Sudden onset respiratory illness in flock

[NosiphoChooks]

Hello, thanks in advance for any help offered. I had 6 large fowl that I hatched from eggs. A salmon pekin, 3 Orpingtons, 2 wyandottes. A week ago I purchased 2 brahma from a well-known seller. He reassured me that all the birds had been vaccinated, showing no ill health and had been monitored closely before being sold. I bought them home and (stupidly) put them into a smaller chicken house within my main coop/run to acclimatise. By the next morning one of them was lethargic and had raspy breathing and looked unwell. I moved them out and quarantined them but I think the damage was done. I returned the sick bird to the seller and he gave me a different one.

Fast forward 3 days and one of my wyandottes out of nowhere started coughing up blood tinged mucus. No other symptoms and was still eating. I got the whole flock on antibiotics in case of bacterial involvement (Pharmasin soluble). 48 hours later I've had another one go down with mucus from her beak and nostrils and a closed eye. This morning I woke up and my wyandotte had passed in the night. I'm devastated, these birds were only hatched in July and I'm very attached to them all.

For context, the bird i returned apparently recovered 36 hours after it originally showed symptoms and is fine now. So I wonder if it's something viral they were vaccinated for and the new birds have some immunity to because of this. My birds are not vaccinated.

Really I just want to know if I could be doing more, and if so what? I really don't want to lose all my birds. Thanks again for any help received. Elsie

 

[Eggcessive]

Sorry for your loss and the illness. What is your general location in the world? The best thing you could do now is to close your flock, and if you lose another bird or still have the first body, send it in to your state vet for a necropsy. It is the best way to identify the disease. I do not buy birds from others just because of this. I get healthy chicks from a hatchery or feed store that has hatchery chicks. People that have one bird with a chronic respiratory disease will have chickens forever that are carriers until all birds are gone. Find out which disease you are dealing with, and there are a number of them, such as infectious bronchitis, mycoplasma gallisepticum, infectious coryza, ILT and others. What were all of the symptoms you have seen so far?

 

[NosiphoChooks]

Thank you for the reply.

Sorry for your loss and the illness. What is your general location in the world? The best thing you could do now is to close your flock, and if you lose another bird or still have the first body, send it in to your state vet for a necropsy. It is the best way to identify the disease. I do not buy birds from others just because of this. I get healthy chicks from a hatchery or feed store that has hatchery chicks. People that have one bird with a chronic respiratory disease will have chickens forever that are carriers until all birds are gone. Find out which disease you are dealing with, and there are a number of them, such as infectious bronchitis, mycoplasma gallisepticum, infectious coryza, ILT and others. What were all of the symptoms you have seen so far?

Many thanks for your reply. This seller is very reputable and responsible. But I think perhaps the vendor he bulk bought these birds from hasn't waited a long enough period from vaccination to reselling them as he's now suddenly not contactable and is not accepting responsibility.

The bird that I lost had unfortunately been dead for too long for the vet to take it for a necropsy. The guy I bought the 2 brahma from has agreed to cover all costs if I lose another, we are only 15 minutes from a large vet hospital so can get the body to him pretty quick if so.

My orpington seems a little better. She is eating a little and drinking a lot more today too. Fingers crossed she recovers. So far the symptoms are as follows.

1st bird (brahma that i returned immediately) - raspy breathing, lethargic, mucus in beak, not eating or drinking.

2nd bird (wyandotte, deceased) - sudden very rattly breathing, coughing, expelling initially blood tinged mucus and then the following day clear mucus when coughing. Lethargic, refusing to eat and drink. Went downhill very quickly and within 36 hours deceased.

3rd bird (orpington, in isolation) - wheezing, one eye shut, swollen wattles, clear mucus from nostril and beak, eating and drinking reduced. Slightly improved after 36 hours.

So far no more symptomatic birds.

Thanks

 

[Eggcessive]

Thanks for describing the symptoms. Did you ever smell a bad odor from any of them? Has there been any repeated sneezing of the same bird every few minutes for weeks? That is common infectious bronchitis virus. Some of the symptoms sound like MG, but the swollen wattles may be common in coryza or fowl cholera. Cough and wheezing, one eye shut could be MG or coryza. Blood tinged mucus could be a virus called ILT. It is possible to have more than one disease at a time. When the state vet lab performs a necropsy, they test for those. They look at lungs, air sacs, and in the trachea (windpipe) for infection.

Most of us do not vaccinate birds. When a chicken has a respiratory disease, most of those diseases last for life making each member of the flock carriers for life, even if most birds don’t get sick. There are a few national labs that can send swabs for you to collect from your own sick birds, and send those swabs back for testing for up to 8 diseases privately. Zoologix is one in CA and RAL (Vet DNA) in TX are the 2 I know of. Here are the links for those:
https://www.zoologix.com/

https://www.vetdna.com/

Here is a list of state vet labs for testing and a necropsy if you lose another:
https://www.metzerfarms.com/poultry...7IOlHOhP-eD8qMtZ70RNq6BMO9kVUn3x6so7q0Z_JgEr8

 

[NosiphoChooks]

I forgot to say where i am! I'm in the UK. No all my existing birds were perfectly healthy prior to this. These symptoms only occurred since 13/04/2025 and even then there have been gaps between birds becoming asymptomatic. No foul smells from any of them.