AUSTRALIAN POULTRY FORUM™

Hi all

I have a question about respiratory infections. I took one of my girls to the vet a few weeks ago as she was quite wheezy, doing that whole 'neck craning' for breath thing. I isolated her from the other chooks straight away.

The vet did a few tests and said it was most likely a bacterial respiratory infection and I have had her on antibiotics (Baytril) for the last 2 weeks. The wheezing has certainly decreased (but does seem to come back a little under stress) and although she doesn't seem to have recovered completely, has certainly not gotten any worse. She has lost some weight, and is still sneezing. She is still eating, drinking and laying (although I've been told not to use the eggs). The vet was saying that if the second course of antibiotics don't work I might need to consider culling her.

I guess my question to you all is what do I do next? If she's had the full course of antibiotics and is still eating, drinking and laying well, would this really be necessary? She is still sneezing, but has certainly not gotten any worse. Would it be harmful to the others to put her back in with them? I've spent a fortune at the vet, and whilst I certainly don't begrudge that to look after my animals, I don't know whether I should take her back or not.

Any comments, advice, suggestions would be welcome.

Well I've tried a lot of different medications over the years and the one that I've found most successful is the Oxymav 100. To err on the side of caution I'd keep her isolated until she stops sneezing.

Thanks Purefeather, I'll see if I can get hold of some. I thought she was on the mend, to the extent that I'd even put her back in with the others, but when I was cleaning out the coop this morning, she had a massive bout of sneezing that went on for some minutes, so I immediately took her away again.

I'm not sure what to do now, I can't keep giving her antibiotics indefinitely and other than the sneezing, she's behaving quite normally. I don't want to cull her but I have the health of the rest of the coop to consider. Any advice?

Like with common colds and respiratory infections in humans, chooks are rather susceptible to them too!

Love, the tender care and lastly the money spent at the vet's aside, you have already come a very along way with her, animals like humans become resistant to antibiotics, so if you can, as purefeather has suggested, keep her isolated from the others.

Don't give up on her, maybe she has hayfever???

Is tylan still available for this disease from vets?

Should be but you need to ask your vet

Do you guys use anything to try and prevent the respiratory infections before it comes on?

I think the Oxymav has done the trick!

Is coughing and sneezing the first sign they may have the infection? I may have it

Respiratory infections in chickens can be caused by several different bacteria and viruses, often a combination of these.
Therefore, there is no one antibiotic that will work in every case.
Baytril is often useful, as are tetracyclines ( eg oxymav) and tylan/tylosin is specifically useful for mycoplasma infections.

There is no way to know which bugs are involved unless you perform specific tests. Therefore, because of cost constraints, many vets will treat with the antibiotics which are most likely to work.

The reason why some birds never fully recover is that they become "carriers" of the infection for life. This often happens, for example, with Mycoplasma infections. Therefore, birds which don't fully recover and continue to show respiratory signs are likely to pose a risk to other in-contact birds and are best kept apart in my opinion.

The only prevention is to buy healthy birds in the first place, quarantine them by keeping them apart from your existing flock for 4-6 weeks after you purchase them, feed them well and keep the population density down. There are vaccines for some of the nastier viral diseases also.

Hope this is of some help.

Cheers

Parvo