Hen Can’t Speak Anymore, Breathing Heavy

[slukeplass22]

My almost 8 Year Old Australorp has been off the last few days. She’s breathing a little bit heavier than normal and can’t speak anymore. When she tries to speak, it ends up sounding like she has a blockage of some sort. Otherwise she acts like the others. She eats, drinks, dirt bathes, etc.

There are no other signs of injury I can see, but sometimes one of the new chickens will get scared & fly away over seemingly nothing and cause the entire flock to fly up and away from their food. Do you think she could have flown into a branch and injured her voice box? There is a birch and a few mulberries in the yard.

So far I’ve treated this as if it were a respiratory problem. I’ve given her VetRX the last two nights & sprayed her nostrils. She has garlic & oil of oregano in her water. Tonight, I put a swab of peppermint oil in front of where she sleeps & also gave her some turmeric & black pepper in coconut oil. I’ve also cleaned the coop a little bit and expect to continue over the next week when I can. I wasn’t able to deep clean it last fall like I normally do so it’s been overdue. Her voice is slightly better than before - she can make longer sounds. But apart from that no serious change.

Here is a video. Near the end she tries to say something. She was not happy with me holding a mint towel in front of her face, normally she breathes softer than in this video.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Is her crop emptying overnight?

Have you looked inside her beak just to make sure it's clear, with no lesions or signs of canker?

Does she still lay eggs? Any bloat or feeling of fluid in her abdomen? (Ascites)

I'm not sure if I've ever heard something quite like the noise she's making. I'm going to tag in @Eggcessive @azygous and @coach723 to take a listen.

If she were mine and this has been going on for a while and has not resolved with the remedies, then I'd consider giving an antibiotic like Tylan/Tylosin to see if that helps.

 

[slukeplass22]

Is her crop emptying overnight?

Have you looked inside her beak just to make sure it's clear, with no lesions or signs of canker?

Does she still lay eggs? Any bloat or feeling of fluid in her abdomen? (Ascites)

I'm not sure if I've ever heard something quite like the noise she's making. I'm going to tag in @Eggcessive @azygous and @coach723 to take a listen.

If she were mine and this has been going on for a while and has not resolved with the remedies, then I'd consider giving an antibiotic like Tylan/Tylosin to see if that helps.

I’ll check tomorrow, but I didn’t notice any crop issues with her. I tried checking her mouth tonight, but she wasn’t having it, so I’ll try tomorrow. I’ll check the abdomen tomorrow also, but I don’t recall the unusual weight changes in that area that would signal something like ascites or EYP.

Her egg laying is seldom at this stage in her life, she’s almost eight and only lays eggs occasionally (I see her every two weeks or so in a nest spot). So far it has only been two days, so I wouldn’t be able to tell if anything were up with her.

 

[azygous]

Gee, you seem to be doing everything you can already. Yes, it's possible she injured herself. I've had chickens spook and fly into walls, but they usually injure their feet when they do that, not the head and shoulders.

Give her age, she may have tumors that are causing this. As @Wyorp Rock has suggested, try giving her the antibiotic for a respiratory illness and see if that improves the condition. If it doesn't, then I would conclude tumors are growing inside her. It's one of the most common ways an old hen dies. I've had quite a few hens of this age and even older, and this is how it ended for several of them.

 

[LaFleche]

When was she last dewormed? I would deworm her thoroughly as the immune system of older chickens will get weaker and allow for parasites to take hold.

Apart from deworming, the coop cleanout appears teally important as ammonia build up and mold can severely damage the lungs and airsacs causing asthma and other issues.

 

[Eggcessive]

Good advice from everyone. It would be great if we could just see inside her throat and airway what is going on. Make sure they have sufficient overhead ventilation in the coop. Look into her beak and throat for any foreign material, yellow, grey or whiteish colored. Worm with SafeGuard liquid Goat Wormer 1.5 ml for 5 consecutive days in case of capillary or gapeworm. If you lose her, I would definitely do a home necropsy, or send her to the state vet for necropsy.

