CHICKEN WEEZING

[TriangleMaster9]

Some one please help, I left this weekend and got back todays and one of my chickens is devolping a wierd black line on the crow and is weezing and sneezing. I cleaned the coop imediately because it was fairly wet. I'm really worried, I think she could be sick. They do have probiotics in their water, she is 29 weeks and we just started recieving eggs acouple days ago, I don't know if it was from her though. She is a Buff Orpington. Any thoughts on what this might be? Is it serious? What should I do?

 

[stargirl]

Wheezing & sneezing = respiratory infection. Separate her from the others asap, put her somewhere warm and sheltered. Can you get hold of some antibiotics, say from a feed store? It can be fatal but if you act fast it should be ok.

I'm not sure I understand about the black line. Do you mean the tip of her comb is turning dark? Can you get a photo?

 

[TriangleMaster9]

Are you sure this is what it is? How long should she be sperated?

 

[stargirl]

It's the most likely explanation based on what you've seen so far. Search 'respiratory infection' on these forums to see more people's experiences of this. Typical symptoms are sneezing (quiet 'achoo' sounds or loud hiccuppy sounds), opening her beak to breathe, snotty nostrils, crackly or wheezy breathing and sometimes bubbly eyes. If you pick her up and put your ear to her chest you should be able to hear her breathing - if it's crackly or wheezy she has a respiratory infection. It's similar to when a human has a bad chest cold or chest infection.

Antibiotics should help. You need to keep her separate so that the other birds don't catch it, so until she seems better. A week or so ideally. Keep a close eye on the others as they may have already been exposed and start showing symptoms in the next few days, in which case they'll all need treating with the antibiotics.

 

[TriangleMaster9]

She acts and looks completely normal (except for the black thing) its just she sounds weezing, heres a video, sorry if you can't see the black thing very well but you can hear her.

 

[stargirl]

Wow, that's not the sound I was expecting! It's loud!
If you watch her breathe, is that noise on every outward breath?

Have you wormed them recently?
How much is she sneezing?

 

[TriangleMaster9]

She doesn't sneeze very often, I was out there for 10 minutes and she only sneezed once. What do you mean wormed?

 

[TriangleMaster9]

Is this as concerning as you thought? It drives me insane when I worry about my chickens

 

[stargirl]

Chickens need 'worming' like other pets to get rid of any internal parasites they pick up. You give them specific medication that kills anything inside them every six months or so. Some worms/parasites can kill your birds if left untreated.
I asked because of something called gapeworm that can live in a hen's lungs & make it hard for them to breathe.

 

[TriangleMaster9]

What do you use for this and where do you get it?..