Chicken sneezing

[Brissychick]

I have a 15month old Rhode Island Red who presented with sneezing on the 28th April and she smelt horrible, had a rattle when she breathed and her comb and wattles were pale. She is just finishing up her first moult so they were not really red before the symptoms presented. Also she seems to be swallowing a lot more than normal.

She had a course of antibiotics for 6 days. After 1 day the smell cleared up. She is still sneezing and still seems to swallow a lot. There are no other symptoms and she is eating a massive amount, drinking normally and scratching up her cage every couple of minutes. I think there is a little more colour in her comb and wattles.

Should I keep her separated longer? Should I put her back on antibiotics to stop the sneezing or just let it run its course. She seems so healthy other than the sneezing day and night at the rate of 2-5 sneezes per hour.

 

[BeastyBird]

What you said about the smell has me thinking you should look up Coryza in chickens, a key symptom is smelly nasal discharge.

I quarantined a frizzle for a few days before returning it suspecting this was his issue. He would sneeze and is nose kept clogging up and it had a bad smell to it, otherwise he seemed fine. While his overall condition was pretty good I decided not to risk him as it is contagious and is something that a bird is carrier for for life.

 

[Brissychick]

What you said about the smell has me thinking you should look up Coryza in chickens, a key symptom is smelly nasal discharge.

I quarantined a frizzle for a few days before returning it suspecting this was his issue. He would sneeze and is nose kept clogging up and it had a bad smell to it, otherwise he seemed fine. While his overall condition was pretty good I decided not to risk him as it is contagious and is something that a bird is carrier for for life.

Thank you so much for your reply. I think with your advice I will keep the flock as a closed flock and build a second coop when I want new birds. She would have infected the other six coop mates before I saw her so I guess the horse has bolted if she has Coryza. It sounds highly contagious, I'll go away and read some more. I really appreciate your views.

 

[BeastyBird]

Luckily if it is coryza it seems to be one of those diseases that is not often deadly and while chronic usually hangs around in a fairly mild form, so hopefully your birds are not doomed, it would infect any new birds though. But defiantly quarantine in the future, bare minimum of 3 weeks, 4 is better, 6 is best, and new birds should be kept a good distance from your flock (100 feet or more is best). There are a lot of nasty nasty things out there that can kill off an entire flock.

 

[Brissychick]

Luckily if it is coryza it seems to be one of those diseases that is not often deadly and while chronic usually hangs around in a fairly mild form, so hopefully your birds are not doomed, it would infect any new birds though. But defiantly quarantine in the future, bare minimum of 3 weeks, 4 is better, 6 is best, and new birds should be kept a good distance from your flock (100 feet or more is best). There are a lot of nasty nasty things out there that can kill off an entire flock.

Thank you for taking the time to help me. It sounds like Coryza is not the worst thing to have. I purchased 2 new birds from a very good breeder I quarantined for the 3 weeks but they didn't show any signs of being sick so I introduced them. Next time it will be 6 weeks. I will definitely not introduce more birds to this flock. We will be moving at some stage soon and I will build another 3 or 4 coops and I will try to keep at least 100 feet apart.

Do you know if my bird will ever lay again?

The 2 new birds one of them is my best layer she is an araucana who lays for 8 days before having a 1 day break. I am floored by the number of lovely blue eggs she produces.