What would you do?

[gamefowl guy]

My flock recently came down (in December) with a gurgling and raling respiratory issue, which started in a humid poorly ventilated coop. I got a bird necropsied about a month after it started, when only a few different ones each night would gurgle (like it was quickly spreading through them). Everything is negative.

The question is, is it something that just didn't show on the tests? Or is it something minor that will go away? I don't know whether to depopulate and start over or start hatching again and see what happens.

ANY suggestions?

 

[tornduff]

Have you read up on Merak's Disease? I started with 5 hens in September 2011 and I've lost 3 now less than 6 months later. They all started to "breath". Merak's is the most common thing in chickens that they catch and kill quickly.

 

[rcentner]

well I dont know where you got the bird necropsied, but they couldn't have come back with nothing. Breathing troubles with raspy sounds can be either mycoplasma gallisepticum, infectious laryng.... or even parasites affecting the airway. Something should have been found. I have not had any respiratory problems associated with Mareks disease. Those are 2 totally different diseases, but they can happen at the same time. With no lameness reported I would rule out the Mareks and look into the respiratory diseases 1st. MG can be treated but will always be around and ILT can come and go (I think) and from what I understand ILT can be transmitted into the flock during especially wet and windy periods.

 

[gamefowl guy]

Thanks all for your responses. I sent another hen in who started showing respiratory symptoms 2-3 weeks after all the others had stopped, I wasn't sure if it was the same thing but she came up positive for MS (the first came up negative for everything, including Laryngotracheitis).

Is Mycoplasma S. able to spread fast? I was told it isn't very infectious, but whatever this original disease is spread from the first birds to pretty much all the others anywhere from 2 to 50 feet away, me and the air being the only carriers from coop-to-coop. (no birds running around). I also read MS will show symptoms if Newcastle, Larygno, or poor ventilation are problems.