Yesterday we had a frosty day and therefore I inspected Dandelion’s eyes again. Once again she had a crusty right eye. She also seems to be sneezing a little more and I can hear a bit of a whisper in her breathing. It seems that the respiratory disease is always lurking under the surface and as soon as we have frosty weather it resurfaces in Dandelion.
I am aware that I can’t treat forever but I have also read that it doesn’t go away untreated and that tylan can be used at intervals as a preventative so I have decided that to be on the safe side I will treat again for five days.
So for the next five days I will be putting tylan in the water again and making dishes of mash with tylan water to get as much into the girls as possible. I will also add the ground up poultry zest to help with the moult. Whenever I make mash at the moment I add the zest to try to give the girls a boost.
Dandelion has a crusty right eye again
Freckles seems to have come through this but Dandelion is the weakest of the girls and seems the most susceptible to this reoccurring. It always seems to be her right eye. I just hope that I can keep treating whenever this arises and get her safely through to spring. I feel sure that once we get into better weather the girls will come through this.
I am keeping everything crossed and hoping that we won’t have too many more frosts.
Click here to see the history of my flock.
Good luck! You are the best chicken mama ever!! Do you think this disease will subside in warmer weather?
I do think this will subside in warmer weather. It’s thought that stress is the trigger for this to reoccur and I think that it was Freckles having a heavy moult during our first frosty weather that started it off this time round. It has now almost subsided with just occasional, quiet sneezes, but as soon as we get a frost it triggers Dandelion having eye bubbles and now that has developed to her getting a bit of a crust on her right eye. Today is the first day back on tylan and her eye has cleared this afternoon. I think she scratches the crust off. I feel sure that when we get to warmer weather the sneezing will disappear completely and hopefully this will stay away.
We all hope so.
I know. We can but hope.
I hope you don’t think I mean this as a criticism of your husbandry in any way because I really don’t, but i wonder if this is a reason why you sometimes read that Serama’s can’t be kept outside all year in our climate? It certainly seems with your little girls that once it’s in their system it rears it’s ugly head whenever the weather turns really cold. Perhaps a patio heater?!
I did a lot of research on this before going ahead with seramas and I read that once they are used to being outside they become hardy to the cold. Some people keep them in in winter and some people have them outside successfully. Last winter we had lots of frosts and Freckles and Rusty were fine all winter. We didn’t get the three amigos until February but they were also fine from February.
The difference this winter is the mycoplasma. Because they have this respiratory disease the cold is exasperating it. It isn’t effecting Freckles now though and she was one of the worse effected to start with. It just seems that Dandelion has a recurrence during frosty days. It very quickly settles back down again though. They do have the chicken shed and two shelters as well as full roof and some full side parts and the fully sheltered patio area. I hope that once into spring and through this the problem should go away. Dandelion is the weakest link and for that reason I wouldn’t have another frizzle feathered girl but I think that if I can get her to spring she will be okay.
Today they all look well and are doing all the usual chicken things plus eating well. I think the key thing is a close watch and quick action but once through this winter I believe they will be okay.
I think so too now you have such a good handle on things. Let’s hope for milder days ahead!
Thank you, I am looking forward to the milder weather which has been forecast ahead.
On the positive side, she does look to be coming well through the moult – oh, and temperatures likely to rise after the weekend, despite expected rain.
She is all fully feathered apart from just a few pins left on her head but most have opened. I am always watching the weather forecast and as you say warmer but wet to come. I will take warmer!