*Emergency* Severe breathing difficulties

[4ladies]

1) What type of bird , age and weight (does the chicken seem or feel lighter or thinner than the others.)
blue bantam Silkie, almost 2 years.

2) What is the behavior, exactly.

barely able to breath. getting weak from all the effort. large open mouth neck outstretched, sometimes coughs so much she falls over (1/hour) Occasionally can sleep somewhat normally but breathing heavy.

No pus. Sometimes eyes look teary when she stretches out her neck and is struggling to breath. could be pain and or strain, goes away when the moment goes away.

3) How long has the bird been exhibiting symptoms?
Was a little down but this started this evening./last night
It's possible that this started before but I didn't notice till I took her to my house for the night.

4) Are other birds exhibiting the same symptoms?
no But one appears to have been swarmed by mites or fleas and is now covered in Diatamacious earth. the silkie I need help with

5) Is there any bleeding, injury, broken bones or other sign of trauma.
no

6) What happened, if anything that you know of, that may have caused the situation.
She was a little down, sleeping during the day. otherwise fine.

7) What has the bird been eating and drinking, if at all.
I think so, She has food in her crop and I gave here a treat of oatmeal yesterday as a PICK ME UP treat.

8) How does the poop look? Normal? Bloody? Runny? etc.
normal mostly, occasionally runny

9) What has been the treatment you have administered so far?
Verm-x internal parasite control, by mouth,
Attempted oil in throat and crop and neck massage.
Diatamacious earth 9may be too little to late if it is worms)
Looked in her throat and didn't see anything but also realized I don't know what anything is supposed to look like anyhow.
gave shot of Tylan 50 (thinking it was respiratory bacteria, as it had been before) No pus has been found though.

10 ) What is your intent as far as treatment? For example, do you want to treat completely yourself, or do you need help in stabilizing the bird til you can get to a vet?
treat myself. there is an everything Walmart mins from my house.

11) If you have a picture of the wound or condition, please post it. It may help.
12) Describe the housing/bedding in use
In my room now, she has blankets. Normally sleeps in her house outside with her friends. They have sudan grass/hay.

 

[DebbieF]

Have they always had grass hay as bedding? They will eat that and it gets stuck in their crop.

 

[4ladies]

almost all of their lives they've had this type of hay.

 

[DebbieF]

Perhaps someone else can answer better, but I've always been under the impression that hay should not be used. Mine have gotten into hay before and ended up with an impacted crop. I'm not sure what sudan grass/hay is though. Does her crop feel full?

 

[4ladies]

She's eating now. actually she once again looks almost normal except for the sneezing/head jerk kind of thing. she eats a bite than sneezes/jerks her head. I go her some yogurt, baby applesauce, and a bit of cereal grain. Crop seams normal/small. How would the crop effect her breathing?

 

[DebbieF]

If her crop was swollen, it could be pushing against her windpipe. It sounds like that isn't the problem though. I've read in other posts that gape worm could be a possibility or some other respiratory infection. I've read that regular wormers don't get rid of gapeworm. It seems you are trying everything I know of. I'm not sure what to tell you. I hope you can find answers.

 

[4ladies]

I put her to go to bed early and I can hear that the serious difficulty from last night is starting up again. So its something to do with sleeping/resting.

thanks for the suggestions Debbie.

 

[DebbieF]

I was reading on breathing problems, could this be your problem:

Infectious Bronchitis
Synonyms: IB, bronchitis, cold

Species affected: Infectious bronchitis is a disease of chickens only. A similar disease occurs in bobwhite quail (quail bronchitis), but it is caused by a different virus.

Clinical signs: The severity of infectious bronchitis infection is influenced by the age and immune status of the flock, by environmental conditions, and by the presence of other diseases. Feed and water consumption declines. Affected chickens will be chirping, with a watery discharge from the eyes and nostrils, and labored breathing with some gasping in young chickens. Breathing noises are more noticeable at night while the birds rest. Egg production drops dramatically. Production will recover in 5 or 6 weeks, but at a lower rate. The infectious bronchitis virus infects many tissues of the body, including the reproductive tract (see Table 1 ). Eggshells become rough and the egg white becomes watery. (See publication PS-24, Egg Quality, for other causes of poor egg quality.)

Transmission: Infectious bronchitis is a very contagious poultry disease. It is spread by air, feed bags, infected dead birds, infected houses, and rodents. The virus can be egg-transmitted, however, affected embryos usually will not hatch.

Treatment: There is no specific treatment for infectious bronchitis. Antibiotics for 3-5 days may aid in combating secondary bacterial infections. Raise the room temperature 5°F for brooding-age chickens until symptoms subside. Baby chicks can be encouraged to eat by using a warm, moist mash.

Prevention: Establish and enforce a biosecurity program. Vaccinations are available.

 

[bambi]

You might check for gape worms by taking a Q-tip and swab her throat if she has any you will find it on the Q-tip.

 

[4ladies]

The Infectious Bronchitis looks possible. At least it explains the deterioration in breathing at night. Au, is the sickliest of the group. There is no watery discharge but it's possible that it is on its way. Guess I'll keep up with the tylan. i think you are supposed to anyhow.

About a week ago a flock of birds (doves?) broke into and could not get out of the chicken's house. they scared the crap out of the hens and left a nasty mess of blood and feathers. I did clean up the house and fix the hole they got through. Maybe the wild birds left something nasty behind. : (

just in case there was an impacted crop, after breakfast I put her in a dark nest box to sleep with no additional food till diner. the crop definitely shrank and there was a good amount of poo. She also helped herself out of the nest box and decided that on top of my clothing in the closet was a better place to rest, and poop.

I've turned the temperature up, have a little vapor rub in her sleeping nest and a little extra humidity courtesy of the dryer running.

she had a diner of egg, yogurt, and finely crushed grains. Ate heartily before going back to bed, where she is now.

I stopped giving her the verm-x because she doesn't like it and either, 1) if she had gape worms it would have gotten them already, or 2) it wasn't effective against alleged gapeworms. If she liked it I'd continue but no point in giving her things she doesn't like unless it's helping the major problem.

I'm hoping tonight we can both get some rest. At this hour, she sounds better than 24 hours ago at least. : D Very grateful and thankful for that!