chicken breathing like she’s purring

[eclectic-em]

this is a leghorn mix who looks like a chimney sweep because of vaseline i put on her comb when we had some sub zero temps over the weekend. i don’t know if it’s the weather or some other respiratory issue. she sneezed a couple times this morning which is why i grabbed her for a health check and realized it sounded like a cat purring, not the happy trills/chirping so i’m not sure what this could be from! let me know if you have experienced something similar or have a recommended for me!
video below to hear the sound

https://imgur.com/a/9E1jDou

 

[Emelyn]

this is a leghorn mix who looks like a chimney sweep because of vaseline i put on her comb when we had some sub zero temps over the weekend. i don’t know if it’s the weather or some other respiratory issue. she sneezed a couple times this morning which is why i grabbed her for a health check and realized it sounded like a cat purring, not the happy trills/chirping so i’m not sure what this could be from! let me know if you have experienced something similar or have a recommended for me!
video below to hear the sound

https://imgur.com/a/9E1jDou

Get her VetRX. Some people say it's not reliable for respiratory problems which isn't true for at least mild respiratory problems. You have to pour a few drops of the liquid down her throat. It should help within a few minutes/hours. It should be available at TSC or other animal/farm supply stores near you. Here's a picture of the product below.

 

[Myrshine]

Sounds like a possible respiratory infection such as Mycoplasma Gallisepticum (MG) or another one of the various ones that exist. MG is the most common, however, I always suggest that flock owners look into getting testing done for the various diseases that exist. There are many causes of what it could be, but in the end, it really depends on the diagnosis.

 

[eclectic-em]

thank you both for the advice!! i started with the vetrx earlier before this post but in water and on her beak and then i ended up finding another vet in town that sees chickens (my go to vet office no longer sees chickens). vet said upper respiratory infection, asked about my flock if anyone else showed signs (not that i had noticed) so he gave me a week of tylan for little miss sophie here and to keep her isolated so she’s staying inside and said if anyone else shows signs to let them know and they can give me antibiotics for the water for the rest of the flock. he said with this stuff it’s hard to tell unless one dies and they send the body to WA state (we’re in ID and no in state testing yet, he said soon though) for pathology. will update after the week of antibiotics or if anything changes in case this is of use to anyone!

 

[Wyorp Rock]

this is a leghorn mix who looks like a chimney sweep because of vaseline i put on her comb when we had some sub zero temps over the weekend. i don’t know if it’s the weather or some other respiratory issue. she sneezed a couple times this morning which is why i grabbed her for a health check and realized it sounded like a cat purring, not the happy trills/chirping so i’m not sure what this could be from! let me know if you have experienced something similar or have a recommended for me!

thank you both for the advice!! i started with the vetrx earlier before this post but in water and on her beak and then i ended up finding another vet in town that sees chickens (my go to vet office no longer sees chickens). vet said upper respiratory infection, asked about my flock if anyone else showed signs (not that i had noticed) so he gave me a week of tylan for little miss sophie here and to keep her isolated so she’s staying inside and said if anyone else shows signs to let them know and they can give me antibiotics for the water for the rest of the flock. he said with this stuff it’s hard to tell unless one dies and they send the body to WA state (we’re in ID and no in state testing yet, he said soon though) for pathology. will update after the week of antibiotics or if anything changes in case this is of use to anyone!

I'm glad you were able to see the vet and get some medication for her, hopefully you will see improvement.

You mention cold temperatures...do you still have plenty of ventilation in your coop or do you have it all shut up tight?
Is her crop emptying?

 

[eclectic-em]

I'm glad you were able to see the vet and get some medication for her, hopefully you will see improvement.

