Sick Rooster and Chicken

[hydro2farmer]

I have a large Rhode Island Red rooster and a Buff hen that are acting very dumpy and sound like they are congested. The first thing I noticed is my very vocal rooster lost his crow slowly over several days. He is now silent. Also he has one eye swollen shut. The Buff hen is making the same respiratory sounds as the rooster. Does anybody have any ideas?

[daisyduck42]

Are these new bird's you just accquired or had them for a while?.I don't know a lot about bird diseases.I have been doing poultry about 5 yrs.I have used this site along with research on the internet about common problems,hatching,breeding, housing etc. with good success.Got mites once and a few other Minor problem's but never had a sick coughing bird.The only live birds we bought were from Mc Murray and some peacocks We kept up for 2 week's away from the rest of flock.Here is a link for common bird disease.Hope it helps you.Hope your birds get well soon. DD http://www.msstate.edu/dept/poultry/dislist.htm

[hydro2farmer]

These are not new birds, we have had them 2 years with no problems, but we just had a friend give us some rescued birds that someone left at a rental house. An Americana rooster and 5 adolescent barred rocks. I believe they may have had something. They looked healthy when we got them, but one had an infected eye. The rest still look and act OK but my Rhode Island Red rooster now has an oozing left eye.

[Glenda L Heywood]

the free bird with bad eye must have did his best to infect your birds
not always is any thing free
best to call a VET and get something for the lot of them
or you may lose all of them
apersons chickens get used to the diseases you have and
then bring home a new disease or two and then they get sick!
Glenda L Heywood
http://www.gkpet.com
click on pet forum

[greg rountree]

Sounds like one of the many respiratory diseases has got a hold of your birds--the eye swelling makes me think of Coryza which is very infectious--I had an outbreak of it 2 years ago when I brought home some new birds--it spread through my flock at an amazingly fast rate--I ended up loosing 6 or 7 and about half my flock caught it.I treated with anti-biotics--'Metronidiazole' which i ordered at vetvax.com--at that time I also used Baytril which really worked great at knocking it out, I had to give them shots and it was quite difficult calculating the small doses--it is no longer available--the government stopped its use.. Go to First State Veterinary supply and ask the chicken doctor--Peter Brown' they are always quick with a response and will help you a lot.--hope this helps---Greg

[threehorses]

I believe that Baytril is rather difficult to get these days.

By the way, if you can get VetRx (a small bottle of oil) this will help the congestion of your birds. You'll find it at most feedstores that carry a good bit of chicken stuff. You can also use the rabbit version.

If you use in the water, use as directed. When I had chickens do this, I diluted some vetrx slightly with very warm water, dipped a qtip in it, and swabbed their nostrils. Then with a clean q-tip get more of the diluted vetrx, touch it to a papertown only briefly to keep it from being too full, and swab the sinus openings in the top of their beak. Press gently into those openings so that it gets into their sinuses from the other side. You can even swab near their eyes - beneath the openings.

if you do antibiotics, you want to make good and sure you're using the right one. Also always always use probiotics for a week after your antibiotic course is done. The bacteria from the sinuses are draining into their stomachs and will cause a secondary issue with bad bacteria in their guts. So probiotics help to replace good colonizing bacteria. Ask if you need help with that part.

For future reference, Foys seems to be a good place to not only buy but research antibiotics for respiratory illnesses.

Good luck!

[tinag210]

I have always had good luck using Tylan.

[Leisha]

Have you noticed any of them sneezing?

[Dondoyle26]

Another sign of coryza the birds neck feathers will appar wet. Once you flock has it .. it will always have the disease so anytime you bring new birds in chances are they are going to have to run their bout with it. I would treat with antibiotics and any bird that appears sick cull. If their eyes start to get that fuzzy flim -- get rid of them. In the long run it will save you alot of time and expense.

[Glenda L Heywood]

a seige with coryza and or MG is bad
MG is also CRD chronic respira
A friend of mine
Dr Ron Okimoto gave me this on MG
MG or CRD same thing
From: Dr Ron Okimoto

Mycoplasm (MG or CRD) is not a serious problem to the fancy unless you also have other diseases in your flock. Mortality is a little higher and egg production is decreased, but your flock will survive it.

This is the main reason that nearly all purebred backyard flocks have mycoplasm. Once you have it you can't really get rid of it unless you are willing to disinfect your property and treat all your birds with a strong
antibiotic. Baytril seems to work, but all it takes is for one bird to retain the mycoplasm and you have it again.

Nearly all fancy breed birds that I have tried to bring in, test positive for mycoplasm either MS or MG
or both. So if you do manage to clean up your flock you have to quarantine, test and clean up any bird
before you introduce it into your flock.

You test for it by sending a blood sample to your state testing lab and ask for the mycoplasm MS and MG test. To test whether your birds are clean if they have already had mycoplasm and been treated with antibiotics, the antibody test will still test positive.

You have to do a more expensive PCR swab
test to tell you if you have been successful. Your state lab may not do this test, and you will have to look around for someone that will.

The best way to clean up your flock would be a generational replacement. You clear all your old birds out and disinfect the pens.

You raise the new chicks at a clean facility and treat them with Baytril imediately after hatch. We did this for two lines treating around 600 total chicks and it worked.

Even though their parents had mycoplasm, none of the chicks tested positive after treatment for 8 days on Baytril. We used twice the recommended dosage (check with a vet) and treated the chicks with vitamin and electrolytes after the 8 day treatment.

Mycoplasm is transferred through the egg at a low frequency (1% to 10%). The older the bird the lower the frequency, but all it takes is one infected chick and the entire brooder gets infected, and as long as you have infected birds on your property the other birds are bound to get it eventually.

I wouldn't worry about it unless other diseases are a problem in your flock. Mycoplasm weakens the bird, but it doesn't weaken most birds enough for people to work hard to erradicate it. Commercial birds are free of it because any decrease in viability and egg production is a decrease in profits, but most backyard flocks aren't managed for maximum production.

Commercial breeders would be happy if the fancy erradicated mycoplasm so that it would infect their birds less often.


Glenda L Heywood Brookings SD

[threehorses]

I have always had good luck using Tylan.

I had a case like this once and used injectable Tylan with success.