Carol's Chickens

I had a couple more replies from the “Down The Lane” forum today. One said he had had his girls on tylan for a long period of time to shift the illness which reassured me that it is okay to continue. The other agreed that I needed to keep treating.

I got the call from my vet this morning and I explained all the information that I had gathered. She agreed to give me some more tylan and to make it a larger amount so that I can keep going as long as I need to.

I asked her if it was okay to mix the tylan water into a mash to encourage the girls to have more of it. She said that was fine. She said it goes in the water to make sure all the girls get some but any means of getting more of it into them can only be a good thing.

Once she had reassured me of that I mixed up a little mash and will continue to do this along side the water.

All four little girls are sneezing but Freckles and Dandelion are sneezing the most and Cinnamon the least. Freckles, Dandelion and Apricot have a slight wheeze to their breathing. Cinnamon drinks the most water and eats plenty of the mash and seems the most well of the little girls. She also laid again today which is only two days after her last egg. She is the only girl laying and is the most active.

Freckles sneezes the most but does seem much improved which is probably helped by the fact that she isn’t dropping many feathers now. She also eats the most mash. Dandelion is dropping a few long feathers and goes to the water and the mash the least. She is the least active but there again she has always been less active than the other girls.

Apricot also doesn’t have much water but I encourage her to the mash whenever the other girls aren’t nearby. She is also not as active as usual.

Emerald and Speckles seem not to be effected, thank goodness. I think the little girls are more delicate and more vulnerable.

Cinnamon getting ready to lay her egg

This is Cinnamon’s favourite spot to lay her egg. She doesn’t use the nest boxes, preferring this corner of the chicken shed, under the perches.

Speckles and Emerald perch here, together, before bedtime

Tonight’s bedtime line up

Emerald always faces front and the other girls, randomly, face either way. Tonight they are facing the back of the shed together.

I will just have to keep going with this and hope for the best, keeping everything crossed.

To encourage the girls to have as much tylan as possible I have been making small amounts of mash throughout the day with the tylan water.

The girls have a little mash mixed with the tylan water

Apricot is firmly bottom girl and is the most timid around the flock. Oddly enough she is the most friendly around me. She is looking over the edge of the patio but can’t pluck up the courage to join the girls.

Cinnamon takes no notice of Freckles, pecking her away from the dish, and just bounces back and yet she is the most timid around me.

Apricot is too timid to join in

I moved Apricot on to the patio but she is looking at me instead of the dishes

I move the dish in front of her

She had a little mash until Freckles spotted that the dish had been moved and came running over. Freckles is firmly top serama.

Apricot makes the most of the other girls losing interest in the mash

Apricot has her own dish

The girls look brighter and  although they are still sneezing I think it is a bit less frequent. There is still a whisper of sound from the breathing of Freckles, Dandelion and Apricot. It is only noticeable when they are eating the mash.

Freckles has slowed down with the feather dropping too which I am pleased about.

I called the vet today to ask about ordering more tylan. My vet was away today but the receptionist has left her a note to call me tomorrow.

Apricot was last in tonight and I put the mash dish in front of her so that she could have a last top up before bedtime.

I think we are making slow progress and I am feeling hopeful.

I let the girls out this morning about fifteen minutes before the automatic door opened. As they hear my footsteps and then hear the gate open I hear them all start to chatter. When I open the big door they are all behind it waiting for me to let them out.

At the moment the automatic door opens at eight o’clock. I let the girls out at quarter to eight as it gives them a bit more time out but any earlier than this is too dark for them.

I was pleased to see first, Freckles and then Dandelion go to the water which has the tylan powder in it.

Freckles has a drink of water

Dandelion joins Freckles at the water

It was good to see the two girls who need it the most have a drink.

I have spent time with them today keeping a close eye on them. Unfortunately I can hear a faint whisper in Apricot’s breathing now and the same again with Dandelion once more. I have seen all the girls have a drink of the water today.

I am only giving them dry treats of the morning sunflower hearts and bedtime corn, no spinach or fruit. I hope this encourages them to drink more water. I don’t want them to get moisture from anything but their water.

I also mixed small amounts of mash with the tylan water in two small dishes (the little dishes that I measured the powder in). I mixed a little at a time each time I returned to check on them and the mash dish had been emptied. I felt this would get them to take a bit more of the water. Freckles likes this the most followed by Cinnamon but all the girls had some at different times throughout the day.

