Dead rooster and coughing (?) hens.

[Viva206]

Hi all,
I'm in my first year of chicken keeping, we bought a house that already had a large coop and chickens that stayed with it. So we were driving pretty blind but walked into a functioning system.

I believe the previous owner said that most of the hens were 2-3 yrs old, there are a couple that are 4-5 and one old momma thats 11. (11hens total and 1 rooster) Everything has gone fairly well until the rooster was found dead under the roost one morning. He had been coughing a couple months before but it went away after about a week on its own. Now some of the hens are coughing and I'm nervous.

Do you all have any suggestions? Ive started looking for a vet but thought id start here first.

 

[Kiki]

Coughing is probably related to a respiratory disease.
Unfortunately most respiratory diseases don't ever actually go away completely.
Some of the symptoms can go away but come back when stressed.

Are you located in the United States?
I ask because every state has an animal diagnostic lab. Most of the respiratory disease testing is fairly cheap.

 

[Viva206]

Coughing is probably related to a respiratory disease.
Unfortunately most respiratory diseases don't ever actually go away completely.
Some of the symptoms can go away but come back when stressed.

Are you located in the United States?
I ask because every state has an animal diagnostic lab. Most of the respiratory disease testing is fairly cheap.

We've already buried the rooster (R.I.P) unfortunately. Could we use the diagnostics lab for the hens that are still around? We're in washington state.