Category: Diseases

Infectious Coryza

Posted on by Cindy Johnson

Infectious Coryza

 

Infectious Coryza

Infectious Coryza is a really, really, bad cold that chickens, pheasants, and guineas can catch.  It is an upper respiratory infection with lots snot and mucus.  Caused by the bacteria Haemophilus paragallinarum, it occurs mostly in flocks that tend to be self perpetuating rather than commercial flocks where the entire flock periodically are replaced.  Once a bird has survived the disease it is not likely to become re-infected but it is a carrier of the disease for the rest of its life.  It is highly contagious but the mortality will be less than 20 % if secondary infections do not set in.   The bacteria is spread mostly through nasal discharge with an incubation period of one to three days followed by the sudden disease lasting around ten days.  The bacteria is hardy and can survive for several days outside a host but is easy to kill using heat, drying and disinfectants.   

Symptoms include facial swelling, eye and nasal discharges, swollen wattles, sneezing, listlessness, egg production dropping,  and lack of appetite.  The birds don’t like to drink water as much and the head and mouth will have a putrid smell.  As it is a bacterium, streptomycin, Dihydrostrepomycin, sulphonamides, tylosin, erythromycin, and flouroquinolones are useful and effective.    Water based antibiotics are less effective.  Bytril (enrofloxicin) is effective but expensive and available only through vets.  Tylan is an inexpensive antibiotic available over the counter.  Dosage is ¾ of a CC injected into the breast muscle, followed by a second shot in four days if the bird hasn’t fully recovered.

As the disease is more common in multi generational flocks, a policy of all in and all out where possible like meat birds or layers helps.  Two doses of bacterin might reduce the severity of the disease when it hits.  Vaccines are available and the vaccines do provide some cross protection from other strains.

Once the disease has entered a flock it is never eradicated as all surviving birds will be carriers.  New birds brought in will catch the disease and any birds sold or given away will spread the disease to other flocks.  Wild birds visiting your flock’s feeders or waterers will either carry the disease or spread it to other flocks nearby so at the risk of sounding like a broken record a good wild bird proof chicken feeder is an essential, not a luxury.  The most surefire way of eradicating the disease is to kill the entire flock once they have recovered and heavily disinfect the entire coop and surrounding areas.  Scrub and disinfect everything including the ground.  A good coating of whitewash and digging some lime into the ground is a good idea.  Let the building and equipment sit vacant for two months before bringing in new birds from a trusted hatchery.

 

 Replacing the entire flock isn’t overkill when you consider the inability, or inadvisability, to sell live birds once you know your flock is infected and carriers.  Entire generations of birds to come will have to be treated and they in turn will spread the disease to the next batch.

 

 

 

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Infectious Bronchitis

Posted on by Cindy Johnson

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Infectious Bronchitis

Probably the most common of all the respiratory diseases, bronchitis virulence will depend upon the ate of the bird, prior vaccinations or maternal immunity in young birds, the strain of the bronchitis, and any byproduct infections such as mycoplasma, E. coli, or Newcastle disease.

Between half and one hundred percent of the flock will catch the disease and the mortality rate will run between zero and twenty five percent.  It is caused by a virus that has a high mutation rate.  Infection occurs through contact, sneezing, and coughing, with an incubation rate of eighteen to thirty six hours.  Birds can be carriers for up to one year and the virus can survive for up to four weeks without a host.  Poor ventilation and crowded conditions increase the risk of infections.  The virus can be killed using solvents, heat, alkalis, and disinfectants.

The symptoms are huddling, listlessness, loss of appetite, coughing, gasping, wet liter, diarrhea,
Treatments include Sodium salicylate 1gm/litre (acute phase) and antibiotics to control secondary infections.   Soluble Tylan for mycoplasma infections is a good idea.  There are live vaccines, maternal immunity will protect chicks for two to three weeks and immunity will begin ten to fourteen weeks after vaccination.

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Past the above treatments simply keeping the birds clean, warm, and dry is about all you can do other than giving the coop a good disinfecting.    As wild birds will spread the disease we come back again to the value of a good bird proof/rat proof treadle feeder to prevent diseases. 

 

 

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Fowl Cholera

Posted on by Cindy Johnson

Cholera

 

Fowl Cholera

Cholera can come on suddenly.  It is bacterial, Pasteurella multocida, highly contagious, and will affect chickens, turkeys, and water fowl.  The incubation rate is around five to eight days.  Mortality rate can be as high as 100%.  The disease is spread through nasal contact, feces, contaminated soil, equipment, or people.
The bacteria can be destroyed using disinfectants but is very difficult to eradicate from the soil.  Rodents, cats, wild birds, even pigs can carry fowl cholera.  Once again we see the importance of keeping rats and mice at bay by using a rat proof treadle feeder.   Crowded conditions and other respiratory diseases will predispose birds to catching cholera. 

