cochin with respiratory iillness

[Jasperina]

My cochin (my favorite!) seems to have a respiratory illness. This started two nights ago. I have isolated her from the rest of the flock. (I only have a small flock of 5) None of the rest are showing any symptoms. She has no sign of mucus or discharge or any other external signs. She is not coughing. She is active and wants to forage around outside when I put her in a temporary pen on the lawn away from the other chickens. She also laid an egg today.
If anyone has had a child with croup, remember how that sounds? It's quite distinctive, with the wheeze on the exhale. That's what she sounds like. THe first day, it was so loud that my husband and I could hear it from inside the house! (they are in a pen near the kitchen) It has gotten a little better since.
I spent a while reading about common respiratory illnesses and I wonder if it's infectious bronchitis.
Does anyone have experience with chickens getting over these kinds of things? How do they get them, when it's such a small flock confined to a specific area?
I have looked on the internet at Vetrx and read about people who used vitamin treatments. Has anyone had experience where they dealt with this? Was there something that worked well?
I know that I can go to the vet, but most likely antiobiotics will be prescribed. If possible, I'd like to avoid that and give natural defenses a chance to work.
Thanks in advance for any ideas you may have-

 

[Jasperina]

I should have added, this cochin is about 7 months old, in case that has any bearing on the situation.

 

[chickenzoo]

I'm afraid most respitory illnesses are permant in chickens, they may recover from the secondary problems but the underlying virus can pop up anytime the bird is stressed and can pass it on to other birds. Tylan 50 is normally the drug of choice to treat secondary infection... I don't know of any natural treatment that would be helpful. VetRX is like humans vapor rub. The virus can be brought in from wild birds, on your shoes that you wore to the feed store, on bird dander or from a newly introduced bird that may be hear boring it....
If it is just a wheeze and nothing else, it could be an allergy of some sort, but it would be hard to pinpoint with out testing .

 

[Jasperina]

I'm afraid most respitory illnesses are permant in chickens, they may recover from the secondary problems but the underlying virus can pop up anytime the bird is stressed and can pass it on to other birds. Tylan 50 is normally the drug of choice to treat secondary infection... I don't know of any natural treatment that would be helpful. VetRX is like humans vapor rub. The virus can be brought in from wild birds, on your shoes that you wore to the feed store, on bird dander or from a newly introduced bird that may be hear boring it....
If it is just a wheeze and nothing else, it could be an allergy of some sort, but it would be hard to pinpoint with out testing .

Thank you -- think I'll take her to a vet so I can see if it's something that will affect the others too.

 

[Jasperina]

Well, it seemed like she had recovered after I kept her separated from the flock. I added her back but tonight when I went to shut them in I found her dead under the coop. She was my favorite! It's raising chickens thing is a journey now I'm worried about the others