The girls were all in by four o’clock tonight which is usual at the moment. They were all snuggled up together.

I will keep up this regime for ten days and hope that this will improve them. Again Freckles looked a little brighter today but is still sneezing the most. I have a feeling this is going to be a long slog.

I asked a question on the “Down The Lane” chicken forum. The link to this forum is on the right hand side of my blog. They have a wealth of knowledgeable chicken keepers with many years of experience. I briefly explained our situation and asked if anyone knew if it was okay to repeat tylan after a one week break.

I have had two answers so far. The first said that I must repeat it because the chickens won’t get better without it so there is really no choice and nothing to lose. The second said that she had been told by her vet that it could be given for ten to twelve days. Respiratory diseases can be stubborn and longer treatment may be needed to shift it.

The first answer was the conclusion that I had already come to and the second I found reassuring as it seems that it is okay to use it for longer.

The dose on the tylan is one gram per litre of water. This is too small for me to measure so by my previous internet search I found this equated to one teaspoon per litre. As I only have five teaspoons left I am dividing it into ten half teaspoons to be mixed with half a litre of water.

The most accurate way to do this is to lay out ten little dishes and put half a teaspoon of powder in each so that I can see that I have enough to go round and that it is as even as possible. This is not an exact science but is the best I can do. I then cling wrapped the ten dishes and will mix one up each morning and put it in the run before the girls come out so that they have it for a full day each time.

Ten half teaspoons of tylan powder

Had I have known before that it was okay to treat for longer I wouldn’t have taken a weeks break. I just have to hope that this will work. I will ring the vet tomorrow and see if I can order some more tylan so that I can keep some in stock or continue for a few more days if needed. I will also ask how long it is safe to continue giving it.

I really hope this will shift the mycoplasma. On another note, Cinnamon laid an egg today. She had been laying one a week but this time it’s only been five days since her last one. At least one little girl is feeling okay.

I know my girls so well that I know that Freckles isn’t right. Despite having brighter moments she doesn’t seem to be able to shake of this bought of mycoplasma.

Dandelion and Freckles in the small shelter

Freckles eyes keep closing. Freckles and Dandelion seem to have paired up and I wonder if they sense that they are both under the weather together.

Her eyes open

Then close again

I have read every bit of information about mycoplasma and about tylan that I can find on the internet, many times over. I can’t find anything that says how soon tylan can be repeated. I remember a year ago reading that it could be repeated three weeks later as a precaution. I can’t find this information again now.

I am going to have to follow my instincts. I am going to repeat it from tomorrow when they will have had a full seven days clear in between.

I put into the search engine the question “can chickens get colds?” and the answer is that chickens don’t get common colds like we do, they get respiratory infections such as mycoplasma.

There are seventeen types of mycoplasma and four are pathogens in chickens. Mycoplasma effects wild birds, chickens, turkeys, pigs, calves and even people. We can’t catch a chicken’s cold and they can’t catch our colds.

Occasional sneezing in chickens can be due to dust irritating the birds sinuses. Continued sneezing and especially in more than one bird means you need to take action.

Mycoplasma will not get better on it’s own and the recommended treatment is tylan. It has to be caught early to get better and by the time a chicken has a rattle in their breathing it is most likely too late.

When I got Caramel and Pebbles from my first serama breeder I rang her when I was concerned about Caramel. She told me that they are prone to getting colds and there was no point in taking her to the vet as they would only give antibiotics. Now that I know there is no such thing as a chicken cold, but that it is a respiratory disease that must be treated, I feel very let down at her lack of knowledge as a breeder. I was unable to contact her after this and she had told me she was giving up breeding so I let it go. Caramel and Pebbles were her last two birds.

I know so much more about this now and would never make that mistake again. I was too late to save Caramel and Pebbles.

Both Freckles and Dandelion are still sneezing and Freckles is dozing from time to time and just doesn’t look right to me.

The information says that when mycoplasma returns to the same bird it is usually not so bad as the first time. Freckles didn’t have sneezing the first time though and I think sneezing, moulting and cold weather are not helping her. I think that I must take action before it becomes too late. I will repeat five days of tylan from tomorrow onward and keep everything crossed.

