carry it, and do I really want to hatch their chicks or sell their hatching eggs after this ?
I do not think so...but we will see what the lab says.
Pipsandpeeps say we may know as early as this afternoon.
Monicas:

Duramycin has managed to keep this barely suppressed, at 800mg in the drinking water.
Bad part is breaking down the formula for each pen...and sick birds will refuse to eat or drink so they dehydrate and get sicker, you have to make a gruel, and feed them slowly with a BIG syringe like a turkey baster, use the Duramycin to thin the gruel enough to flow and we cut the end off the baster to accomidate the cracked corn.
I made gruel of soy milk, layena, applesauce and chopped nectarine, and some T's of sugar...let it set with the Duramycin and mix with a hand mixer, and pry the beak open and feed slowly.
Poor babies do not want to eat anything!
Do the same with a smaller syringe (no needle) with the Duramycin solution to drink in the corner of the chicken's mouth slowly so they can swallow.
It is hard for them to breathe with this disease, so often they can cough or choke if liquids or food is given too quickly.
I think I killed one with love in this very manner.
A good thing is the way Monicas has her chicken pens all spread out far far from one another...that is fantastic !

Peanut butter is also excellent to add, dilute with soy milk, not cow's milk, and duramycin.
The better route albeit a hassel, is to inject the birds with antibiotics, but requires catching them, a helper, and record eveything on a clip board so you know which birds get a shot and how much and when.
I cannot recommend what and how much to inject into your birds, I am not a vet.
I strongly urge anyone with bird problems to see a vet or get a swab diagnosed at the WSU Puyallup lab as soon as possible instead of waiting to see if you can cure them with antibiotics...a swab diagnosed is cheap, send it FedEx, call the lab and the woman there will help you through it all and tell you how to wrap everything... and then you will know for sure.
I admired the 4-H kids' record books at the Fair:
We need to keep records, when we get a new bird, write it down and from whom, and when we see signs of disease however small, write it down...those of us that are running off to work in the morning and are so busy will find this so hard to remember to do daily...but it helps so much should something like this happen.
I even have to think about the compost I give away:
Will the disease survive and contaminate other birds?
Wild birds are seen often in the garden..well, there used to be.
After the nightcrawlers in the compost...we had several families of Robins here fro weeks, but have noticed they are gone.
Well, will log on later guys.

 

[Chickielady]

Quote:
You know, I have kept my mouth shut...cuz I do not wanna scare you, but this is exactly how my issue started, with 1 hen who had "a sinus infection" most of you avid posters will remember...she got quiet, held against my cheek she was HOT!
eyes closed, moaning and then a sneeze or gurgling, some do, some do not.
What type of antibiotics are you using ?
Switch to a Penicillen base or synthetic like Amoxicillen, see if that helps, most have to be administered Intra-muscularly by syringe...Penicillen and it's synthetics suffer easily and cannot go the drinking water route that I have seen...Good luck sweetheart !
I wish you the best with your baby!

P.S. I ordered Tylosin from Jeffers.com 2 days ago...it is a great gram positive antibiotic...how can I help you ?

Actually, I have been reading your posts thinking they sound very similar. I think I was in denial. She seems a bit better today, but still sick. Doesn't seem hot. I thought for sure she would be gone this morning. I will call vet about antibiotic. She got one shot and the rest of the antibiotic have been orally. Do you have any clue as to what, yet? How do I watch for similar in the other chickens? Do I just start administering medicine? Do I give some type of vaccine? what do you think it was that you had? Mine would definitely have to be from wild birds as I have been no where where there are chickens and I have no chickens close. I gotta go and feed her and give her the antibiotic. Before I go this is her current state: She is not really moving her body...I am moving all her limbs for her for a bit of stretching (kind of like physical therapy). She will flap her wings. Her eyes are closed. Her mouth is open. She will swallow when food is put in the back of her mouth. She tires easily. I actually propped her up with towels on either side so she was not lying flat. She opened her one eye (a bit) to look at me this morning. She does not seem to be hot. She has been on antibiotic for 24 hours. Should I get some Tylosin? I am so sorry for your losses and I hope I am not bothering you....any help to an uneducated chicken "farmer" would be great.

You took her to the vet, correct ?
And what did the vet give her in the shot ?
Did your vet take a culture or swab of the bird's mouth or blood ?
Looks like you need testing...try the links to WSU, you may have to have your vet take the cultures and FedEx them overnight to the Puyallup lab unless there is a lab on your side of the mountain...man I hope you do not have this.
Its is so wierd how it seems to just pop up in different flocks...where did it come from ?
So odd !
If I were you, PM PipsandPeeps and ask her as she is on your side of the hill too...and she knows more than I do, about what to do.
So sorry you have something !

