Respiratory Illness?!?! HELP! ***(Pictures)

The other day i noticed some "boogery" substance coming out of our chicken pickles' nose...
Since then it is gone but i have noticed that she's been sneezy / coughing when i feed them their scratch treat for a little while now, and she eats mostly by grabbing something in her mouth and tilting it back down (kind of like making a big gulp), she doesn't obsessively pick the ground like the other chickens...every time she eats she lifts her head to swallow it seems like.

We have just recently found lice on our flock of 6 birds and have just started treating them, but she had the eating thing already. Sometimes she would shake her head after and "cough" like she swallowed something funny. I thought this was just how she ate, but now since researching about it all after i saw the boogers it seems like perhaps she has a respiratory problem? She's still very active and very much interested in food (maybe too much!) and it seems like most respiratory problems they go off their food and have other issues like in their eyes, etc which she doesn't have.

We do have them in an older coop that we made from an old shed we converted, were hoping to replace it in the next few months or so with a new one were going to build, could it be a problem with ventilation? I've noticed that a few of the other chickens have raspy voices since I had to chase them about in the coop to catch them in order to treat them for the lice so could this be an issue with our old coop being too dusty and potentially causing a bacteria instead? One of our chickens, little miss brown, has the worst raspy voice and is quite thin, she is the lowest on the pecking order but she eats all the same like the other girls i think...is she just a smaller bird or is something else going on?

We were given these chickens from a farmer who was going to cull them as they had to many, which in turn when we acquired them had to treat for leg mites and also poor weight (they were very skinny and beginning to molt) so we upped their protein right away.
They got so much better in a few months, but at the same time i feel like it's one thing after another with them...
Is it something were doing or could it be that the farmer gave us their unhealthy chickens they were culling for another reason?

I'm really not sure what to do in this situation and there isn't really any vets around that deal with poultry...their all for cats and dogs pretty much.
I would hate to misdiagnose and create it to be a bigger issue than it is (i kind of do that with our dog already...) so I'm worried I might be over-reacting?

This is Pickles with the eating thing but no nose booger (she is the top hen and high on the roost).


these two are pictures i got of the booger-ish substance.




Pickles is in the back, little miss brown in the front (casper in the middle)

Pickles in the back, little miss brown in the front (casper in the middle)



Little miss brown with the raspiest voice (lowest on the roost and pecking order).

thank you in advance!

It does seem like they have a respiratory condition of some kind or other, but whether its caused by an allergy, fungus, bacteria or virus is another issue.

The poor state of the chickens when you got them suggests a general lack of care by the previous owner, but I would think that he got rid of these as part of a replacement programme, rather than singling out sick ones.

You could consider increasing coop ventilation, changing the bedding (this could help rule out an allergy) and possibly changing the their feed. At the same time, you may wish to give them vitamin supplements / electrolytes in their water - the vits should help give their immune system a boost and thus help fight off infections. After a couple of weeks you may notice some improvements.

If not, then personally i would dose the flock with a broad spectrum antibiotic and keep your fingers crossed (I should add that giving antibiotics without a diagnosis is not supported by all members of BYC, but i do not adhere to that school of thought).

Some respiratory infections are only as harmful as humans getting a cold, others a lot more serious. Assuming your flock survive and get over the illness, bear in mind that they may be carriers of the illness for life and will pass it to new flock members. It would be unwise to sell or give any of your flock to other chicken keepers in the future.

Best of luck

CT

CTKen said:

It does seem like they have a respiratory condition of some kind or other, but whether its caused by an allergy, fungus, bacteria or virus is another issue.

The poor state of the chickens when you got them suggests a general lack of care by the previous owner, but I would think that he got rid of these as part of a replacement programme, rather than singling out sick ones.

You could consider increasing coop ventilation, changing the bedding (this could help rule out an allergy) and possibly changing the their feed. At the same time, you may wish to give them vitamin supplements / electrolytes in their water - the vits should help give their immune system a boost and thus help fight off infections. After a couple of weeks you may notice some improvements.

If not, then personally i would dose the flock with a broad spectrum antibiotic and keep your fingers crossed (I should add that giving antibiotics without a diagnosis is not supported by all members of BYC, but i do not adhere to that school of thought).

Some respiratory infections are only as harmful as humans getting a cold, others a lot more serious. Assuming your flock survive and get over the illness, bear in mind that they may be carriers of the illness for life and will pass it to new flock members. It would be unwise to sell or give any of your flock to other chicken keepers in the future.

Best of luck

CT

Click to expand...

Got some of the electrolyte / vitamin supplements in their water today...they seem really wary of it and not really interested. Hopefully they warm up to it soon. I'll do that for about 4-6 days and see if there's improvement...if not i'll try for the antibiotics.

Thanks again!

You are most welcome - hope all goes well

CT

Well, here's the update!

Did the vitamin water for about 4 days, then found a poop with roundworms in it; Haven't seen one since but are treating with piperazine today for them, so hopefully that clears it up otherwise I'll be doing it again in 30 days.

Still no sign of the lice, so yay for that!

After today I'll wait a few days and then start them on antibiotics. The vitamin water helped, they certainly look much better but it hadn't quite kicked out the wheezy sounds, and bits of coughing/sneezing so on to the next.

Our poor chickens! Hopefully we can get them back to feeling good and in good health despite the neglect they faced from the previous owners and on top of it all having newbies like us as owners afterwards...what a learning curve this has been!

That's good news! Good to wait a few days as the de-wormer can also flush out positive gut flora which is another negative (albeit temporary). Newbie or not I'd say you are being proactive and doing all you can - no worries on that score

Ct