Gasping and wheezing chicken

[RaesChicks]

I posted on Halloween about my chicken gasping and wheezing and making a sneezing sound. We had just changed from crumbles to layer pellets and the chickens had been in the run all day, we let them out in the yard when we get home to make up for a bit of an undersized run.

We couldn’t find a vet that would see Fluffy while it was happening. The soonest was a week out, many miles away and $155 just for the visit without treatment. We like our chickens and they are expensive as is but that just wasn’t feasible for us.

We isolated the chicken in a kennel with a heat lamp and a barrier to block the wind and gave vetRX in the water for three days while isolated. We addded it to the run water as well after sanitizing everything. By morning the wheezing had stopped and the chicken sounded hoarse. The next day it seemed normal. After the third day we let her back with the others.

This evening when I got home and went for eggs I heard a loud wheezing sound that was verging on honking and found the same chicken on the lower roost bar she would sneeze or something like it and it reminded me of when we cough to get something up. I didn’t have gloves this time but I checked her beak and couldn’t see anything in her throat. I checked her nostrils and there was no discharge, eyes were clear, and she could run from me pretty well despite the wheezing. I rubbed her chest and throat and at the base of her neck there was what felt like a pouch under the feathers with small grit like texture on the inside as a massaged it. I don’t know if that was her crop or not. Her wheezing was quieter after that. I put her in the kennel again with fresh water. Washed everything and covered the kennel as best I could in case of rain. She’s roosting on the dowel rods I had in there when they were chicks and she is breathing easier but still wheezing lightly in her sleep almost like a snore.

I made sure I put my clothes straight in the garage and washed with antibacterial soap and a little bleach just to be thorough in case.

Is this common? Could she have eaten something too large or blocked her wind pipe somehow? Or is it more likely she is sick? It’s strange to me that it happened before with the same chicken and seemed to clear up on its own. I don’t want to make my other chickens sick and I don’t want my family to get sick either. We think this is the Easter egger that just began laying a few days ago and I’m not sure if this could effect the safety of the eggs either.

She is about 6 months. We got her mid June. We really thought she was a cockerel but I have posted and it was pretty unanimous that fluffy is a hen. If you have any advice I’d appreciate it. I was reading another post about a lash egg and the expert help sounded better than I could hope for at a vet. My husband thinks I should put her back in the coop and leave the animals alone. But I’m a worrier and I’m not sure what more I can do or how to address this.

 

[Eggcessive]

Some chickens can inhale their feed sometimes getting a small piece of it stuck in the airway/trachea. This can cause them to have a loud high pitched wheeze breathing in and out. Sometimes that goes away when they cough it out, usually in a few hours or overnight. A video of her behavior uploaded to YouTube or Vimeo with a link posted here may be helpful.

 

[azygous]

Just a @Eggcessive mentioned, I've also observed this phenomenon of coughing and wheezing after my hens dive like gluttons into dry feed. You see, normally they are fed fermented feed which is wet. Therefore, my chickens think that dry feed is some sort of rare exotic treat and they vacuum up as much of it and as fast as they can. I've learned it's not the medical emergency I originally feared. It's just chickens being idiots.

 

[Eggcessive]

Your eggs are fine to use. Chickens can sneeze just due to dust, environmental allergens, or dust in their feed. Is your run covered? VetRx is an herbal oil with camphor so nothing in it will cure a disease, but many people like it. It is similar to using Vicks in people. Since they are together, they have all certainly been exposed if there is a virus or other disease, so separating is not necessary. I always like to have enough room in my coop, however, to put a dog crate to use as a hospital crate. So making you pr coop a little bigger in the future might help. The only reason to get upset about their sneezing, is if you see bubbles or foam in one eye, or a swollen eyelids or face. That could be MG/CRD, and Tylosin powder for the water cannbe used. With the symptoms you are seeing now, it is probably just nasal irritation, or possibly a virus such as infectious bronchitis. That would run its course over a month or so. Have you added any new birds recently to your flock?

 

[azygous]

I think @Eggcessive covered about all of it. Perhaps the fowl pox is contributing to the respiratory symptoms in its small way, also, if it's partially blocking the nares.

Squirrels seem to have an affinity for chickens. Here they sure do. They come into the run sometimes when I leave it open for the chickens to free range and hilarity ensues when the dumb creatures corner themselves and panic trying to find their way back out. Picture a billiard ball bouncing off the rails. One time one squirrel was so dumb, he couldn't find his way out and spent an hour digging a hole under a corner in the run to escape. I took serendipitous advantage of him finding the single vulnerable spot on the run and sealed it off after he got out.

