Sick Rooster and turkeys with sinus problems

Yesterday he was making a strange noise, sort of like a soft hum. I realized that it was a gasp through a wheeze today and gave him some oral tetracycline. I thought I killed him. He flapped and lay on his side, not breathing, then gasped for air and flapped and lay on his side again. I now think he has pneumonia. I put him in a sheltered spot and left him, watching for any signs of distress. He did not move for over an hour and I thought he was dying, but suddenly he was up. He is a beautiful Columbian Wyandotte rooster and is almost fully feathered. When I picked him up today, I realized he is very light though. I will try tetracycline again tomorrow. Can chickens have penicillin?


The turkeys are showing puffed areas around their eyes. I assume it is a sinus problem and 3 of the 8 seem to have it. About 3 weeks ago I treated their water with tetracycline. They seemed to get better, but I guess not better enough. Now what?

Thank you for your words of wisdom.

The chicken- check it's crop.

The turkeys- mycoplasma or sinusitis...are they the same issue?

Sorry to hear of this, sounds like he may be a sick bird, but not sure how to help you with this. I wonder if you may have aspirated the bird. Chickens have the opening to their windpipe basically at the end of their tongue. I have always been very chicken (pun not intended) to give chickens anything orally. I know many do, but it has caused me such concern that I chicken out. I remember someone indicating that the medication should go through the side of the mouth in small amounts, I believe it was left side, no clue why, but there. A drip and then another drip until the specified amount is given. I wish that I had more experience with orally medicating a bird. I know it is done all the time, and perhaps someone will chime in and help you. To me it sounds like the rooster may have got liquid into his windpipe, which exacerbated any existing illness. Can chickens have penicillan, no clue about that. You must be sure of the proper dose if you do use it though I would imagine. Wait for responses from others that may be more helpful.

I would like to hear if someone has given oral liquid medication to their birds for any reason whatsoever, how is this done. Is there a chance of aspiration, if it is not done correctly. This is a learning curve and we all need to know things to help us become better chicken keepers. Hope the birds get better. With that, still have a great day, CynthiaM.

Refer to this for the swollen turkeys:

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If caught early enough Myco can be treated and and even eliminated with a product called Denagard (Tiamulin).

CynthiaM wrote:Sorry to hear of this, sounds like he may be a sick bird, but not sure how to help you with this. I wonder if you may have aspirated the bird. Chickens have the opening to their windpipe basically at the end of their tongue. I have always been very chicken (pun not intended) to give chickens anything orally. I know many do, but it has caused me such concern that I chicken out. I remember someone indicating that the medication should go through the side of the mouth in small amounts, I believe it was left side, no clue why, but there. A drip and then another drip until the specified amount is given. I wish that I had more experience with orally medicating a bird. I know it is done all the time, and perhaps someone will chime in and help you. To me it sounds like the rooster may have got liquid into his windpipe, which exacerbated any existing illness. Can chickens have penicillan, no clue about that. You must be sure of the proper dose if you do use it though I would imagine. Wait for responses from others that may be more helpful.

I would like to hear if someone has given oral liquid medication to their birds for any reason whatsoever, how is this done. Is there a chance of aspiration, if it is not done correctly. This is a learning curve and we all need to know things to help us become better chicken keepers. Hope the birds get better. With that, still have a great day, CynthiaM.

When I orally medicate a bird I withold water for 24 hours and then give the med in the water. It is a lot easier than to try to get the right amount into them by mouth.

Sue, haven't had to medicate, but I am sure that puttting meds in water would be effective for surely, if the amount of medication was correct. When I wormed my birds with panacur (fenbendazole) for any worms present, including if that horrid gapeworm might be present from eating so many worms and grasshoppers (and probably other hosts of the gapeworm), I put it in the water. the only water source. I know if given orally, one bird at a time, it would probably have been more effective. But....as you know, over 20 birds can be such a daunting task when I would much prefer to be doing other things have a beautiful day, CynthiaM.

Giving a bird oral medication directly by mouth is risky as you can cause the bird to choke.

Tetracycline is not the best antibiotic to use when treating birds. Frankly, I would ditch it. Most broiler operations use tetracycline as a growth aid than they do to treat CRDs.

