Chicken advise needed

[branguscowgirl]

I was wondering if any of you raise chickens and can give me some advise. We keep just a small flock as pets and for eggs. They are locked in an open front coup at night, and free range during the day.
I have some type of respiratory infection hitting just one bird at a time every few months. The last one affected I went through 3 different antibiotics, with the last 2 being injectable. She would improve with each course of treatment, then always relapse. Finally put her down.
Today, another one ill. Started injectable Tylan this AM, but she was so bad this evening we had to put her down. The coup, water and feed dishes have been disinfected. I suspect that it is infectious Coryza.
Any other ideas or suggestions of what to do for them??

I know this will sound crazy to some.......
These are pets, and shooting them is really hard to do when they need to be put down. Any suggestions for that also? (Other than chopping their heads off, which is even harder.) Can they be gassed with something? Injected with something? :hide:

 

[trappersteve]

Quick question cowgirl are they rattling when they breath? If not I would dought its respiratory . I had a bad case of pox and wiped several of them out. Once a week I pour about ateaspoon of bleach in their water and that helped more than anything. Can I ask What your feeding?

If its respiratory there's a poultry med called vetrx its kinda like vicks vaporub, you just rub it all over their head it works really good.

Its kinda hard to diagnose with What youve said another thing is to make sure their gettin plenty of protien (cheap dry dogfood is What I use) as I like to beef mine up before moult

 

[inyati13]

We used chloroform chambers for herptiles (herptiles is a word for both amphibians and reptiles) but I have watched and looks worse than chopping their heads off. But the objective for laboratory specimens is to preserve them without any body damage.

You could make a gas chamber and many gases are deadly probably the most humane way to go is CO.

 

[Workinonit Farm]

I too have been raising poultry for at least 30 years.

Sounds like a (possible) type of pneumonia thats affecting your birds.

I don't often have health issues with mine.

But....as for euthanizing without chopping or shooting, if you have access to Chloroform, just soak a rag with it, hold it over their beaks long enough and they will die peacefully. I know this becuase when I was younger, and cats would injur wild birds, that was how we put the little birds out of their misery.

Katherine

 

[inyati13]

I too have been raising poultry for at least 30 years.

Sounds like a (possible) type of pneumonia thats affecting your birds.

I don't often have health issues with mine.

But....as for euthanizing without chopping or shooting, if you have access to Chloroform, just soak a rag with it, hold it over their beaks long enough and they will die peacefully. I know this becuase when I was younger, and cats would injur wild birds, that was how we put the little birds out of their misery.

Katherine

Katherine, the only caution with chloroform used in that manner is that one of the pathways for exposure is dermal contact. Be sure to use protection and chloroform eats up most rubber products. So be careful.

 

[branguscowgirl]

Thank you everyone!
Steve some of them do rattle when they breath and have exudate from their sinuses. Gasping, open beak breathing with each breath. I do use vetrx a lot. It definitely helps them breath better. I have read about the "bleach in the water." But when they are out during the day, they drink out of puddles and a short horse trough too. They have layer crumbles free choice and scratch as treats several times per day. Plus they eat bugs and stuff. I will go ahead and give them some dog food also.

Ron, I did read where CO was a good choice. Just have not quit figured out how to do it. Any suggestions?

Katherine, I will see if Chloroform is available. But I am thinking that with all the crazy people running around having a use for it, it would be pretty difficult or impossible to get.

At this rate, I sure don't want to get any new chicks until it can be eliminated. I am also wondering why I do not have several get it at once........Instead of one every month or 2. It must be something the wild birds are bringing in, or it is living somewhere in the soil or hen house. :?
Thanks everyone! :tiphat:

 

[trappersteve]

I've got a redsexlink hen that has always had a snotty nose and always a rattle. I've had her for 3 years and she has always been a good layer. I think some have q sorry immune system but I don't think id kill her just because she had a stuffy nose. Are they dying on you or are you killing them. Sorry I can't be much help

 

[branguscowgirl]

Are they dying on you or are you killing them.

They are dying on their own, or very near death when I have put them down.
We find them very quickly when they become sick, and first thing I do is put them in a cat carrier and try to help them with the Vetrx and polyvisol electrolytes.
The one that I tried 3 different courses of antibiotics on had a huge swollen infected sinus that I drained. When she relapsed the 4th time she had one eye swollen shut and blind in the other. I had treated her for over a month.
The hen today, was gasping for air when they were let out this am. She was too weak to stand and could not hold her head up when we put her down. She was fine when she went to roost last night.

2 years ago, I purchased some baby chicks that came down with the same symptoms. I was able to save one, and one died. They may have brought it in then. One thing that i have learned researching, chickens can get a lot of Shitz!!!
Thank you

 

[inyati13]

Build a chamber you can fit with a vent that can receive input from a combustible engine. Include a glass window on one side. The CO from the engine is a very humane method of dispatching your chickens. Much better than chloroform and safer.

 

[branguscowgirl]

Build a chamber you can fit with a vent that can receive input from a combustible engine. Include a glass window on one side. The CO from the engine is a very humane method of dispatching your chickens. Much better than chloroform and safer.

I have read that you can buy a CO bottle????
I was thinking a bucket with a lid and a hole to pipe the CO into? Would that work? And can you buy CO bottles Ron?

I know this sounds crazy to do all this. But I just can not stand to watch them suffering when I know they are dying.............
I have even taken one into the vet to put down. But that gets expensive. :hide:
For me, it is just really hard to chop off a head that you tried so hard to save. I am too soft I guess.