 

[4cats3kids1hubby2many]

You took her to the vet, correct ?
And what did the vet give her in the shot ?
Did your vet take a culture or swab of the bird's mouth or blood ?
Looks like you need testing...try the links to WSU, you may have to have your vet take the cultures and FedEx them overnight to the Puyallup lab unless there is a lab on your side of the mountain...man I hope you do not have this.
Its is so wierd how it seems to just pop up in different flocks...where did it come from ?
So odd !
If I were you, PM PipsandPeeps and ask her as she is on your side of the hill too...and she knows more than I do, about what to do.
So sorry you have something !

I did take her to the vet and I called the vet again this morning to ask about the antibiotic. I will PM PipsandPeeps. She gave me Baratol, she told me this was stronger/better for birds. She still does not think it is Newcastle. She did not take a swab of the bird's mouth and I have not seen any blood. I think maybe I will do a swab and sent it to a lab. My other birds all still look okay and are not acting funny. My vet feels if this was Newcastle I would be seeing other sick birds (she feels the entire flock)...what are your thoughts? I read your post about the antibiotic in the water or gruel. Did you do this as a preventative measure? Or was this for other sick birds? Thank yo so much for the help. I only have a small flock (14 birds) but they are our pets (with perks - eggs eventually).

 

[Chickielady]

I did the antibiotics in their water cuz I could, and it is cheap and at the feed store.
And under normal circumstances it would have worked fine.
But some antibiotics kill gram positive bacteria, and some kill gram negative..
That is why with some infections you are prescibed one or the other antibiotic.
In this case, the Duramycin(Tetracycline) is barely suppressing, the birds are still weakening and I switched to Sulfamet to see if it helped, and the birds got worse (Sulpha apparently did not work at all !)so I went back to the Duramycin and it is once again barely working.
The birds also do not want to eat or drink when sick, so the antibiotic in the food/water is not a good route of administration in this case.
Whatever this is, the 2 antibiotics I have gone through are not cutting the mustard, and the IM injections of the penicillen variety of drugs seems to work way better.
Wether these birds recover and/or remain carriers of this disease is at issue, and it may be the birds infected need to be destroyed, lest they recover only to reinfect the rest of the world again.
Sad but something we have to face...

Injections seem to be the best way to go...try your hardest not to cross contaminate the rest of the flock...call your vet back and contact PipsandPeeps about the lab in your area.

 

[pips&peeps]

Quote:
I would send a swab in to WADDL. Pullman does the histopathology stuff, so it would be faster to ship there instead of Puyallup. Here is the link with their address:

http://www.vetmed.wsu.edu/depts_waddl/

 

[RedRoosterFarm]

Hey its me RRfarm. We believe it is a neighbors GS. A guy saw the GS down the road in and around his pen but none gotten. my neighbor and a few other awesome folks have offered cameras and several offered chicks and eggs. I was blown away with the response from here. I just came in from disposing of the birds. I went up the road and talked to the neighbor and put a pix on the feed store bullentin board in hope that some one saw something and the rest are warned there is a dog out there. I went to the so called owner and they said its not there dog. Sherrif said nothing I can do unless they say it is theres. No one is able to cage him but the word is out there so folks will lock up now at night. Thanks again for all the support and offers. you are all so kind. I wil sleep with the loaded gun and keep waiting.

RedRoosterFarm-Eatonville

Quote:
Regarding Redrooster: I can so feel for them. My husband is a 6' 240 lb guy, and 15 years ago (when we last had chickens) this exact same thing happen to us. He went out to do chickens and came in the back door in tears. He had a pet turkey that had to be some 50+ lbs, it followed him everywhere. Well we had been gone and it was dark and we needed to lock up the hen house. Dale walked into a massacre. carcasses everywhere. It was awful. He stacked the carcasses up and layed in wait the next night. Sure enough, pack of 5 dogs came back the next night. He shot and killed 4 in one shot gun blast. Not the dog's fault, unfortunately you can not do this to people who are irresponsible and let their dogs run loose. That was the last time we had chickens until we got the better pen, in our backyard built this last year. I did not subscribe to the thread, keep us updated please.

 

[4cats3kids1hubby2many]

Quote:
Just going to do that here in a few...

Let us know the outcome.

 

[cheryl98117]

Quote:
Regarding Redrooster: I can so feel for them. My husband is a 6' 240 lb guy, and 15 years ago (when we last had chickens) this exact same thing happen to us. He went out to do chickens and came in the back door in tears. He had a pet turkey that had to be some 50+ lbs, it followed him everywhere. Well we had been gone and it was dark and we needed to lock up the hen house. Dale walked into a massacre. carcasses everywhere. It was awful. He stacked the carcasses up and layed in wait the next night. Sure enough, pack of 5 dogs came back the next night. He shot and killed 4 in one shot gun blast. Not the dog's fault, unfortunately you can not do this to people who are irresponsible and let their dogs run loose. That was the last time we had chickens until we got the better pen, in our backyard built this last year. I did not subscribe to the thread, keep us updated please.


I am so sorry to hear about your loss...