Backyard Poultry Forum

hi, well my mums first 5 chooks she's ever had are dying one by one over the 10 weeks she's had them from some horrid unstoppable respiratory infection,after trying everything,mashes,cat food,vitamins,antibiotics,clean spacious living quarters theyre still very unwell so mums took the last of them to be euthanized today at the vet.how long should she wait before getting more chooks ? I'm worried there will be infection spores on the ground or in their coop etc.should she use any sort of treatment or just leave it for a while ?
appreciate comments/advice

I’m really sorry to hear about what has happened with your Mum’s chooks. How awful.

I think it’d be best for your Mum to have a chat with the Vet about what she can do to minimise the risk of transferring disease to any new birds, including waiting a period of time. The answer will depend on what the disease was.

Speaking for myself though I’d say that a thorough cleaning of the coop with a disinfectant spray would be a good start. I’d leave everything to sit over winter and then look for new birds in Spring. Going for birds of 6 months of age of older will help as they’ll have more robust immune systems than very young birds.

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Cheerio, Rach
Blue Swedish Ducks

thanks cocoa,mum messaged me this morning to say she couldnt take them to be euthanized as she's bonded to the remaining ones,i told her to take the worst one to the vet, who is not an avian vet,and get it checked and hopefully they know enough about chooks to diagnose.where she lives is very windy a lot and before they started dying they were sleeping outside of the cosy warm coop area which they did go into throughout the days but wouldn't roost there.I don't know whether the hot winds made it worse or not and now the nights are cold, but warm days ? but your suggestion of waiting and getting older birds is good,she actually said to me should I get older ones and I said no its nice to raise up young ones and watch them grow although the remaining ones are about 5 mths now.one of her Rhodes hasn't grown in 9 weeks its still small but the breeder doesn't have bantams.

It must be very hard for your Mum. It’s an awful thing to be faced with.

I would say that healthy birds not facing a big disease challenge would have no problem with changing weather and temperatures. It sounds to me like the problem is due to an illness that was beyond anyone’s ability to control it.

Let us know what the vet says if your Mum ends up going.

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Cheerio, Rach
Blue Swedish Ducks

well just an update on this situation,mum lost all but 1 bird who is an adult now and seems healthy enough so we bought a rhode island red and a lavender sussex from a breeder close to where she lives,these 2 were pol.all seemed well with the 3 living together happily they were fed well,free ranged, dustbathing,just being happy chooks and a couple of weeks ago the lavender sussex came down with a snotty horrible infection,couldnt breathe so mum finally took her to the vet who gave her antibiotics,it made no difference and now mum has put her down too.im worried the original survivor is a carrier and should be culled but is there a test that can be done to see if that hen is a carrier ? i have a bottle of vet grade f10 sc which i was gonna post up to her to spray the coop and the ground do you think i should ?
thanks for your advice

bump......anyone ??