[foghorn leghorn]

Hi,
    We are new to keeping poultry and have 4 chickens and 3 ducks. Yesterday we made the silly decision to buy 2 chickens ( copper maran and a cream legbar)  from a stall at the Welsh Gamefair. The chickens were in a cramped compartment that didnt look too healthy but we bought them nonetheless

Yes you guessed it, they are suffering an illness. I need some advice as to what they may have and what actions to take. They have been in with our other birds (silly i know) but they are now seperated. They both make coughing or sneezing noises and most worryingly have (not constantly)  fluid coming out of their mouths when they lower their heads to eat, almost as if they cannot keep the water down. They have also been sick, bringing up some corn which smelled badly. They seem alert and have a good appetite and are drinking water. Their poo has been both normal and runny. The maran in particular has raspy/gurgly breathing whilst sleeping.

Any ideas?

[woodside farm]

Fingers crossed for you, it could just be because they have been in those cramped boxes for too long. I would definatley keep them separate for a while longer and if they are ill, hopefully your others haven't cought it.
You should really quarentine new birds from your own, especially when you don't really know where they have come from.

Good Luck
Michelle

[Vember]

Hi Fl

Stress can fetch on several nasty symptoms in birds as said above, but it does sound to me as if they have a nasty infection

I think the only thing I can suggest is you find a poultry friendly vet asap tomorrow and get them seen to
It might be best if you are given any medication at the vets to get enough to do your other birds (chickens) especially as they have spent time together

In the mean time if you have an apple cider vinegar you could pop some their water


Sarah

[murrowcoopy]

Sounds very much like mycoplasma
google it and see the symptoms and can be caused by stress
it can be treated but the bird will always have the problem only flaring up when stressed
treatment is antibiotics - terramycin,tylan or aureomycin
hope this helps

[foghorn leghorn]

yes, i was thinking that, but they are eating and drinking. however i have tracked the seller down via the game fair organiser, he statedhe will wait there for us as the wife is making me drive down there ( an hours drive each way lol) to take them back as she will cry her eyes out if one dies.

hope he is good to his word !!

[murrowcoopy]

i hope he is to !!
they will still eat and drink as normal with mycoplasma its just like sinusitus

[Aunt Sally]

Continue to keep an eye on your other birds as mycoplasma is very infectious.  The second they show any symptoms get some antibiotic (as above) for them !!!!!!

[foghorn leghorn]

Well he was still there, allbeit packing things up. they way he was cramming the livestock into crates didnt look too good. He took the birds back and gave a refund plus £20 for petrol.

I found out that he mostly buys and sells birds at auctions/ fairs rather than breed them himself like he told me. Now we need to hope the infection wont be passed to our birds. 

Another lesson to us all.. never buy on impulse and especially not from fairs/stalls.

[murrowcoopy]

well im glad it worked out in the end for you and fingers crossed that the other birds dont contract it
be an idea to disinfect the areas and clear any old droppings and bedding/sawdust
for yhe sake of a couple of hours work it could stop the others getting it as once it in it is a nightmare to get rid of

[Aunt Sally]

Good advice murrowcoopy

[bubs]

thats exactly what happened to me about 11 months ago i had 12 healthy hens,and i ended up with 16 sick birds after adding 4 new birds to the shed and the symptoms were like you describe but with yellow diarea thrown into the problem.
i would strongly advise you to get rid of them 2 birds and clean and disinfect your shed and hopefully it will begin to clear , my problem lasted almost 5 months because i tried to cure it with medicines but to no avail , i got rid of the 4 carriers after about 4 months and the remaining birds slowly improved , but i was lucky if i got a 3 egg average for a good 5 months from 16 then 12 hens.
good luck with your birds but get rid of those 2 infected birds and hopefully yours can recover.

[foghorn leghorn]

An update..

Well they all caught it. 2 of them became very ill and we had to make 2 trips to a vet once we found one that could deal with chickens. The diagnosis was Mycoplasma sinivitus. They all had an antibiotic injection and have been on antibiotics since but the good news is they all seem to have recovered and are looking well.

It was a helluva drama, we made a new run to keep them seperated and i can't believe ive spent so much money on chickens but the mrs would have killed me if i didn't. I am really angry about the seller, he must have known they were ill and i feel so stupid for being duped.

I have spoken to the game fair organiser who wasn't impressed to hear what happened and am hoping to get the sellers full name etc. Meanwhile, if you go to a bird auction/fair in wales and see a fat guy with a big beard called Glyn, stay well clear of him.

[Brambles]

Oh my... I am so sorry to hear about your poor chickens... it is a heartbraking story, I hope all your girls are all going to be ok now!  It is a dreadful thing that could have happened to anybody that hasn't heard of a similar tale...  Thanks to you and your awful experience, we all know to be extra careful when bringing in new birds.

[Foxy]

That is not an uncommon story unfortunately, I believe in choosing a breed then researching a breeder through a breed club, avoid auctions they are populated by dealers

[woodside farm]

That is not an uncommon story unfortunately, I believe in choosing a breed then researching a breeder through a breed club, avoid auctions they are populated by dealers

Not always true, We did our first auction last month, not one dealer (but then again it was our first) we vetted the birds the best we could, even turning away one Turkey. We took all the details from the sellers, just in case. We have had no reports of any problems.
It is not very fair to say not to buy any birds from auctions, we decided to do an auction because the only other 'Sale' in our area was very unfair and only the first few people through the door could buy what was available, at an auction everybody gets a fair chance.
We are only a small auction, so I couldn't say the same for large regular ones.
Buying poultry from any breeder is always a risk, and any new birds should always be kept well away from your current ones for at least two weeks, if you are the slightest bit unsure.

Michelle