Barred Rock w/ troubled breathing??PLEASE HELP

[luvmigrls]

I am re posting this form yesterday as I have searched and am answering the questions at the top of the sticky thread by administrator;

1- She is a Barred Rock apx 4 yrs old
2-She is opening her mouth acting like she is trying to get air and is making wheezing sounds, when she clucks it is very hoarse sounding.She stands and appears tired ( may be due to no sleep as other birds picking her comb bloody, she is now in house/rehab ).
3- First noticed her sounds, and shaking her head the day before yesterday and have been researching/reading on how to treat her. Yesterday noticed that she had been getting comb picked bloody. We brought her in away from others ( in basement with R.R. also ) (not sure if that was a good move but needed to separate her). Upon tying to examine her, she looked like she was going to pass out.She closed her eyes, her body went limp, and she was going down! I starting blowing air at her beak and she reached up stretching her head/beak closer to me as if trying grab air.?? I tried to open her beak to see if there was anything blocking her air way but she wouldn't let me ( that is when she went limp). Believing she was also stressed, I cleaned the blood from her comb, treated it with Vetricn (sp) and put Neosporine on it. Put her in the cage (pine shavings) gave her some water w/electrolytes and crushed baby aspirin. Gave her some grain, cabbage and kale mix, and some dried mealy worms. She ate like she was hungry while making breathing sounds (I read on another post that if they can't breath they wont eat). Not sure if she has drank water, looks
lower than last night. Her weight seems to be the same. Her poo this morning was a darker color, not much urine.
4- The other hens seem to be OK.
5- The only bleeding I see is her comb
6- Don't know of anything that could have caused her labored breathing.
7- As far as I know she had been eating the same scratch/grains, layer protein as the rest. They had gotten some dried worms for Christmas, and some usual table scrapes the last few days (tomato, lettuce, cabbage, onion)
8- I cleaned her cage this morning, her poo was small,solid, dark in color, w/out much white, no blood.
9- So far I have given her eletrlyts and asprin in her water, and today I added some Antibiotic urimyicyn /T etericyn (sp) powder in water.
10,11,12- I plan on trying to treat her myself. Don/t know how to post pics. Her bedding is the pine shavings.

Please, any thoughts/help/advice is greatly appreciated. Also I once saved a copy of disease and symptoms but can not find it. If any one knows that sight/link I would appreciate the help. Thanks~Cindy

 

[PolkaDot77]

It sounds like you are doing the right thing by separating her to give her an area to rest and recover. It's a good sign that she is still eating. The antibiotics are a good starting point. They should start working within 24 hours if she is getting them and they are the right one. Hopefully you can figure out what is causing her labored breathing to get her feeling better.

Respiratory distress can be caused by illness or injury. It sounds like she does have an injury (the bloody comb) but unless you think she could have had some sort of trauma causing the breathing problems lets assume it's an illness. Is her labored breathing caused by a runny nose, clogged sinuses, etc? Is she sneezing? Any eye discharge? Those symptoms would indicate an upper respiratory infection. If she is having labored breathing with none of those symptoms, then most likely her windpipe and/or lungs are affected. Which part of her respiratory system is having trouble is going to point to different diseases. Below is a link with descriptions of illnesses in chickens. Does any of these symptoms match hers?

http://www.barnyardhealth.com/resinindompo.html

Good luck!

 

[luvmigrls]

Polkadot- Thanks for the link. I skimmed through it looking at symptoms. The only thing I saw that jumped out at me was Gapeworms, as she sometime stretches her neck. To answer your questions:She is not coughing or sneezing. I don't see any discharge from her eyes or nostrils, and no swelling. As mentioned she would not let me open her beak but I may try again to see if I can see anything. And I will try to look closer at her poo with a magnifier (all I have). The link said not to treat if I don't know what it is for sure. But I was wondering if I should get Tylan if I can find it as I have heard it is more aggressive. What are you thoughts on this. Thanks for the help.

 

[luvmigrls]

I called around and can't get Tylan but site mentions VET RX for some respiratory symptoms. I want to help her with her breathing if nothing else.

 

[luvmigrls]

Thanks polka-dot,
Well I just lost Rocky, my fav little girl. Thank you for your help. I had just found out where I could get her meds. The sad thing is I was finishing given her a warm bath to soak all the pasted on poo poo. I was holding her on top my washingmachine ( My examine room)) when she yelled a big scream and started flopping around. Her breathing got more labored, her head went limp...I can't do any more right now.

 

[PolkaDot77]

I'm so sorry! I'm sure she was comforted having you with her.

 

[amkuska]

I'm so sorry for your loss. At least you were with her when she went.

 

[Eggcessive]

So sorry for your loss. It sounds like your chicken had either a bad strain of a respiratory disease such as mycoplasma gallisepticum (CRD) or possible something stuck in her airway. Gapeworm is also a possibility. You could do a necropsy, and open her throat to see if their are any red tiny worms in the windpipe, or any other obstruction there. Tylan 50 is usually available infarmstore in the cattle med section. It is around $12, and is a good one to keep at home for first aid. Here is the common poultry disease list: http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/ps044

 

[luvmigrls]

Thank you all for your concern. Eggcessive: Nether me nor my hubby could do an autopsy, so we had a service and buried her where her two of her other sis's are. While she was still alive had had tried looking down her throat for gape-worm after going through a link on diseases, as it seems to be the one that fit. I almost lost her the day before because she was freaking out and wouldn't let me. Her head started going that time too but I blew into her beak and she came back up.
After she had died the next day I did a post death exam. I swabbed her throat with Q tip several times as far as it would reach, just came up with a little slime ( she had just had her last meal or dried mealy worms). I looked under a strong magnifier and didn't see any red worms. I also inspected her poo and didn't see any thing. As mentioned previously, I did find that her vent could have been plugged up, as she had a huge amount of dried poo stuck to her. But after having soaked her clean, nothing seems ab normal there. I was wondering if she could have been dropped by a hawk and maybe had a collapsed lung, or some other internal injuries?? At any rate I have been keeping a close eye on the other girls. So far they seem to be OK. Thanks for the link I will post it to my Docs with with the others.

 

[luvmigrls]

P.S. There were no signs of any discharge from eyes or nostrils. She didn't act unthrifty at all. It is still a mystery to me.