Coughing Chickens?

My rooster, his hen, and their two babies are all making what I thought was sneezing but I looked up coughing and now I believe it's coughing. They are doing it a lot and it's fairly cold here. The one baby has a runny nose but that's the only one I actually see with a runny nose. Is this deadly to them? Please help

bantychicken said:

My rooster, his hen, and their two babies are all making what I thought was sneezing but I looked up coughing and now I believe it's coughing. They are doing it a lot and it's fairly cold here. The one baby has a runny nose but that's the only one I actually see with a runny nose. Is this deadly to them? Please help

Click to expand...

Emmm, never had thses simptoms in my flock!!! But i am sure it isnt deadly!!!!

Oh thank goodness! I couldn't live without my Penguin! He is my baby boy <3

It can be deadly, very easily. Do a Google search of "poultry respiratory diseases" that will give you an idea of what kinds of things chickens can come down with. Many times these diseases are not deadly themselves but any time birds have a respiratory disease they can very, very easily develop complications, especially pneumonia and secondary bacterial infections. That's what usually kills them rather then the disease itself. That's the reason it's usually a good idea to give antibiotic's to help prevent those problems while the birds recover. Many of these things are viral so the meds won't cure them but your risk of loosing them to pneumonia etc. is much less. You also need to keep them warm and well protected from the weather while they recover. Be aware that they will be carriers of whatever this is they have so if you get new birds in the future they may come down with it as well. The only way to know what exactly your birds have is to have some lab tests done, or if one dies have a necropsy done by your state poultry lab. Knowing what they have is very helpful since some of these things are much worse then others in terms of how often it comes back and how chronically ill the birds are. Then you know what to expect and how best to treat and manage it. This also means you should not be selling or giving away any birds as they can infect another flock.

Here is the link for common poultry diseases, http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/ps044
and I would read about infectious bronchitis and mycoplasma gallisepticum, especially. Coryza, ILT, and others may be lesser possibilities. Tylan 50 injectable give orally to each chicken for 5 days is an effective treatment. For banties I would give 1/4 ml daily by mouth. For larger chickens, 1/2 to 1 ml.

Do you think a dirty coop and cold weather could cause them to get a disease? I am not at the house they are at right now but I asked my dad if they are doing ok. My rooster coughs every now and then so that was normal and he was doing it every since he was old enough to be outside so I didn't worry about it, but I noticed he was doing it more and so where the babies and my hen. They didn't seem to be mouth breathing or laboring at all. I picked my rooster up like in the photo in the first comment I posted and felt him breathe and watched to see if he breathed through his mouth. He didn't breathe through his mouth and the way his breathing felt on my hand seemed normal. I don't know what's wrong but I really really hope that they don't get sick and die. I told my dad to clean out their coop and put in fresh bedding. I'm really scared that this will kill them.

A fungal infection called aspergillosis can result from wet, dirty housing.

Can it cause a cough/sneeze?

A dirty or dusty coop will make it more likely to get sick. Without having a direct draft on chickens, having overhead ventilation to bring in fresh air and remove moisture will help. You could be dealing with infectious bronchitis, a virus, or possibly, MG. Either of those are spread by the virus or bacteria brought in by carrier birds added to a flock, on shoes or clothes, or by wild birds. Here is a link to read about ventilation:

Air Quality
Maintaining consistently good air quality will help to prevent respiratory diseases and can be accomplished by proper ventilation of the poultry building. Fans or open windows are needed to remove excess moisture, reduce ammonia levels, and reduce the amount of dust in the air. High levels of ammonia and dust can damage lung tissue, thereby increasing susceptibility to respiratory disease. At approximately 10 to 15 parts per million (ppm), a person can detect ammonia. Levels over 20 ppm will cause eyes to water, and, as the ammonia concentration increases (>25 ppm), it can adversely affect birds.

Do these diseases kill? Is there a chance they could pull through without medication? They all are eating and drinking and are running around. They don't act sick. Is there any way this could just have something to do with the dramatic change in temperature and weather?