Please Help! Chicken breathing problem!

[Chicky3]

PLEASE HELP ME!
My chicken has start wheezing and making weird noises since yesterday.
She's making the same noise as this chicken in this video:

She's started it from yesterday.
I don't want her to die please help us asap.

 

[chasiekitten12]

Will she eat or drink?

 

[Eggcessive]

She has stridor with an occasional sneeze (I'm talking about the one in the video.) Stridor is a sound that is made while breathing when something is partially blocking the airway, such as tissue, mucus, a piece of food stuck. It can be common with a respiratory infection or if something is stuck in the airway. Also in such diseases as wet fowl pox or canker, there can be tissue that partially block \s the airway. I would look down her throat with a flashlight for any yellow or whitish gray patches. Most times, the chicken will usually clear their airway on their own if you hear them later (cough up mucus, or the food piece gets swallowed, etc.) Does she have the sneeze also, or any nasal or eye drainage? Here is a link to read on stridor and a good one for respiratory diseases:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stridor
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/ps044

 

[Chicky3]

Yes she eats and drinks well but I can occasionally hear her from inside and I'm worried sick.

Thanks very much for your reply, this morning I went to check on her and she was sneezing a lot.

Also how would I look down her throat? Every time I touch her beak she shakes her head and wiggles.
Sorry I'm a beginner chicken keeper.
If it is stridor how could I treat her?

 

[Eggcessive]

Her sneezing could be due to a respiratory disease such as infectious bronchitis, or others if there are more symptoms. To look down her throat you will need another pair of hands, and a flashlight, or better a headlamp which frees up both of your hands. Since infectious bronchitis is a virus which doesn't respond to antibiotics and has to run it's course over 3-5 weeks, an antibiotic such as Tylan 50 injectable, Tylan Soluble Powder for the water, or oxytetracycline for the water may be given to prevent secondary bacterial infections. Her stridor may clear up on it's own if it is a mucus plug in her airway. Read the edis link above for symptoms of IB, mycoplasma gallisepticum, coryza, and ILT, since those are the most common ones. Make sure that you have good ventilation over head inside the coop (without a direct draft,) and keep dust, moisture, and ammonia odors down.

 

[Chicky3]

Okay thanks.
I don't see any mucus or droplets around the eyes.
She's frolicking about scratching the earth as usual but you can hear her breathing and she sneezes very often.
Also she hasn't laid an egg for 3 days.
I think maybe it has something to do with her nasal canals and not her throat.
But I'll get some help to look down her throat anyway.
Oh and everything outside is a bit damp since it has been raining, is this okay?

 

[kstavert]

last year, my birds were stressed... can't remember
what was going on at the time...

one by one, one after the other (one would stop and
another would start) the birds where wheezing...
making rattling sounds in their throats...

I'd bring them into the house and fed them water
mixed with oil of oregan...

I also got some of the RX meds .....

they were all eating and drinking just fine.

I was going nuts...this just went round and round
and round the run (about 30 birds)

then, just as suddenly, it stopped... the stressor
was gone and so was the raspiness...

I got all sorts of "diagnoses" ... and no one suggested
stress...

so, is there any NEW stress on your ladies?

Karen

 

[Eggcessive]

Something like infectious bronchitis, if it is that, will usually go right through the whole flock, causing sneezing and sometimes chirping. Laying goes way down, but most older pullets and chickens will survive. So if you see others sneezing in the coming weeks, it may be IB. It can also cause wrinkled egg shells, and watery whites or albumen of the egg. The flock should be considered carriers for up to a year after IB infection. Testing may rule out IB and other diseases.

 

[Chicky3]

Hmmm okay, I haven't had a chance to grab a spare pair of hands yet to check her throat but I've given her some oats, basil, garlic and vinegar water in the meantime to help.
I saw online that VetRX works wonders but none of my local pet/farm stores have it (I live in Australia) and ordering it online will take up to 3 weeks to arrive which could be too late by then so I got some Vicks Vapor Rub for kids and put a tiny bit on her upper beak and around her neck, and hopefully that can clear her airways if she has an infection or something and hopefully it won't harm her more.

I really hope it's not IB.

@kstavert
Good point after all stress is the cause of most illness. There have been some thunder storms, rain and hot weather that could be stressing her but the other 2 chickens are fine though.

 

[Eggcessive]

Vet rx is simply a mixture of herbal oils (oregano, balsam, camphor, rosemary, alcohol, and corn oil.) Not much there to cure a virus or bacterial infection. If I were to pick a respiratory disease with the mildest symptoms, and least long-lasting problems it would be IB. Compared to the others, it is over and done with in a month, they won't get it again, and will only be carriers for up to 1 year, where the others are life long carriers, they can come back again whenever the chicken is stressed, and can be more severe. Chicks, however can be very seriously affected by IB.