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.
Click here to see the history of my flock.
Pleased that your vet has agreed to give you access to more tylan; so nice to see Freckles continuing to roost with the others. You know, that in itself could be yardstick: if they get up onto the perch, then they aren’t too bad; I know that, when I’ve lost hens in the past, they’ve been unable to make it up to the perch at night.
I’m away from tomorrow till Sunday, but will try and keep up to date from Berlin. Fingers crossed for you.
They are definitely not getting worse I think, but I know that the sneezing and the sound of their breathing means they are not right, and that needs to go to be rid of this.
I hope you have a good trip and I know you will look in when you can or on your return. I appreciate your support.
I’ve just caught up on the last few posts so will comment on this one.
I hope the Tylan is doing it’s job for them, I think mixing in the mash is a great way to be confident they are getting it.
Just tried to research Tylan as I was interested in how it works, got lost in the science and came out no better off!
All the research that I have done on mycoplasma or respiratory disease recommends tylan and so do people on the forums (and the vet) so it seems to be the treatment of choice. How it works though, I have no idea. The instructions are very clear that once mixed with water it only keeps for twenty four hours and then must be thrown away and a new lot mixed but in powder form it keeps for over a year.
It can also be given as an injection but I wouldn’t fancy that. It needs to be done twice a day for five days. Imagine how stressful that would be! Farmers use it by the gallon to protect their animals, chickens, turkeys, pigs or calves.
Lets hope they will all be better soon.You are certaily doing your best for them.
I really hope that they get better soon.