Week old buff orphington is having respiratory problems ):

[JessLynn]

I have had very bad luck with chicks lately. On May 2nd we got three chicks of varying breeds and the littlest one soon developed some respiratory issues which included a lot of productive sneezing, gasping, and a very stuffed up sounding chirp. I didn't think she'd make it but after several days of struggling she recovered and is now healthy and happy.

We later got three day-old silkies from the same place that were kept separate from the others because of the age difference. After a day or so one of them developed the same symptoms mentioned above, I tried keeping her warm and hydrated like I did with the other one but she soon died and her sisters followed suit not long after. We thought maybe the feed shop we bought them from had some kind of virus floating around so we opted to go to a different one for another set of chicks. We bought two silkies and one Rhode Island Red from the other store. They were okay for a few days but I woke up one morning to find one silkie barely alive and the other sick while the red was just fine. Thinking they might not be warm enough we went back to the feed store to get a heat lamp. We talked to a guy there and he said it was probably an infection and told us to get a broad spectrum antibiotic. My dad called while we were in the store to tell us the sicker of the silkies had died. We ended up buying the buff orphington chick because they had them and my mom has been wanting one for a long time. We put up the heat lamp and made sure there was a cool area for them to go to if needed and put antibiotics in their water. The silkie soon recovered but now the buff is sick with the same thing! Is there anything else I can do to help her or should I stay the course and hope for the best? She is still alert and eats and drinks which is encouraging but chicks seem to go from bad to worse very quickly. Any advice is welcome, I really don't want to lose another one! ):

 

[Chilali]

Respiratory diseases in chickens are almost always infectious and highly contagious. Don't keep bringing in more chicks to get sick with a known carrier. I personally would suggest culling any that ever showed symptoms and have a long, hard thought about culling the whole bunch. Trust me, I know how hard culling is, but chickens don't just get a cold or things like that. If you don't cull you'll probably need to keep a closed flock. There are plenty of pages you could search for in the forum to use to match up exact symptoms to figure out which disease it is.

 

[Eggcessive]

This respiratory disease sounds like infectious bronchitis because it is highly contagious, harder on chicks than adults, and symptoms are sneezing, chirping, runny nose, and not many other symptoms. Sometimes the whites of eggs will be runny, and some chickens will lay wrinkled eggs. To be certain you can get a bird tested by your state vet or local NPIP tester. Chickens who have recovered from IB may be carriers for up to a year after having the disease. Antibiotics don't treat IB, but may help to prevent secondary bacterial diseases. If you determine that IB is the problem, you should wait fro over a year after the last chicken is symptomatic before getting more chickens.

 

[JessLynn]

Buffie's health is improving and it seems like she is going to be ok. In response to Chilali I cannot cull any of these birds though I know that is what many would do and I understand why. But my chickens are not meat birds that we plan on slaughtering, in which case culling them would not be such a big deal. They are basically pets that happen to give us eggs and control pests and weeds in our yard. My younger sisters and I have been hand raising them, and by that I mean these birds are almost constantly out sitting on a lap watching tv or sitting on a shoulder while we do chores. (all the while sitting on shop towels because they poo so much) It has gotten to the point where all we have to do is call a name and put our hand in the box and that pullet will quickly step into our hand. Once I passed by without stopping to give attention and our RIR, Mandy, jumped out of the box and came after me, calling to me like she would another chicken. Culling any of them would break my heart and I'm pretty sure my sisters would never speak to me again. As for Eggcessive we won't be getting any more because we have the number we want. I originally thought it was IB too but the original sick chick's "sisters" did not get sick at all and Mandy who lives with the silkie and the buff hasn't so much as sneezed. The guy at the feed store who is supposedly their chicken expert said for this reason it was probably a respiratory infection.