What antibiotics or medicine should I get? Is Casey here to help?

[Redhead Hen]

Hi! I'm new to the forums, but lurked for a while.

We got 4 RIR hens on Sunday and all the birds seemed fine. All were alert, bright eyes and hearty appetites. We got them along with some chicks and the people had lots of different kinds of chickens. All looked healthy and alert. The guy told my husband that they all have had a round of antibiotics - My husband asked because TSC tells you to treat chicks. (We got chicks from TSC in the past and they are all still alive and healthy. Of course TSC told us to do a course of antibiotics, and we did.)

Well, Monday morning I noticed that 2 had watery eyes. One only had 1 eye watering and it seemed to help to flush her eye with warm water. The other hen has one eye red and a bit swollen with a discharge and her other eye is not swollen, but is watering. By yesterday evening, she was lethargic. Her tail hangs and she is not moving around much. She will drink water though. She has runny clear stool and no odor from the eye discharge. She seems to breath labored at times but not all the time. This morning she was moving around, but still looks droopy and eyes are both closed. She is separated from the rest since she is so droopy.

What can I do for her? We really don't have any extra cash to take her to the vet. Also out of the 4 chicks, 1 has died and another is not looking too active. It is not eating and is very lethargic. Did we get sick birds??

Any help would be great! Thanks!!

 

[chickensioux]

Definately keep the sick hen seperate from the rest. Make sure she eats and drinks for you. Offer her treats of plain yogurt, scrambled eggs. Put some sugar in her water, or gatorade or vitamins and electrlytes if you have them. There is a disease called "coryza" where they have watery eyes.
What kind of bedding are the chicks on? What are they eating? How old is everybody?

 

[Chickenmaven]

Sounds like you got sick birds. Four sick hens and, now 3 exposed chicks & a dead chick. If you have other chickens, these newbies cannot go near them. Many chicken illnesses linger. Individual chickens can recover, but they remain carriers.
If these are your first & only chickens, you can treat them with antibiotics or otherwise nurse them back to health. (There are chicken illness charts on the internet. Also, do a BYC search). Some may recover. HOWEVER, if you choose to keep these "exposed" individuals, consider that you will have a carrier flock. Some on BYC would say cull these birds & start over. You could do that. You could also take a wait & see attitude. Regardless, please consider that adding to this group could mean more troubles later.

Alot of people on this forum have strong attitudes about "open flock" vs. "closed flock". I'd recommend that you do a search & read up on these concepts.

 

[Redhead Hen]

Well, since all the stores were closed Sunday, my husband got some litter from Wal*Mart. It is the kind used for hampsters - shredded pine. The chicks are younger, at most a week old. Probably younger since they still have signs of the egg tooth. The 2 that are still doing well are eating and drinking, but the one is not. I think that one may not make it.

I do have the one RIR separated. She will stand and drink. I am planning a trip to the feed store today to pick up anything that I may need to help out the hen. Any suggestions on what I should get?

Thanks so much for replying!

 

[chickensioux]

Pine should be ok I was concerned it might be cedar which in not good. You could try a round of antibiotics but I would definately keep the newbies away from the others.
You may want to try to help the little chick by feeding it with a syringe. I saved one of mine that wouldn't eat by soaking chick feed in warm water and giving it to her that way. I fed her every two hours, night and day for about 3 days until she did it on her own. She is fine now. Something to try...
Good luck and keep us posted on your decisions and how they are.

 

[Redhead Hen]

Thanks. I was thinking about syringe feeding the chick. Also, what type of antibiotic should I get? There are like a ton of them out there!

Thanks!

Edited to add ~ Also, should I get something for her eyes? They are crusty from discharge and one is swollen.

 

[ml]

Red you need the correct info here.

ml

 

[speckledhen]

Personally, the fact that the guy treated chicks with antibiotics would be a red flag to me. It's not normal to just treat healthy birds with those. You were sold sick birds. TSC is full of it! They are so wrong! Many diseases make birds carriers for life, so me, personally, I would cull (euthanize) them and start over. I do not buy birds for just this reason and if one of mine gets some respiratory thing, she/he will be culled, pet or not. Dont want an entire flock with weak immune systems that I have to treat every few months. Antibiotics for injuries only.

 

[Redhead Hen]

I got these birds from a private person selling them. Not TSC. (As a matter of fact, the last chickens I got from TSC were healthy and I have not had any problems with them.!) There were other adult chickens on his property. None of his other birds looked ill. As a matter of fact this person has advertised in many places about his chicks for sale! His wife told me she put a few of her birds in a local show and the county fair. I am new to the area, so I would not know if this is the truth or not.

So, if what you are saying is true, then he is spreading this problem across many counties!

 

[horsejody]

The birds may have been healthy at the sellers place. The stress of moving can sometimes weaken their immune system for a bit. They may have had something latent in their system that manifested itself, or they may have been exposed to someting at your place that your past birds were immune to.

Either way, never give antibiotics to a healthy animal. It just creates antibiotic resistent bacteria. Now that the birds are sick, antibiotics may be helpful, but you should try to isolate the disease to be sure that you give the right one.