Respiratory Issues in my flock

[Samantha Voges]

So I’ve been battling a respiratory issue for quite a bit now. I made the mistake of not quarantining when I brought some birds home from a friends flock and the next day I realized one of them was sneezing. The sneezes spread to a couple of my flock but not all of them. I began to use some Doxyty (a mixture of Tylan and Doxycycline) in the water and everything seemed to get better. Then at the end of August the culprit started sneezing again and i culled her. Everything seemed fine for a couple weeks then the sneezing and coughing started again in about a third of my flock. I gave them a couple days and when we came home from a weekend away I had 3 dead on the floor. I started up another round of Doxyty and they weren’t getting better. Then the bubbles started in their eyes. A few got crusty and nasty and on Saturday I made a gameplan to cull the sickest Sunday night when I got home from work. Well yesterday morning I found my favorite Bantam Lavender dead on the ground and started culling. I had already let everyone into the run so i took out 4 that I could easily grab them last night I went over every single bird and culled 5 more including my Bantam Blue Pullet that took me a couple years to get my hands on. This morning I ran over to TSC to grab syringes, a bottle of Liquamycin and some vetricyn. Tonight I’m going to give my remaining birds injections to try to salvage the remainder of my flock. I don’t think it’s Coryza because I have quail in a cage in the coop and they are highly susceptible to it and are showing no signs of illness whatsoever. I have a feeling it’s MG so I’m kinda at a crossroad now on how to proceed. I don’t want to depopulate and start over and just end up back in this scenario again so I think I will try to breed for resistance. I’m going to really have to contemplate my goals on this. I still have a pair of Bantam BW and a pair of Bantam Lav. My biggest goal had been BBS but I guess that’s just not meant to happen right now. And Bantam Welsummers was a goal, it was quite a challenge but I had finally gotten some breeder stock this year and I’ve lost both Cockerels and I’m down to 2 Pullets so I guess that’s going on hold now as well. My flock is officially closed until I’m confident that I have this situation under control and have some nice resistant birds to work with. I know I will be culling heavily in my future and culling any chicks that show signs or weakness. I know some of you have dealt with this and moved past it and could really really use any advice and words of encouragement because I’ve been feeling very defeated.

[John W Blehm]

This is a problem that many to most of us have had, but I know some didn't like admitting it on a public forum.  Thanks for being open about it and I believe this will get the most input and be valuable to onlookers.
If you search for "CRD" (Chronic Respiratory Disease) from this forum's Home page you'll find several topics that may be helpful.  MG is one form of it and maybe the common.  Tylan 50 was what I used for years, but everyone seems to be out of stock.  I was able to find a store with Tylan 200 and have gone back to using it as needed.  It is powerful and a little goes a long ways with chickens.

I've talked several times about how a couple days of cold rainy weather would bring on sickness and my reasoning for covering all my outside runs with roofing to keep the birds dry...
My personal advice is to treasure and breed from any breed quality birds that don't show symptoms.
Dispose of sickly birds that can be replaced.
Nurse the almost irreplaceable birds that show symptoms with Tylan.  Breed from them when they recover.
Keep the government out of it.

This also reminds me of the topic a while back about helping chicks out of the shells when hatching.  Never say never is a good old saying to remember.  Although it generally isn't advisable sometimes a chick is so valuable to you that you help it out.
Some will say not to breed from birds that get sick.  Again, it may be the best method but sometimes that sick bird is the only one with some trait you want and then the rule becomes just don't breed from birds that get sick and don't recover.

[Samantha Voges]

Thank you for your quick response. When my birds first got sick and I started researching I was terrified that I would have to depopulate but then I found the posts here and a few in other places and see that it’s useless. I know people who culled their entire flocks because that’s what they thought they should do because those who don’t are so hush hush about it.  I won’t hide the truth, yes my birds are sick and I will find a way to recover from this. It may take a while but then I’ll have nice strong birds who are resistant to it and that sounds like a better plan in my opinion anyway!

[Suki]

I'm sorry to hear this Sammy.  I lost early on lots of birds  and money because of illness.  I really could not understand it, and few I talked to often much sympathy other than "it happens."  That was not a good response, so I read more abd Fred Jeffries Bantam Health book is a godsend. I just read what I needed and then came up with a motto, if it coughs its dead.  That was a brutal year but by August no one coughed.  Winter came, no coughing.  Looked good and then the next year hatchlings came and some coughed -- gone my lovely!  Antibiotics do not really work on poultry they are just bandages.

So having conquered that  that I went to the next step, and stopped treating bumble-foot -- I treat only cuts and bruises.  I have found that harder to eradicate, and two of my best boys have it so I have breed a lot from them this year so they can fly home.  In all  cases  Tek Trol for cleaning out the waterers and feederers and if you use cages I wash the bottoms with that too --makes a huge difference.  Still without the hatchet all is lost just make sure you only kill the coughers.  If it doesn't cough, it lives.

Lastly, I've heard bantams are overall a weaker breed; I have a few, very few.

Sue Paolini
Northeast PA