 

[slukeplass22]

Is her crop emptying overnight?

Have you looked inside her beak just to make sure it's clear, with no lesions or signs of canker?

Does she still lay eggs? Any bloat or feeling of fluid in her abdomen? (Ascites)

I'm not sure if I've ever heard something quite like the noise she's making. I'm going to tag in @Eggcessive @azygous and @coach723 to take a listen.

If she were mine and this has been going on for a while and has not resolved with the remedies, then I'd consider giving an antibiotic like Tylan/Tylosin to see if that helps.

I checked this morning. No crop or abdomen issues. No cankers in her mouth. I couldn’t see back in her throat since she wasn’t very cooperative. If there’s a way to see, I’d like to know. I’m not very good at mouth exams.

 

[slukeplass22]

Good advice from everyone. It would be great if we could just see inside her throat and airway what is going on. Make sure they have sufficient overhead ventilation in the coop. Look into her beak and throat for any foreign material, yellow, grey or whiteish colored. Worm with SafeGuard liquid Goat Wormer 1.5 ml for 5 consecutive days in case of capillary or gapeworm. If you lose her, I would definitely do a home necropsy, or send her to the state vet for necropsy.

Their coop is a 10x14 shed with eight windows and a door. During the daytime I open everything up unless it’s very cold. At night I close it all up but there are two air vents.

How can you see inside the throat? I’m not good at mouth exams so I only was able to check the mouth (which looked normal),

 

[slukeplass22]

When was she last dewormed? I would deworm her thoroughly as the immune system of older chickens will get weaker and allow for parasites to take hold.

Apart from deworming, the coop cleanout appears teally important as ammonia build up and mold can severely damage the lungs and airsacs causing asthma and other issues.

There would not likely be mold in the coop since the bedding is stone dust. (I’ve never seen any myself) The humidity is a lot lower in the coop than outside. The main thing with the coop is dust. Cleaning up the dust makes a big difference & that’s what I’ve been behind on.

I haven’t used a formal wormer in some time since the wormer I used became unavailable for a while. I’ve done various food & herb based things during this time. I haven’t seen a worm in at least a year, I used to see a roundworm on occasion in the poop. So what I’m doing seems to work.

Gapeworm I don’t know much about but she doesn’t exhibit the obvious signs.

 

[slukeplass22]

Gee, you seem to be doing everything you can already. Yes, it's possible she injured herself. I've had chickens spook and fly into walls, but they usually injure their feet when they do that, not the head and shoulders.

Give her age, she may have tumors that are causing this. As @Wyorp Rock has suggested, try giving her the antibiotic for a respiratory illness and see if that improves the condition. If it doesn't, then I would conclude tumors are growing inside her. It's one of the most common ways an old hen dies. I've had quite a few hens of this age and even older, and this is how it ended for several of them.

If I remember I’ll show you a picture of the birch but it’s got branches that are about 1-2 feet off the ground. I kept them when the tree was young for shade, shelter, and food (they eat the leaves) but I might prune them off this year or at least head them back a lot. It would be easy for a chicken to fly into it but I never thought about it until now. I was feeding the birds more in the open, but this past week I decided to change where I dump feed & treats to under that tree. And since the younger ones freak out randomly and cause the older ones to freak out, I do wonder if injury is what it is. (I think this random freak out thing started when I tossed them a cabbage plant a few months ago. I did not hit them, they just panicked). I have seen some of them do that under that tree too.

Tumors I’m skeptical of since I don’t think they’d go from normal voice one day to bad the other day. One of my younger hens seems to have a tumor on her face & it’s grown slowly. It didn’t appear in a day.

Today I held off respiratory things & just gave her some turmeric + black pepper in some mashed up banana. Also gave her some chickweed. Their normal diet lately is scratch grains, legumes, fruit scraps from two smoothie bars & the worms & grass they find in their yard.