[dazza666]

hi all, I am extremely worried about one of our chickens

saturday:

she would not move much at all
appeared off her food
was wheezing every so often
closing eyes every so often
sneezing say once every 15-20 minutes
tucking her neck into her body
opening mouth like it was hard to breath

sunday:

still sneezing and some wheezing, but otherwise everything else was back to normal

we called the vet saturday night who said it sounded like mycoplasma, and to make a appointment to bring it in if we wanted to which we did but the bird specialist wasnt there and we saw a different vet, she was helpful but didnt know a lot about birds and used a book for reference, the bird specialist from the night before had left some notes that he thought it mycoplasma, and gave us I think tylosin for treatment. but the thing is im not sure if it is mycoplasma or something minor which will clear up, based on the improvement from today

what are the facts of mycoplasma? the fact our bird doesnt have bubbles in the eye or swollen Sinus (sp!) makes me think it may not be, so should I wait and see how things are tomorrow before treating them?

can you eat the eggs after treatment?

we called the place we got them from and they said to bring it back and they will give us another one but I dont really want to do that. is it too late for others as well now as they have been in the same area as this one, would we need to replace all three?

I have only had the chickens for one week and its not the best start really. I dont know what to do, do I take them back and get some more, or treat

mycoplasma apparently never goes away...

[joyfull]

It could be a respiritory infection (not necesserily myco - to find out for sure you would need to do a blood test). If they have all been together then all should be treated (any infection could have been passed onto the others before any symptoms became obvious. Whilst on antibiotics all eggs should be thrown away and depending on which antibiotic there is a period after when they should be thrown. The vet should have informed you of how long the egg withdrawel period is. Mine get treated with aureomycin antibiotic along with metacam which is an anti inflamitory. With this after treatment there is no egg withdrawal.
You really ought to see the specialist vet just to be sure but in the meantime I would start the treatment that was prescribed.