by Mrs Carol Wass on 25 Jul 2010 at 18:17
4 weeks after buying our beautiful Silkie hen she started to sneeze which we thought was just a cold. After a couple more weeks she started to show signs of microplasmosis with symptoms of sneezing, coughing and yellow discharge from her nose, it then worsened to frothy bubbles in the eyes and heavy rattly breathing. She was lethargic but still walked around the garden eating and she did feel quite bony under all her feathers. I wanted to give Herban a try before I went to the vet for antibiotics and you only use such a tiny amount as it is very concentrated and goes a long way. We had 2 bantams as well and although they had no signs of illness I treated them all together. After 10 days I wasn't sure it was working, one day thinking she was slightly better and the next day thinking she was just the same, but I shouldn't have worried because by the third week her nose was clear and the coughing and sneezing had almost stopped, by the fourth week the bubbles in her eyes were gone and by the fifth week her rattly heavy breathing was almost back to normal. I continued using Herban for another couple of weeks or so until the rattling sound had gone completely to make sure the symptoms didn't come back. I use Herban in their water for a week every couple of months or so just as a tonic. I have a Holistic Therapy business 'Grayshott Therapies' for people & pets so I also gave 'Reiki' to my silkie as well as using Herban. I mention this because Reiki helps to speed recovery so possibly without the Reiki treatments it may have taken a bit longer for her to recover, although speed of recovery depends on the chicken and the severity of the problem. She really did seem quite bad at the time, the worst being the sound of her rattly breathing. I would strongly recommend Herban as a preventative tonic as well as a cure in my silkie's case.
