Easter Nightmare: Respiratory Disease
Sometimes reading up on diseases gives you another type of panic. I always feared getting something into my flock there for I took extreme precaution when introducing 2 new members to my flock.
Still that is not enough...
Like I have written in previous posts I always wanted a cross beak into my flock and when a woman announced that she had a cross beak that needed a home I could not miss it.
Buying from a person and not a breeder always scared me. With breeders you get more security when it comes to diseases and otherwise.
I quarentine them for 30 days in another location and after these 30 days they still got a healthcheck at the Vet office. She checked them all over and took an bloodsample for an infection panel, kidneys and liver. They cleared it!
My Vet told me that these tests is not 100% sure that they are clear for infection but it made me feel sure enough that I have checked everything.
One week went.
One morning I opend the coop door to my head rooster Bartholomew making a wheezing sound. Knowing the seriousness of respitory infections, I paniced. He had no other symptom expect for the wheezing and sounding hoarse when trying to crow.
Of course somehing like this happend over the easter days so the Avian Vet I usally go was not going to be open for days. I knew that 1 of 3 avian vets close by had emergency open for the easter holiday. I was waiting and waiting for their phone line to open.
I got to visit that clinic later in the afternoon, but really no use came of that visit. She could only see that he had alot of phlegm in his throat. She prescribed antibiotics and painrelif, but also took a swab to send to the statelab to check for the major infectious diseases chickens can get.
She told me before I left "when it is localised to the throat like this, it has no good outcome. With those words in my head I drove the hour ride hour sobbing.
Later that night Bartholomews "wife" Fidget also showed symptoms. I had them both on my livingroom table and decided to sleep on the couch next to them. I was afraid to close my eyes that they all where going to be dead next day.
The next day 6/12 of had symptoms.
I decided to call another Vet thrue my inscurance to ask if quarentine was really nesscary when over half the flock had symptoms. She tought letting them be in a stress free envoriment is the best for them. So I put everyone back outside. Unfortanly due to chickens being highly pecking order based and feeling weakness in a flock is not accepted. My rooster who used to be lowest in the pecking order saw his chance when the other two where sick and took the spot as head rooster after alot of fighting.
Looking for advice how to give the antibiotics to the whole flock I tried contacting another Vet who could give me a dosage. Basicly I did not get what I wanted. I got another "its no use your whole flock is going to die". Society just do not want to try when it comes to poultry.
I gave the pain relif, antibiotics and boosted them with multivitamins and probiotics. Later on my friend sent me a bottle of Ida Plus Broncho Care.
I saw results, they started to improve but I did not dare to hope jus yet. Most of them recoverd within 1-2 days. The roosters took around 3-4 days.
The results of the swab came: negative for the 3 major diseases: Mycoplasma (MG), ILT and Coryoza. A major relif but I did not still knew what it was. The first Vet tought I should countine with the antibiotcs, but since this went did not know a proper dosage for antibiotics or pain relif, she could not even prescribe a proper prescribtion for me to pick up. I did not trust her.
About 5 days after I got the results I had a visit with my normal Vet to check the pressure in the eyes of my blind girl. I of course took the opportunity to ask her about this, at this time the whole flock felt healthy with the occasionaly sneazing.
She did not think I should worry that it sounded like a "daycare virus" a simple virus infection their own immunsystem have taken care of. So the anitbitoics was unecessary. I have formed a trusted relationship with this Vet and trust her alot with my birds.
2 members of the flock never showed symptoms. Showing that it pointed more against a virus. Most likley these 2 where already immune against it.
What could have caused this?: There is two possibilites, the newbies brought something with them, but I think this is unlikley. The previous owner of these newbies is someone I kept in touched with. She cared alot about the results when they where getting their check up, she wanted a healthy flock as much as I do. All of her other birds are healthy and she have sold birds that have not spread any futher infection.
The second possiblity, one of my flock members already had an underlying infection and the stress of the newbies triggerd this infection. I knew since Shenzi the cross beak (who is an offspring of my birds) that I had a possibility of having an infection in my flock, since she has also an underlying infection.
Thanks to Abi at Quackingrunners and Robin & Aimee at Crossbeak and Special needs for all the support during this hard time. They guided me thrue dosages and treatment when the an educated proffesional did not.
