Debbyds Posted July 5, 2017 Share Posted July 5, 2017 Hello, I'm new to this forum and to chicken keeping. My husband's father died a few months back and we took in his flock of 11 chickens - 5 bantams, 2 gold lines, 3 lavenders and a Maran. The Maran is the boss of everyone and they all get on quite peacefully. We've had a warm week and the chickens have been lazing around under trees etc as they do but we noticed Rosie (maran) sleeping a lot through the day (2 days ago) we put it down to the heat. Yesterday she seemed very slow and cautious when walking about and I noticed her left nostril was running and I could see her breathing sharply in her throat as though each breath in was deep, we can't see the others breathing so it's obviously not good. On closer inspection, she is clearly unwell. Looking online, it seems she has a respiratory infection. I brought back medicine from my father in laws when we got the chickens but It's a pigeon supplement with antibiotics. I've checked them out and they are all used for chickens too ( tylosin, tiamulin, erythromycine) however the dosage listed, I assume, will be for pigeons rather than a much larger chicken. It says - dosage: put 1 spoonful in 2 litres of drinking water during 6 days. My local vet doesn't know much about chickens and won't advise how much to give so I wonder if anyone here can offer advise? Also should I treat the whole flock or just if/ when they show signs of sickness? Any help would be great as shes not too well and I'd like to treat her asap before she gets worse. Thank you. x Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Dogmother Posted July 5, 2017 Share Posted July 5, 2017 You really do need to take her to the vet to get her checked over; it is likely that she will need antibiotics, and if not treated promptly, she could get seriously ill, die, or at least it will affect her future egg laying ability. If you are unsure about your late FIL's preventative routine, then I would worm them all with Flubenvet once this hen is well again, leave 3 weeks then worm again, thereafter reverting to the regular worming every 3-4 months. I would also check them all for lice and set up a preventative programme for that too. Then you can be sure that there won't be a bad enough parasite load to compromise their immune systems. I would call round the vet practices locally and find one which knows something about chooks - there's a list of recommended vets somewhere in the FAQ section on this forum I hope that you get it sorted Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