 

[Howdyjabo]

Cervical dislocation is the best way to put a chicken down.

 

[branguscowgirl]

Cervical dislocation is the best way to put a chicken down.

I did read about that as well......some times their head comes off though. How do you recommend? Do they flop around?
One lady said she lays them down on the ground with a broom stick over their neck and her foot holding the stick down. Grabs them by the feet and pulls up.
This sounded easy enough until I went to do it and chickened out! :lol:

 

[wbvs58]

Brangus by the sound of it you have not had an autopsy done on any of them. Would you be up to opening one up yourself, that is after it died of natural causes. The intermittent frequency of it and the lack of response to AB has me thinking along the lines of Mareks disease. A sort of leukaemia leucosis thing that just picks them off 1 by 1 in a backyard situation. There are vaccines for it.
Ron I can testify that the chloroform is not a pleasant experience. I had it twice when I was a kid to have my tonsils out and when I haemorrhaged after they did it a second time with the mask and I was ready for it that time.
Brangus that cat carrier sounds like a ready made chamber for the CO, just place a large towel over the top and sides and now all you have to do is get a flexible hose from the exhaust of your car to the cage. Can't be too hard to find something suitable as plenty of people have topped themselves that way and many of them are not in a thinking frame of mind at the time.
Ken

 

[inyati13]

Brangus by the sound of it you have not had an autopsy done on any of them. Would you be up to opening one up yourself, that is after it died of natural causes. The intermittent frequency of it and the lack of response to AB has me thinking along the lines of Mareks disease. A sort of leukaemia leucosis thing that just picks them off 1 by 1 in a backyard situation. There are vaccines for it.
Ron I can testify that the chloroform is not a pleasant experience. I had it twice when I was a kid to have my tonsils out and when I haemorrhaged after they did it a second time with the mask and I was ready for it that time.
Brangus that cat carrier sounds like a ready made chamber for the CO, just place a large towel over the top and sides and now all you have to do is get a flexible hose from the exhaust of your car to the cage. Can't be too hard to find something suitable as plenty of people have topped themselves that way and many of them are not in a thinking frame of mind at the time.
Ken

BCG, I would follow Ken's advice. No need to get CO bottles. This is not going to be something you do everyday. The exhaust from your car is perfect.

 

[dun]

Years ago a friend of mine used to use an icepick. He inserted into the mouth at a 45 degree up angle and pierced the brain. They flopped around jus like they do if their heads cut off. He finally used a kind of expanding funnel that he would put them in with just the head sticking out and stuck them in there. No flopping that way.
One year we had a real virulent respritory problem in a flock of semi-free range turkeys. We used aureomycin (sp) in their water but we had to keep them in the pen for a week. After that they were turned out to forage just like before. Never came back, the problem not the turkeys.

 

[inyati13]

Dun, we used a needle probe to pith frogs. They are brain dead but the heart and others organs continue to function.

In regard to cervical separation, that is how mice are dispatched for laboratory study. May be against the law now. We held the mouse up by the tail, let the front feet reach for a table top and use the thumb and index finger to separate the cervical vertebrae. Very humane.

 

[chippie]

I am sorry to hear about your birds. First thing that I would do is disinfect all waterers and feeders if you already have not done that.
Are you on FaceBook? If you are go like this page and message them about your bird's illness. If you can include a photo would be good.

https://www.facebook.com/TexasAgriLifePoultryExtension or you can email the department for help.

http://posc.tamu.edu/texas-agrilife-poultry-extension-specialists/ Dr. Coufal and Dr. Archer are nice guys and have always been very helpful to me.

Good luck.

PS. I second inyati13's suggestion of using car or truck exhaust. Death by carbon monoxide is as peaceful as it gets and it is free. I don't like killing anything either. My husband usually breaks necks or cuts off the heads.

ETA: Hopefully slick4591 will see your post. He knows a lot about chickens. If he doesn't you might want to send him a PM

 

[slick4591]

Wished I was so knowledgeable on the medical part, Chippie. Truth is, mine either die from predators or old age. (knock on wood) I've been very lucky so far. I practice one rule that is simply unbreakable and that's anything brought in gets 10 days in isolation before getting close to the flock. 99% of the birds I have have been hatched here, but I do have the need for a replacement rooster on occasion. Sure wished I could help.

 

[branguscowgirl]

wbvs58 I have not done a post mortem. But I think that I need to do that next time. However, I really don't think that I would know what I was looking for in a chicken. (Unless the problem was really obvious.) Probably would need the vet to do it.
I will look up "Mareks Disease" again. But there was some reason that I had ruled it out, maybe the age of the chickens? (They are 3-4 years old.) Though I agree, with each one having slightly different symptoms it could match Mareks!

Lost 3 in the last month. (But one of them seemed to be from the heat on a 105 day.) Lost at least 3-4 more in the past year.

Chippie everything has been bleached. So I am thinking that I either have a carrier chicken, the wild birds, or it is in the ground somewhere that they are picking it up? Heck with the flood irrigation, I guess that it could travel from miles away! :?
I will check out the websites that you have provided.

Slick I also keep new chicks isolated from the flock. However, I placed 3 under a broody hen one time about 2 yrs ago........That's when it started. But which came first, the chicks or the germ bug? I don't know.

Thanks everyone! I knew that I could count on my cattle friends for an odd ball question!

 

[JSCATTLE]

Y'all are seriously going out of your way to kill a chicken ? Just chop its head off it won't feel or remember at thing. If your that sensitive about animals maybe farming isn't for you .