[shetan]

A while back I posted that my chickens in one of my coops were sneezing, coughing had runny noses and te squits. The maran lost his crow and there was a odd smell coming from the coop.

Anyway, I took him to the vet who had no idea what she was looking at but gave him and the others baytril.

Since then they all seem to have perked up but somethings are still not right....

None of them except the orpington cross has put on any weight - not even gained what they lost while they were ill and more oddly still, two of the boys I hatched in the last week of March still haven't crowed - not once.

I am still keeping them seperate from the rest of the birds and 3 of the boys (including captain Jack Sparrow, the Maran) are currently enjoying their last week on earth...but they don't know that.

I'm just still at a loss as to what was wrong with them. £79 at the vets and she said, 'well I'm not exactly sure'....Any ideas?

[joyfull]

Mycoplasma has a smell about it so they could have had that, in which case they will still have it (it's for life) and it could flare up at anytime when the birds get stressed. You really shouldn't breed from these birds which is why serious breeders would cull them, but many unscrupulous breeders would still breed from them and the chicks will then have the disease and when they get stressed - such as going to new homes - they show signs of it.

[shetan]

That's what I thought Joyfull...I found out this morning that the birds that I brought in did have Myco. My friend was pretty sure that thats what they had too. Which is why we have come to the decision to cull them next week. We are letting them enjoy one last week of free wandering before they go to a man with ferrets. He's fully aware that they've been unwell and thats what they might have had but he seems fine with it. Culling them doesn't seem such a waste if they're not going on the bonfire....still sad though.