Respiratory Infection? And crust on face.

[rusticpumpkins]

This is Molly, a bantam cochin of unknown age. I've had her for two years. Yesterday she was fine, pecking at the rooster to get away from her food and today she was on her perch making gasping movements and shaking her head. I got closer to her and her face is just covered with yellowish crust.
The bubbles in her eyes in the pic, I honestly have no clue why. I did the thing where you hold their beak and nose and she didn't blow bubbles out her eyes. And once I cleaned her eye after I took the pic, they have not reappeared.
I have already begun dosing her with penicillin, separated her from the other birds (she's now in my bathroom since its warmer in the house and I can check on her regularly), and I put vitamins and electrolytes in her water. Just in case the crust is mites, I did cover her face with coconut oil (which coconut oil is also anti-fungal and anti-bacterial so I figured if its one of those, it wouldn't hurt.) She's also stopped doing the gasping and shaking for the past 5 hrs.
She's eat and drinking perfectly, same old Molly, she'll eat anything with gusto. I've done everything I know to do and have talked to a couple fellow chicken keepers in my area today but I'm very very worried. No one really can tell me whats going on with her. I'm very attached to my Molly, and I don't let any of my birds go without a fight. If anyone knows whats going on or anything else I can do to help her, please tell me!

 

[Eggcessive]

What does the other side look like? Eye drainage can cause yellow crusting around the eye and face, but that is a great deal of crust. It almost look s like favus, a fungal infection because of the crust extending over her ear and into her feathers. But I would use some warm wet washcloth compresses to try and soak off the crusts. If that doesn't help to remove it, then I would get some Lotimin (clotrimazole) or some Monistat 7 cream to treat favus once a day. Use saline ro clean out her eyes, and Terramycin eye ointment from feed stores is a good antibiotic to use.
She may have mycoplasma (MG) a respiratory disease whose symptoms are conjunctivitis with foamy eyes and crusts. That is best treated with Tylan 50 injectable 1/2-1 ml twice a day for 5 days. Give it orally or by injection into the breast muscle with a 3 ml syringe and a 25 gauge needle. MG can be a disease spread by carriers, and most birds who come in contact may be carriers for life. Testing would be a good way to identify the disease for sure.

 

[rusticpumpkins]

The other side looks the same, I was only able to get the one pic. But only this side had the eye bubbles (I hope that makes sense!) When I rubbed coconut oil on her face, it was very hard to get off. I'll get monistat tomorrow morning. Her eyes are still clear, but we have terramiycin on hand on the farm so I will use it asap if I need to.

I'll research MG! I'll also look into testing. I've already gave her .5 ML shot of penicillin. I normally, for resp. problems, do 3 days penicillin, if no improvement then do 3 days of Tylan 50. Do you think that will work for this? I haven't had anything this bad with my flock before. Thank you for replying!

 

[Eggcessive]

I would skip the penicillin and start the Tylan. Penicillin really is not useful with most respiratory infections which mostly are caused by mycoplasma or coryza, or viruses. You probably are seeing both a fungal overgrowth (favus) and a respiratory diseases. Fungal infections are opportunistic, and prey on animals with decreased immunity or during another illness. Keep us informed on how she is doing.

 

[rusticpumpkins]

Ah, ok. I'll get Tylan 50 first thing in the morning. Thanks!

 

[rusticpumpkins]

She showed improvement, but suddenly one afternoon started having seizures. It wasn't long after that she passed. That was a few days ago. Very sad to see her gone but sometimes theres not much you can do. Thank you for your help, nonetheless. <3

 

[Eggcessive]

Sorry to hear that she has passed away. Sometimes a respiratory disease gets complicated if it spreads into the air sacs. A necropsy could have helped to identify what she had. Here is a good list of common diseases--the respiratory ones are MG, infectious bronchitis, coryza, and ILT. Aspergillosis from mold can also be serious. http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/ps044

 

[Kdkidney]

I would skip the penicillin and start the Tylan. Penicillin really is not useful with most respiratory infections which mostly are caused by mycoplasma or coryza, or viruses. You probably are seeing both a fungal overgrowth (favus) and a respiratory diseases. Fungal infections are opportunistic, and prey on animals with decreased immunity or during another illness. Keep us informed on how she is doing.

I would skip the penicillin and start the Tylan. Penicillin really is not useful with most respiratory infections which mostly are caused by mycoplasma or coryza, or viruses. You probably are seeing both a fungal overgrowth (favus) and a respiratory diseases. Fungal infections are opportunistic, and prey on animals with decreased immunity or during another illness. Keep us informed on how she is doing.

 

[Kdkidney]

Where can I get Tylan and various other mentioned chicken medications? I have a flock of hens and took in two hens that were dumped in a local park. They appeared healthy, but now I have hens that look just like the hen in the above photo. I'm in Las Vegas, NV.

 

[muneca]

How about doxycycline 500mg? 20 chicks. 1 month old.