You mention cold temperatures...do you still have plenty of ventilation in your coop or do you have it all shut up tight?
Is her crop emptying?

oh yes i don’t have a good picture of the coop but probably more ventilation than needed. our humidity here lately has been around 80-90% from rain and snow and inside the coop it hangs out around 70% never much more than that which i know is still high but my local friend said as long as it’s not higher than outside it’s okay? i have a thermometer/hydrometer that records the data to check later and it hangs in view of the camera in the coop so i can check 24/7 because i love them too much and have anxiety, clearly lol. i also clean out all their poop every morning to make sure it stays clean and dry. let me know if you have any other advice about the humidity if that’s a good goal to just keep it lower than outside?
im not sure about the crop emptying entirely since i only noticed this around 10 this morning that something was off and i didn’t restrict access to food during the day but she’s inside and i removed the food for the night so i can check in the morning but i know she’s been eating and drinking and pooping normally.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

If ventilation is good and bedding is dry, your good.

 

[Tankueray]

Whoa, hold on a second.
She's showing no signs of upper respiratory illness (mucous, eye irritation), and even worse, that gurgling sounds lower. Unless the vet showed you how to do it, don't put any liquid down her throat, you can very easily make her aspirate it, then you will have a real problem (no organism can breathe in oil - that's how every case in the "vaping crisis" happened, CBD vaporizer fluid was being cut with vitamin E oil by multiple companies, and apparently no one knew or cared that it would literally kill their customers).

It's not hard to tell at all! A throat swab sent to (any) state lab and they can have PCR run and results back in a day or two! Hell, I can set up PCR in my garage with stuff from the hardware store. That Vet straight out guessed based on what's most likely to be active right now and not the actual symptoms or a test.
My rooster made a similar noise after he aspirated himself from drinking too much water because of an impacted crop. I have half a dozen teenagers in sick bay right now because they actually do present like they have MG, but they do not, it's a bad reaction to environmental factors (e.g., fire, ammonia, and one ate a bee).

Do the VetRx and follow the instructions on where to put it/how to administer that came in the box. If the Tylosin doesn't work and no more get sick, it's not Mycoplasma, but if it is, he should have written you a prescription so you could have gotten a whole bottle to keep for future outbreaks. Because it never goes away. Ergo, he was either playing you or catering to you, but not practicing sound medicine. By only giving you 5 days worth, I'd guess he was catering to you. Mycoplasma is quickly becoming antibiotic resistant, it is not cool to throw tylosin at something that's not confirmed MG. If it's some other bacteria, the Tylosin won't work, and you'll have wasted a week while the other bacteria grew stronger, and if it's in the lower respiratory system, it'll probably be too late.

You're not going to be able to lower the humidity in the coop much more than the outside humidity, so in that sense, your local friend is right. Bringing her indoors where you have heated air should lower the humidity enough to help her clear up and help the VetRx work. Give her clean water at all times, you can add the VetRx as recommended in the package insert. If she's eating, make sure she has grit too, just in case it's something like impacted crop. (I doubt it, but people often overlook grit when putting a bird in quarantine, feeding their same food that requires them to have grit.)

How clean is that coop? Is it dry enough that you stir up dust every day when you clean it, are they in there when that happens? Immunity only happens when our bodies have something to fight off, keeping it too clean can have the exact opposite effect from its intention.

Birds have much more sensitive respiratory systems than we do, and less defenses too. Evolution didn't get the memo that chickens can't fly, so they still breathe in twice as much oxygen than other animals. They actually take in oxygen on the inhale and exhale, and don't have a diaphragm like we do, even their bones are critical to their respiration. Spraying any chemical (including perfume or the stuff coming out of your dryer vent if you use fabric softener), stirring up dust, PM in the air from fire or pollution, any of these things is enough to give a bird a chest rattle. The one thing that amazes me though is how many times I've seen a pet bird in a smoker's home that hasn't keeled over.

Aquarium fish and birds are the two animals that I most often see killed with kindness. They are only helpless and vulnerable because they are trapped in a cage, at your mercy. They do not have these problems in the wild. Keep an eye on her, but from a distance, unless an infection sets in, she will probably resolve on her own in the dry inside air. You'll know within a day or two whether it's something that's going to clear up on its own or not. If not, go back to the Vet and have the labs run. Tell them to call the lab if they need assurance that all the tests can be run before the animal dies. Millions of people sticking cotton swabs up their noses everyday can prove it.