Chicken wheezing like Darth Vader

[Fundychic]

My Silkie chicken is wheezing and rattling. This has been going on for some time now. She is about 1 1/2 old. She has spent the last 6 wks indoors (house), eating well, poop looks good, no runny eyes or nose/beak, doesn't have a whole lot of energy, prefers to sit in one area.

Her history is, when I got her last year she was not in good shape. I had to give her antibiotics, and bring her health back. She has never laid eggs ( so for that matter, she could be a he), and doesn't really run around with the other chickens, keeps to herself, the others pick on her a bit, but nothing excessive.

Now that the weather has warmed up I put her back with the others, they have accepted her and she runs around with them a bit. I wondered if the winter was too hard on her? However, I did kept a heat lamp in the covered run and a heating pad in their condo for the winter.

When I am trying to look up a diagnoses, I'm not finding anything with her symptoms, because she seems healthy in every other way.

Anybody got any ideas? Anybody out there that maybe experienced the same? I want to get her better.

 

[chickengrl]

It does sound like a respiratory infection. Did you quarantine her from the rest of your birds before putting them together? She was probably already sick with it when you bought her. These infections are usually chronic, and the bird may get better but end up a carrier. During times of stress she may get sick again. If your other birds have remained healthy, they may already be carriers and immune to whatever it is. These things are really difficult to deal with, and some folks would certainly cull her. The most important thing is to not sell her and accidently pass on an infection to someone else. That is probably also true with your other birds since they were exposed. Good luck with this. Try to read about Biosecurity and learn all you can too.

 

[Fundychic]

Not to worry, my chics will not be sold or eaten. So far all are healthy (well...) , and 2 chicks were born Sept '10, and show no signs of illness. They lived with the ill chicken for 8 months now. And I don't intend to bring in any new ones. I guess I'll just keep on building up their immune systems.

Thanks for your reply.

 

[awesomefowl]

"Cluck, I am your father..."
Sorry, couldn't resist!