I think Freckles looks brighter today. I haven’t seen her dozing. It is absolutely freezing today and there are still loads of feathers in the run from Freckles. It may be having such a heavy moult that is making her feel under the weather as well as being so cold.

Freckles seems a bit brighter today

I shall continue to keep a close watch on the girls with tylan at the ready.

I picked up even more of Freckles feathers today than yesterday. The run was strewn with white feathers. It then struck me that this is the second winter we have had Freckles whereas it is the first winter with the three amigos. I think this means Freckles is having a proper full moult as in their first winter chickens only have a partial moult of baby feathers.

This seems to disprove the theory that seramas don’t moult in winter. Today has been bitterly cold and by late afternoon the girls where in a group huddle.

While taking a few photos I realised that Freckles was dozing again and once more her head was nodding up and down. Oh no! not again. She is also still sneezing. I think that she is not well once more.

Mycoplasma reappears at times of stress and I wonder if the cold coupled with a heavy moult has set Freckles back again.

A group huddle

Freckles and Dandelion

Freckles is dozing again

I will be keeping a very close eye on her over the next few days. If she appears to go downhill I think I will go ahead and treat the flock again with tylan. I can see that this is going to be a worrying winter with this problem in my flock.

I am so pleased that I can no longer hear Dandelion’s breathing and the girls are now only sneezing occasionally so I really think that they are getting back to normal, thank goodness.

Freckles has continued to perch with the flock at bedtime which is also really pleasing me.  For the last three nights she has perched in the middle of the flock. I am so pleased that she has decided, herself, to do this as winter approaches.

This morning I thought I would give the girls a treat of some probiotic yogurt.

A yogurt treat for the girls

The girls love yogurt

There are yogurt beaks and spots of yogurt on feathers and lots of scraping of beaks on the patio. They love the yogurt but don’t like it to be left on their beaks.

By lunch time when I checked them the yogurt had all disappeared and the girls beaks and feathers were clean again.

I picked up the feathers in the run and this was how many feathers I collected in just half a day.

Feathers

Emerald is continuing to drop some long feathers as well as a few fluffy ones but the majority of the feathers are from Freckles. I think I can safely say that seramas do moult in winter.

I am so happy to have things just about back to normal in the chicken run. I hope not to have any more drama any time soon.

At last I think that Freckles and Dandelion are showing improvement. I have only heard the occasional sneeze today and I can’t hear Dandelion’s breathing any longer. This is the most pleasing change for me. I have listened to her periodically throughout the day and haven’t been able to hear her breathing. Goodness knows what she makes of me hunkering down next to her and putting my ear to her beak!

Maybe this time it just took longer for the tylan to have an effect, possibly due to the girls drinking less water and also their sneezing, which may take longer to stop.

Freckles had a dust bath today and left a pile of feathers behind so that is probably an added reason that she isn’t laying.

Cinnamon laid an egg today, which is our first egg in a week, which was when she laid her last one. Throughout November she has laid once a week. Freckles stopped laying half way through November but with mycoplasma and moulting that isn’t surprising. Dandelion hasn’t laid at all this month, same reasons apply and Apricot hasn’t laid for three months but has had pins coming through on her head for all of that time.

What I have read about seramas is that they moult a little all year round and therefore continue to lay all year round. This is our first winter with seramas that are laying (Freckles and Rusty hadn’t started laying last year and Caramel and Pebbles never laid, which we later realised, was because of the mycoplasma) so this is the first year of testing that theory. I think that what this means is that they don’t completely stop like Emerald and Speckles, who stop at the end of summer and begin again in spring but it doesn’t mean that they carry on as they do in summer. It seems to mean that they moult a bit more than the rest of the year and take a break from laying but can lay an occasional egg or just lay a lot less rather than stopping all together.

The mycoplasma will have stopped Freckles and Dandelion laying but Cinnamon has only laid occasionally and Apricot hasn’t laid for the longest so I think that seramas, winter laying, is probably sporadic rather than stopping completely.

I was quite pleased to see all the little girls in the small shelter today as I hope this means that they will take refuge in there when it is cold. The small shelter is definitely the more popular one. We think it’s probably because it is lighter as it has plastic sides and the larger one has wooden sides.

