[Pony Girl]

My new French Harlequin hybrid seems to have developed a cold - she keeps sneezing & blowing bubbles out of her nostrils. I've only had her for a week. I've isolated her & given her a dose of poultry nutri drops. Will she need antibiotics from the vet do you think?

[Casey76]

I would take her to a vet. Sounds like mycoplasma. If you tell your vet how many chickens you have, he should give you enough antibiotics for everyone. It would be prudent to treat all of your flock, just to be on the safe side.

[Pony Girl]

There is no foam in her eyes - I thought they got that with Mycoplasma?

[grinling]

sometimes, has she been with the other birds and have you quarantined any other new ones as well.
I had to cull mine as egg production was no good, rest of my flock were always fine.

[barley]

I have a hen that suffers with mycoplasma.

thankfully she doesn't suffer to badly with it - she started sneezing 2 weeks after I got her

vet said if I had taken her sooner and got anti bios it probably would have cleared up - it's notoriously difficult to get rid of and can be contagious

I have been lucky - no other hens caught it

she is now 2 years old - I use eye drops to help control it

[Sassy]

Agree with Casey, vets would be best

[traacyken]

hi im going throught the same thing or simelar, a couple of mine are sneezy and   make snotty nose type sounds now and again there my best french maran ones, our vet doent do birds so just emailed a farm vet but its about 8 miles away thats if they will see me, and worried the trip will stress her out as i was going to ask if i could just take the worst affected one. can the vet tell just by listening etc what is wrong xx

[Pony Girl]

We took the poorly one back to the place we bought her from & they took her back - said it was just a cold and easily treatable. Then 2 days later one of my others, Sage, went down with it. I isolated her straight away & took her to the vet. Vet thinks it's Mycoplasma & has prescribed Tylan, a soluble antibiotic to go in the water & I've got to treat all of the others as a precaution. It's highly contagious & Sage, if she survives, will always be a carrier. Fortunately she's improving & the others, 7 days later are showing no signs of infection. However apparently it's notoriously hard to get rid of & can be spread by wild birds or new stock.Vet said it's likely it will always be in our ground now. I would definitely recommend to isolate your poorly ones & get to vet asap. If their faces are swollen it's likely to be myco.

[traacyken]

thanks pony girl, sound a terrible thing there faces arent swollen and i first noticed it last week but just thort it was the cold weather and the sniffles and have been giving them plenty of garlic. they young ones are in a seperate part with there own run and coup, but there are 4 others that are together. one i found in the garden, and the 3 copper marans i bought about a week later, must have bee roughly about 8 weeks ago and only noticed this as i say in the last week . this sounds a terrible thing for them to have and us as owners, ive not seen any discharge from the nose or eyes or anything doesnt seem as bad this last few days but  v worried now x

[Sassy]

I think I am right in saying that Hens don't get colds! Mycoplasma does stay with the hen for life - she may never get it again - but is likely to manifest itself at times of stress

[grinling]

it can resurface when stressed, keep an eye out when moulting. It can result in soft shelled eggs and you should not add any more birds.
You can disinfect the ground and then keep clear for several months.
I couldn't keep mine in quarantine for ever, so culled them, keeping my flock, which have been added to. (easist way was egg rearing with a broody)

[traacyken]

are eggs safe to eat if they have this condition by humans.

[grinling]

eggs can be eaten, but I had soft shelled so no outer shell so difficult to pick up.

[Sassy]

With no shell on it is much easier for the egg to become 'polluted'. It is not advisable to eat a soft shelled egg.