CRD symptons and struggling to breathe at night

[cynthia#2]

One of my chickens has been sneezing a bit for the last few weeks, and after some research i got some anti biotics from the vets, presuming it was a CRD (she also had a little water/foam in her eyes at night.) However the course has now finished (all 10 of them were having tylan in their water for 5 days but then i found out the individual daily dose and fed them it individually as i heard that that was more effective, none of the others were showing the signs, except some of them started sneezing AFTER the treatment started,) and she seems exactly the same. For the last two nights though (tuesday and wednesday, anti biotics were stopped on monday) she has been looking REALLY ill, to the point that last night i thought it would be fairest to have her put down this morning. She was breathing through her mouth, her eyes were closed, despite the fact i was shining a torch around and talking to them, and it seemed that she was having the use the top part of her neck to breath; i don't really know how to explain it, but basically the part of her neck right underneath her head was expanding/contracting as she breathed. She looked awful.
So i spoke to my parents last night about taking her to the vets this morning, most likely to put her to sleep as i know CRDs aren't curable and as soon as i knew she had one, it seemed like a possible result. But this morning, as with every morning, she's fine- flying out as soon as the door is opened, eating more food than any other chicken, hopping all over me and trying to fly out of their field to get their breakfast first. Because of this, my parents are refusing to believe there's something wrong with her and will not let me take her to the vets. I ADORE my chickens but for some reason they don't seem to take into account the fact that i have researched a lot more information on this than they have and refuse to believe that i'm right. Putting her down is obviously the last thing i want but it really does seem like the fairest thing for her (or it did seem like it, until my parents guilt tripped me.)
So right now I'm kind of looking for information about why she is like this at night. I figured that because she's ill, she's weaker and may have picked up some other kind of illness too. It rained all day yesterday and was pretty cold, could that have influenced it? Also, they live in an old caravan (converted to chicken use, of course,) it's clean but i guess there could be some kind of damp or something irritating her? They're the only factors i can think of which might be a problem here.
Apart from the occasional sneeze, the other chickens have been absolutely fine, until this morning one was fluffing herself up and showed no interest in their porrige (i give them this with extra supplements in to restore their condition and general health because they're ex farm hens,) but she showed no other symptons, yet i noticed she weirdly kept on looking underneath herself.. I don't know if this is related at all but i thought i should mention it, she still looks a little off but i have just thrown some corn around for them and she ate some so who knows...
I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO!
could i get more antibiotics, and start another course? (they only had them for 5 days and 2 or 3 of those days they had it in water so it probably wasn't too efffective)
should i demand to get her put down? (i was so sure it would have been the right thing to do but my parents made me feel awful about it)
my local vets don't seem to have much knowlegde on chickens, i could perhaps speak to another?
should i see if there's any improvement, change where she sleeps, make her warmer at night, give her anything else?
I'm so so so confused right now and would appreciate any advice, so thank you!

oh and the chickens, i guess, are brown hybrid layers from an egg farm.. i don't know the specifics. They're between 1 and a half years old or 2, and I've had them since November 2010- I work on the farm which i rescued them from and so there's a possibility of me speaking to the farmer there about it.. I also have 3 bantams who live separately and i've had for a lonnnnggg time, they're pretty old and are showing now problems what so ever.

 

[BrokenRoadFarm]

Could there be too much dust in the coop? Not sure where you are located, but heat/high humidity can make it hard for them to breath. I opened my coop one morning and they all came out with their mouths open - it had gotten too hot (the temp did not go down much overnight). So now I keep a 1 gallon juice jug in the freezer and when it is forecasted to be warm out overnight, I put that in the coop when I close up for the night. No more open mouths in the morning

The only other thing that comes to mind is possible gapeworm....but I think if it were that, she would not be eating as much....sorry to hear about her having problems

Hopefully you will be able to find out what is wrong and fix her up

 

[MudgesMom]

This is a helpful resource. After all the disease descriptions there is a table with a great checklist, easy to follow and narrow things down a bit. You could contact your state ag dept- but that is not without it's risks. Step up bio-security with your other birds. Change clothes, shoes, even shower before handling or walking into another area that has not been compromised. I hope you get your answers, and find the support you need. Your state lab is another place to call. If it is a reportable illness it will be out of your hands. Some diseases will require the flock to be destroyed others it may be optional, but would require closing the flock because of a permanent quarantine. Tylan injectable is a really good way to give relief. (IM method)

http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/ps044

 

[cynthia#2]

thank you for your replies..
with this weather i feel quite certain it's not heat which is the problem! i've been doing some research on gapeworm so i'm looking out for the signs, thank you!
and thank you for the link, they seem to tick quite a few boxes for quite a few of the problems so it's quite hard to narrow it down to one..

they're back on anti biotics now, and i decided to give them each it, orally. this resulted in me, the chickens and the garden being covered in oatmeal, quite a lot of confusion and a burnt cake (apparently i underestimated the time needed for this job when i put it in the oven..) but now everyone has their dose and we look forward to doing it all again tomorrow.. haha. does any one have any genius ways to feed chickens antibiotics? i was taking them out the pen one by one and they ate it as i held them, then i let them run around outside the pen in the garden as i saw to the others.. but obviously a few chickens thought it would be fun to fly out, not let me catch them or refuse to eat until i put them down, i'm so lucky to know each of them individually and that they all have names otherwise i'd have had no idea who had been fed and who hadn't! plus i own potentially the friendliest chickens in the world, i pity those who have to medicate unfriendly birds!

the situation has improved (today is the first day they've had antibiotics so nothing to do with that,) the same chicken as before is still sneezing and one other is breathing a little roughly but other than that, they seem well. nothing like the day i posted this, when i thought one hen wasn't going to make it through the night.