 

Treatment

Sulphonamides, tetracyclines, erythromycin, streptomycin, and penicillin will treat the infection but long term medication is required along with a thorough cleaning and disinfection of the coop and surrounding area.  Keeping biosecurity tight, good rodent control, and hygiene helps prevent the disease.   There are vaccines available for six week old birds and bacterins should be given at eight and twelve weeks.  While Fowl Cholera isn’t the horror it is in human epidemics it is something to work at keeping at bay through biosecurity including the elimination of rats, mice, squirrels and wild birds.

 

 

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Botulism

Posted on by Cindy Johnson

Botulism paralysis

Botulism

Botulism is a bacterial toxin produced by Clostridium Botulinum, types A and C.    Rotting animals produce the bacteria as well as rotting plant matter, even mud can have the bacteria and the toxins.  Most domestic fowl can be harmed by botulism, it does not spread like a viral disease as the birds have to consume the bacteria or the toxin.  Mortality is high and the spores and toxin are stable and can survive a long time outside of a rotting carcass or rotting plant matter.  Dead poultry carcasses buried in the litter or meal worms that have consumed a rotting carcass could be the causation.

Signs of botulism.

Nervous system problems, weakness, progressive paralysis of the legs, wings, then the neck, followed by death.  Chickens tend to lay in the litter with eyes closed, the beaks are sometimes dirty from resting on the litter more than usual.  The body will be extremely limber and a bird will not be able to hold up its head.  Eventually the paralysis spreads to the heart and lungs and causes death.

As with most diseases, prevention is better than a cure.   Try to keep rotting food away from the birds and clean up any stagnant water.  Remove all dead birds as soon as possible.  Feeding road kill by hanging and allowing the maggots to drop into the pen is not a good idea due to botulism risks.

Treatment, there is an antitoxin available from vets.  Bactracin and streptomycin sometimes have been said to work.  It is possible to flush the bird at the onset of symptoms, flushing out the rotting food starting with Epson salts or molasses flushes but that itself can kill the bird and is considered a last ditch effort.   You can also use the selenium treatment, one part potassium permanganate to 3000 pars of water. 
Past the anti-toxins and flushing all you can do is nurse the bird and try to get it to eat so the old rotting food gets flushed out.  Some people claim that if caught early, burned black toast or medicinal charcoal, apple cider vinegar, mixed with water in a blender will help flush the toxins out of the bird’s guts.

 

 

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Avian Pox/Fowl Pox

Posted on by Cindy Johnson

Fowl Pox eye discharge

Fowl Pox, Pox, Avian Pox

Pox is a viral disease recognized by skin lesions on the inside of the throat and nasal cavities of chickens, turkeys, pigeons and canaries.  It is highly contagious and the mortality rate will be zero to fifty percent.  It is relatively slow moving as it is spread by skin abrasions, bites, respiratory methods, or bits from mosquitoes, mites, and wild birds.  The virus is persistent, lasting for months without a host.   Male birds get it quicker due to fighting that causes abrasions.  The disease will run for about 14 days per bird.

The signs are a warty looking eruptions or scabs on combs and wattles, deposits or sores in the mouth, throat, and trachea, lethargic birds, low appetite, slow growth, and poor egg production.   In severe cases gasping for breath, green, yellow, or clear discharge from eyes and mouth, eyes swollen shut, large wet or dry scabs on beaks and mouth, losing weight, bad odor from head and mouths, constantly sleeping, even being unable to walk.

Flocks or individual birds that have not contacted the virus can be vaccinated.  You can’t really “treat” pox as it is a virus but you can manage the symptoms.  Some birds will get secondary infection inside their eyes and nostrils.  Be sure and vaccinate the unaffected birds as soon as the first case appears.  Use the vaccine within one to two hours of opening the vial, you can’t save the remainder, throw it away.  Any birds showing symptoms no matter how mild should not be vaccinated and once birds are vaccinated quarantine them for at least a month

To vaccinate you inject the vaccine using a small forked applicator into the win web after the age of four weeks.   Pullets should be vaccinated one to two months prior to egg production then given a booster each year thereafter..  Chicks have a special pox vaccination and a booster at eight weeks is a good idea.

Fowl pox

Turkeys are vaccinated at  two to three months of age but the thigh is chosen as the vaccination point. Give a booster shot one to two months before egg laying begins and every year after that.