 

[azygous]

As @Eggcessive already mentioned, the eggs are safe to eat.

A PCR test is available as I mentioned. It requires you to contact this lab and request a testing kit which you will then return with the required sample. You must select the test to be run on it which will be the infectious bronchitis virus. I used these people in the past and it is easy and simple to have it done. It is not cheap, though.

This PCR test is done on a throat swab which comes in the test kit. These folks will send you the testing materials and do the test. Zoologix Inc 9811 Owensmouth Ave, STE 4, Chatsworth, CA, 91311-9547 818-717-8880 www.zoologix.com This test is around $100. The test kit was around $25 when I requested it around five years ago. You can order it by email by going to the web site.

 

[Eggcessive]

@RaesChicks if your chickens would have IB virus, it lasts about a month with mostly just sneezing, and you may notice a wrinkled egg shell. Do not cull chickens for IBV. Once it runs through a flock over weeks, the chickens do remain carriers for about 5 months. So I would not add any new chicks or hatch any for a year, since for 5 months after the last bird gets well, they can still be carriers. My flock had probable IBV once, and since it can cause some reproductive disorders later in life, I did lose some prematurely. But many lived to be old ladies. I just did not add to my flock for a year. You can handle this without testing, but if you ever see any eye bubbles or swollen eyelid, then try to get testing. Good luck. The test that Carol recommended from Zoologix is for a pcr panel for 8 different respiratory diseases. It is here on this link to see what testing is done:
https://www.zoologix.com/avian/Datasheets/PoultryRespiratoryPanel.htm

 

[azygous]

I'm posting a diagram of a chicken so we will be on the same page talking about body parts. It's possible she has a respiratory illness, but with no discharge from her beak nares or eyes, I'm thinking that she may have an exchange of fluids going on between her esophagus and her trachea. In other words, she may be regurgitating and it's causing a minor blockage in her airway.

Something caught my attention when you talked about her perch. What is the diameter of the dowel she sleeps on? If it's too skinny, it wouldn't be supporting her in a proper position, so it could possibly be causing this regurgitation. A skinny or narrow perch can also cause skeletal deformities that can affect long term health. If her issue stems from this, it's a red flag that she could be headed for worse issues.

Consider swapping out any perches with something that is a minimum of two and a half inches. Generally, people use 2 x 4s wide side up as perches as these are most comfortable for most chickens. I happen to have no shortage of pine branches so my perches are round three-inch diameter. I like them because the chickens' feet wrap naturally around them and they are large enough to solidly support their bodies resting on them.

 

[RaesChicks]

Just a @Eggcessive mentioned, I've also observed this phenomenon of coughing and wheezing after my hens dive like gluttons into dry feed. You see, normally they are fed fermented feed which is wet. Therefore, my chickens think that dry feed is some sort of rare exotic treat and they vacuum up as much of it and as fast as they can. I've learned it's not the medical emergency I originally feared. It's just chickens being idiots.

Thank you both so much. The wind was kicking up pretty bad here so I went to check on her. There were no noises when she breathed so I went ahead and took her to the coop where she would be safer. I truly appreciate your expertise, thank you both for responding.

 

[RaesChicks]

Your eggs are fine to use. Chickens can sneeze just due to dust, environmental allergens, or dust in their feed. Is your run covered? VetRx is an herbal oil with camphor so nothing in it will cure a disease, but many people like it. It is similar to using Vicks in people. Since they are together, they have all certainly been exposed if there is a virus or other disease, so separating is not necessary. I always like to have enough room in my coop, however, to put a dog crate to use as a hospital crate. So making you pr coop a little bigger in the future might help. The only reason to get upset about their sneezing, is if you see bubbles or foam in one eye, or a swollen eyelids or face. That could be MG/CRD, and Tylosin powder for the water cannbe used. With the symptoms you are seeing now, it is probably just nasal irritation, or possibly a virus such as infectious bronchitis. That would run its course over a month or so. Have you added any new birds recently to your flock?

No new birds all of my hens were purchased as chicks within 1 week of each other at tractor supply. They free range though and we have a variety of birds that pass through the yard. We took down bird feeders and try to only feed in the run since we got the hens. Our coop is concreted in so we would have to build a second coop to expand it. We had some baby squirrels born in the yard and they have gotten very comfortable as they grew and will eat acorns right next to my chickens as they graze. I don’t know if that matters.