Hello everyone , I am quite new to chicken keeping , and new to the forum. I have 6 chooks in my main coop, and 3 chicks ( 18wks) in a seperate coop.
I have been having issues with sneezing for about the last 3 months on and off. Jazz , who is a White Star, has always been a bit off, she has always sneezed, about 3 weeks ago I became worried as she had a really runny nose, was persistantly sneezing and smelt like a wet dog in a bad way. when I noticed that her crop was really swollen and rock hard I took her to the vets, who told me that she was very poorly, he said that she had Mycoplasma, he gave her a shot of anti biotics, and gave me some to add to the water daily for a week. He mentioned that she was underweight because he could feel her breast bone. He was gobsmacked when I said that she was still laying every other day.
He basically said that if she gets any worsr then the kindest thing would be to cull her
.
Anyway , I gave the antibiotics, and after have used Life Guard tonic in their water to give them a boost. Jazz is free from discharge from her nose,
but she is still sneezing repeatedly. A few of the others have now started sneezing, Amber at one stage had bubbly eyes, and a loss of her underneath feathers, the tonic seems to have sorted the discharge out, however , they are still sneezing and the feathers have not returned. I use diaton to dust them and put it in their food as a wormer, and use poultry shield to clean their EGLU, so am really a little fanatical about the cleaning regime. I also use Salotan every week over the ground in the coop area which is 24'x15', so they have loads of room , however, the ground is mostly soil, it use to be my compost heap so its very good soil. there are two large Oak trees in their coop with them. If I am to go on what the vet said all my chooks are under weight , even though they eat everything that I give them.
If anyone could offer any advice I would be really happy to hear where I am going wrong. I forgot to mention that the farm whenre I got Jazz from was not great and feel that they were ill before I got them home, I dont wnat to cull them , but I dont want them suffering. Thanks in advance