Maybe someone else has this problem. My vet and I think my flock has infectious coryza. All the symptoms match exactly. Runny, sticky eyes, clogged smelly nasal passages, normal appetite. They did not respond to one weeks treatment of Terramycin, getting no better or no worse. The vet gave me injectable Baytril which was successful, but now 3 more birds have it. It is contagious. I do not know who is the silent carrier. I heard there is a vaccine for this disease. Can anyone tell me if they've used it? Where can it be obtained? Most of my flock show no symptoms, only a few at a time. Iread that in the old days, infectious coryza was treated by natural vaccination... exposing birds to the flock and hoping for the best. Please advise!!! Thanks to all.Michele.

-- MicheleRaePadgett (michelesmelodyfarm@yahoo.com), December 08, 2001

Answers

HI Michele, My birds have it too. We had them tested at a diagnostic laboratory and they confirmed it. The best antibiotic to treat it is gallimycin or ery-mycin which are the same thing (erythromycin). Your birds will never be cured and even if they recover they will always be carriers and infect other birds. It is very contagious, so you can assume that all your birds have been exposed. We were advised to depopulate everything (get rid of all the birds), sterilize everything, and start over again. We haven't yet, because we will be moving within a year and are just going to hold off on the depopulation until then, starting over with all new birds at the new house. Honestly I think that is the best thing to do, unless you never expect to sell any chickens, and never expect to bring in any new chickens, and never expect to have any friends over who might take it home to their chickens (you see where I'm going with this). There is a vaccine, but you need to give it before the birds have been exposed. You can order the vaccine from jeffers (www.jefferslivestock.com). Here is a link that tells alot about different chicken diseases. http://archive.msstate.edu/dept/poultry/diagext.htm You may not even have coryza. There are a lot of diseases that are similar, that page I listed is very helpful in identifying diseases by symptoms. The only way to know for sure is to have them tested (necropsied) for the Hemophilus bacteria. Hope this helps, feel free to email me if I can help further.

-- Tracey in Alabama (trjlanier@cs.com), December 08, 2001.