chicken disease

I recently introduced some chickens to my flock, they showed no symptons but turns out they were infected, the disease spread rapidly through the rest of my flock and it took weeks of antibiotics to get them back to health. Some of the chickens did not respond to antibiotics and had to be culled. The symptons were swelling around the head, difficulty breathing and loose brown dropings. This disease is rampant, do we need some kind of regulation for the poultry trade? I would advise anyone buying in stock to quarantine them for at least a fortnight.I would be interested in hearing from anyone who has had a similar experience.

Comments

  • edited November -1
    Jaysus! Sorry to hear that.

    I've never had similar experience, but I do quarantine all new stock I bring it. Nothing worse that introducing illnesses.

    Do you know what disease it was?
  • edited November -1
    I am not sure what the correct name is, but I think its a fairly common complaint, the vet seemed to know what it was,
  • edited November -1
    Sounds like Upper respiratory infection (uri). Nasty dose, very wide spread at the moment. Always quarantine every new bird for at least a month and dose with antibiotics for the first 3 days. By dosing it should cause any illness to show its ugly head. I handy little tip i picked up. ;)
  • edited November -1
    "Michael" said:
    I recently introduced some chickens to my flock, they showed no symptons but turns out they were infected, the disease spread rapidly through the rest of my flock and it took weeks of antibiotics to get them back to health. Some of the chickens did not respond to antibiotics and had to be culled. The symptons were swelling around the head, difficulty breathing and loose brown dropings. This disease is rampant, do we need some kind of regulation for the poultry trade? I would advise anyone buying in stock to quarantine them for at least a fortnight.I would be interested in hearing from anyone who has had a similar experience.
    would agree with john
    a least 4 weeks for new birds
    i dont mix any of my breeding birds with any others at all
    but i have the space
    any birds that show any symptoms are put in sepperate cages till am sure they are okay
    never had any probs yet fingers crossed
    and am very careful when buying birds and eggs only from people i know keep thier stock rigth
    if you follow alot of these treads you will read the warnings about sales ect regarding disease
    i only buy if i can examine the birds and see what conditions they are kept in
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