Penicillin can be given to poultry. Super Booster is usually readily available at most poultry supply stores and contains both penicillin and vitamins. You can also buy just penicillin in powder form that you mix with water to give chickens to treat CRDs. G&E in Edmonton sells it but only in a large bottle as it is also used I believe to treat cattle.

Mycoplasma is the medical term for CRD and Sinusitis is one of over 40 known CRDs. Anti-biotics will cure the symptoms of most CRDs but once a bird has a CRD and becomes well, it becomes a carrier. Stress may bring about an out break of CRD in carrier birds. Most general flocks have birds that are carriers but that does not mean your flock is a plague waiting to be unleashed. The majority of poultry vets will tell you that if a flock is properly managed, CRD should not be a problem even if you have a carrier in your flock.

Most CRDs are not lethal killers. They are much like the common cold. Only a few CRDs are a real concern, such as Infectious Newcastles' Disease and ILT.

I find Tylan is excellent at treating CRD. Baytril is too.
Tylan you can buy from G&E in Edmonton. Both can be bought from a vet but many vets don't prescribe Tylan. Baytril was withdrawn for use in poultry here in Canada by the CFIA a few years ago. Some poultry vets will still prescribe it but you must bring your bird in to be evaluated first.

Like your roo, I had a couple of roos years ago that began wheezing that got worse. The cold weather seemed to trigger it. One roo, even with weeks of treatment, never got over the wheezing and got worse. He was put down. The other I did take to a vet who prescribed Baytril Within 3 days he was back up on his feet as if nothing was wrong. However, he was never 100% well afterwards. He finally passed away over a year later.

If you have not already quaratined your roo, you should. My golden rule: If you try a treatment and don't see improvement within 3 days, try something else. Most anti-biotics for birds are given by mixing with water. Make sure that is their ONLY source of water so they will take in the meds. Keep the bird warm and away from drafts. Most treatments call for 5 days but better to go a week before stopping treatment. Full recovery usually takes 14 days.
To help your roo with weight, 2 tablespoons of tin cat food as a supplement. Cat food that is fish is best. Sick birds that will not eat grains will eat soft food. If you don't want to use cat food, a mashed up boiled egg will usually work also.

As for the turkeys. Sounds like you have an infected flock.
If you do not want to cull them and you decide to treat, I would look into a good anti-biotic for turkeys. Make sure that when you are doing your daily rounds that you do your turkeys LAST to prevent cross contamination with your healthy stock. If the disease persists, I would seriously consider culling the turkey flock. Especially as the majority of your birds are showing infection.

Very thorough and well expressed response ToyB! I'm going to print it out and add it to my "first aid" binder!

I would quarantine asap and give Superbooster too - but ToyB has the most complete answer...

I am saddened to say the rooster died last night. He had a name and I was planning to keep him. I have 3 Columbian Wyandotte hens. I guess if they go broody, the daddy will be the Jersey Giant rooster.

That's too bad TFE, hope the turkeys do better.

That's too bad about your roo

Actually if your girls go broody, your Jersey Giant may not necessarily be the chicky daddy. A hen can hold the sperm of the rooster in her body for several weeks. It's the main reason why when your hen is with a roo and you want to breed to another roo, people will wait about to a month before incubating eggs to make sure any chicks will be the new roos and not the old one's.

If you know for a fact that your roo that passed away was actively breeding with your hens, you may be able to still get his offspring.

Interesting about the hen and the rooster..I had read that hens are selective as to which rooster they want to mate with and can reject sperm from undesirable suitors. I have other roosters, but the Jersey Giant is the boss man in the chicken pen. He does a good job of finding food and protecting his girls from the other rooster's attentions, but he is rather gentle with the ladies. He has a name: Brewster.
The Columbian Wyandottes are not really nice chickens. They tend to be less than friendly and are people shy actually. Also, they are growing really slowly compared to the other breeds. The hens have just started to lay and their eggs are getting larger every week, but they do not lay every day. It might just be THOSE Columbian Wyandottes and others may have more friendly birds from different stock. They look pretty though. The Blue Orpington hen and the Buckeye hen are nice chickens, and the Japanese bantams. I actually like them the best.