All four little girls in the small shelter

A closer shot

And again as they look so cute in here

And more good news! When I checked the girls at bedtime Freckles was once more in the middle of the girls. She is facing the opposite way to last night but is in almost the same position.

Tonight’s bedtime line up

I am so pleased to see this. I think this will now be the new habit. She must have realised, at last, that it is better to snuggle up to the flock than to sleep alone. We lightly suggested that perhaps she now realises that Rusty isn’t coming back so it’s time to stop waiting for her. She has been gone nearly two months now.

This is very tongue in cheek as it is more likely to be the onset of winter, but for whatever reason, I am pleased with her change of habit.

I am feeling so much more optimistic today about Freckles and Dandelion. Hopefully we have turned the corner once more and they are back on the road to good health.

This post is going to be a little bit of everything that was going on today. I have finished the five days of tylan in the water (yesterday) and am disappointed that Freckles and Dandelion are still sneezing.

Dandelion still has a sound to her breathing but is has changed from the darth vader sound to the sound we would make blowing out a breath and tonight to more of a whistle.

The alarming thing was that this morning when the girls were perched on the ladder in the sun I inspected Dandelion and saw bubbles in her eye. This is a sign of mycoplasma so I know I am correctly identifying this. She blinked and the bubbles disappeared and I have inspected her periodically today but not seen bubbles again.

I have picked up both Freckles and Dandelion and done the sniff test and they don’t have the sweet, sickly, smell so that is a good sign.

When I first used tylan I read that you can dose again three weeks later and researching again now I can’t find this information. I thought of talking to the vet but to be honest I am not sure that they know any more about it than I do and they probably do the same research as I am doing.

So I think that I will follow my instinct and treat the flock again in three weeks time if they are still sneezing and especially if Dandelion is still wheezing. I shall be inspecting her eyes at all times too.

Sorry if this a repeat of my comments but I had a brain wave. I have been using one teaspoon of tylan powder in one litre of water and putting it in the two water dishes. I thought I could halve it to half a teaspoon of tylan powder in half a litre of water and put it in just one water container. The metal water container is the most popular and the water in the china dish is being thrown away and wasted. This would spin out my remaining tylan powder into two more treatments instead of one.

When I treated the flock before it was summer and treating them at this time of year means they drink a lot less. I wonder if that means they are not getting as much of a dose which is maybe why it hasn’t been so effective. I would estimate that they are probably only drinking about a teaspoon or two of water a day each.

It was frosty again this morning but it was a clear day and as usual the sun was on the ladder. Emerald was perched there waiting for the sun to hit this spot. She obviously knows that this is where the sun will be.

The bigger girls are sitting in the sun

I was checking Dandelion’s eye

This was just after I saw the bubbles in Dandelion’s eye and I kept checking her eyes but didn’t see them again. I hope that is a good sign.

Freckles joins Dandelion

These two seem to be sticking together at the moment. I wonder if they sense that they are both going through the same thing.

Once the sun had gone from the ladder Freckles and Dandelion were in the shelter together. The wind was cold today so maybe these girls do know what they need.

Dandelion and Freckles in the small shelter

I wonder if they sense that they need to a bit of protection at the moment

Late afternoon Speckles was having a dust bath

And so was Dandelion

This is also a good sign that she feels happy enough to have a dust bath.

The most surprising thing of all today and again I am echoing the title of this post,  that maybe they do know what they need, came when I checked in on them at bedtime.

The bedtime line up tonight

Freckles has the centre spot

I was so surprised to see Freckles here for the very first time!

Has Freckles finally realised that as it’s so cold she would be better off joining the flock instead of sitting on her own or is it her attachment to Dandelion at the moment causing her to want to sit next to her at bedtime?

Whatever the reason I actually felt elated to see her in the middle of the line up. Now that she has done it once I hope she will naturally do it again. It will be interesting to see if she does. If she doesn’t I think that I will now move her to the back perch and see if we can make this a habit.

I feel sure that it will be better for the whole flock to snuggle up together during the winter months.

I just wish we didn’t have mycoplasma hanging over us which is such a worry. I will keep a very close eye on the girls and re treat them in three weeks if there are still any symptoms showing. If symptoms worsen I will consider treating them again sooner. It’s a case of keeping everything crossed and hoping for the best.