Wet pox gets its name from having more lesions inside the throat and nasal cavities, enough that it can suffocate the bird.  Dry pox refers to the strain or severity of the pox leaving mostly scabs and lesions on the face, wattles, and combs of the birds.  It is best to vaccinate annually in the spring before mosquitoes and midges come out.

Quail get a special quail pox vaccine.  However the various pox vaccines don’t offer cross protection against the various strains of wild pox.  Laying hens stricken with pox will stop laying and recover in two to three weeks. 

The fowl pox strains are not capable of crossing over to humans through contact or eating the meat and eggs.  Human chickenpox is a different virus unrelated to fowl pox viruses.

Since you can’t “treat” the disease directly all you can do is treat the symptoms if you want to try to save a bird that has a severe case of wet pox.    Plan on spending six weeks and a lot of time per day nursing the birds and cleaning them constantly. Useful supplies include penicillin and Duramycin Tetracycline Hydrochloride Soluble Powder (DTHSP ) to treat any secondary infections (useless against the virus itself) , anti bacterial soap for general cleaning, saline solution for cleaning infected eyes and nostrils, crumbles for making hot mash meals, Gatorade to replenish lost electrolytes, yogurt for feeding, latex gloves, bleach for general sanitation, and a syringe without the needle for irrigating infected eyes and nostrils.   In the worst cases the birds will be blinded at the onset so have wide, shallow pans to feed them in and use the moistened crumbles, scrambled eggs, and yogurt to encourage them to eat.  Once they regain their appetite they will eat regular pellets and crumbles if they can find them.

Vaccines and inoculation fork

Water dishes also need to be large and shallow so the blind birds can drink.  You will of course quarantine the birds in a small pen so they are able to find the food and water pans.

Always wear fresh latex gloves, mask, and eye protection.    Clean the bird’s facial area using anti bacterial soap a few times a day.  If the scabs don’t start flaking off in a few weeks you might try pulling the scabs and using the saline solution to rinse off the wounds.  If their eyes are swollen shut try to gently squeeze some of the puss out of the eyes and rinse with the sterile saline solution

Mix the DTHSP into the water according to the directions every day, replacing any old water. 

 

Use the syringe to squirt a bit of water down their throats as they won’t be drinking as much water as they should.  You can also give fresh water and the Gatorade a few times a day, around 3 cc’s at a time.  Oral Penicillin three times a day for the birds with secondary infections, every day till the end of the treatment cycle recommended on the packaging.Bathe the birds at the beginning and once a week during treatment, drying them off well and providing a heat lamp that they can move away from if the quarantine area is cool.  Remove the heat lamp once the birds are all dried off.  Scrub the entire area with bleach water every few days to keep the secondary infections to a minimum as the birds are in a weakened state and susceptible.  
 

 

Water dishes also need to be large and shallow so the blind birds can drink.  You will of course quarantine the birds in a small pen so they are able to find the food and water pans.

 

Always wear fresh latex gloves, mask, and eye protection.    Clean the bird’s facial area using anti bacterial soap a few times a day.  If the scabs don’t start flaking off in a few weeks you might try pulling the scabs and using the saline solution to rinse off the wounds.  If their eyes are swollen shut try to gently squeeze some of the puss out of the eyes and rinse with the sterile saline solution

 

Mix the DTHSP into the water according to the directions every day, replacing any old water.  Use the syringe to squirt a bit of water down their throats as they won’t be drinking as much water as they should.  You can also give fresh water and the Gatorade a few times a day, around 3 cc’s at a time.  Oral Penicillin three times a day for the birds with secondary infections, every day till the end of the treatment cycle recommended on the packaging.

 

Since you can’t “treat” the disease directly all you can do is treat the symptoms if you want to try to save a bird that has a severe case of wet pox.    Plan on spending six weeks and a lot of time per day nursing the birds and cleaning them constantly. Useful supplies include penicillin and Duramycin Tetracycline Hydrochloride Soluble Powder (DTHSP ) to treat any secondary infections (useless against the virus itself) , anti bacterial soap for general cleaning, saline solution for cleaning infected eyes and nostrils, crumbles for making hot mash meals, Gatorade to replenish lost electrolytes, yogurt for feeding, latex gloves, bleach for general sanitation, and a syringe without the needle for irrigating infected eyes and nostrils.
In addition, certain elements will be centered on mobile devices and tablets and aligned to the left or right on a desktop display. You can adjust the layout for each GridBlock at three different device widths – desktop, tablet, and mobile.   As Fowl Pox can be spread by wild birds the necessity of a

good treadle feeder is once again underscored

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