Gasping Serama Hen with purple comb

[uisceros]

Hi all,

About a month ago I received three Seramas in the mail. Two were great, but one was gasping, open mouth breathing, and had a purple comb from the start.

Obviously I assumed respiratory, so I started treating her. First was Biotec UVL (which is a combo of fluorfenicol, tylosin, and doxycycline). I did that for a good week and a half. After that I tried a sulfa antibiotic in her water (trimethoprim and sulfaquinoxaline), and most recently spiradox (spiramycin and doxycycline).

She’s still gasping, holding her tail down, and is purple. She eats well, which is the one good thing.

At this point I assume it’s not bacterial (or some sort of super bug that isn’t responding to anything). None of the other birds showed symptoms during their quarantine.

Any ideas?

I know prior to being shipped she was active and had good color. Could she have gotten injured during the trip? When I got her there was a clicking sound in her abdomen whenever I held her - broken bones??

I feel so terrible, but I’m not sure what else I can do for her.

(Since it’s cold outside they are indoors, being fed all-flock and kept on pine chips)

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Obviously I assumed respiratory, so I started treating her. First was Biotec UVL (which is a combo of fluorfenicol, tylosin, and doxycycline). I did that for a good week and a half. After that I tried a sulfa antibiotic in her water (trimethoprim and sulfaquinoxaline), and most recently spiradox (spiramycin and doxycycline).

She’s still gasping, holding her tail down, and is purple. She eats well, which is the one good thing.

At this point I assume it’s not bacterial

I know prior to being shipped she was active and had good color. Could she have gotten injured during the trip? When I got her there was a clicking sound in her abdomen whenever I held her - broken bones??

I think you've pretty much exhausted the antibiotics, I would stop those.

Can you get a video of her? Upload to Youtube and provide a link or upload the the BYC Gallery and let us know where to find it.

Can you feel of her body all over for any indication of an air bubble or trapped air under the skin? Feel near the air sacs (there are 9 of them).

What's her crop like?

You don't mention the age, how old? Is she of laying age, if so, any bloat or feeling of fluid in the abdomen?

Hi all,

About a month ago I received three Seramas in the mail. Two were great, but one was gasping, open mouth breathing, and had a purple comb from the start.

Obviously I assumed respiratory, so I started treating her. First was Biotec UVL (which is a combo of fluorfenicol, tylosin, and doxycycline). I did that for a good week and a half. After that I tried a sulfa antibiotic in her water (trimethoprim and sulfaquinoxaline), and most recently spiradox (spiramycin and doxycycline).

She’s still gasping, holding her tail down, and is purple. She eats well, which is the one good thing.

At this point I assume it’s not bacterial (or some sort of super bug that isn’t responding to anything). None of the other birds showed symptoms during their quarantine.

Any ideas?

I know prior to being shipped she was active and had good color. Could she have gotten injured during the trip? When I got her there was a clicking sound in her abdomen whenever I held her - broken bones??

I feel so terrible, but I’m not sure what else I can do for her.

(Since it’s cold outside they are indoors, being fed all-flock and kept on pine chips)

 

[uisceros]

I think you've pretty much exhausted the antibiotics, I would stop those.

Can you get a video of her? Upload to Youtube and provide a link or upload the the BYC Gallery and let us know where to find it.

Can you feel of her body all over for any indication of an air bubble or trapped air under the skin? Feel near the air sacs (there are 9 of them).

What's her crop like?

You don't mention the age, how old? Is she of laying age, if so, any bloat or feeling of fluid in the abdomen?

Agreed, I stopped the antibiotics the other day.

Here is a video of her. At around 35 seconds you can see her kind of sneeze, which is why I suspected a respiratory infection.

I didn’t feel any air bubbles under her skin, but my first thought was a burst air sac back when I got her. She used to have a sort of cracking noise in her abdomen near her right leg. It’s gone now though.

Her crop feel normal, and she eats normally - I took a video of that too. All my littles are indoors for the winter (they live outside when it’s above freezing), so right now they’re on pine shavings and eating Purina flock maker (20%).

I honestly don’t know how old she is - laying age for sure. She’s with another girl in her cage, and I typically get one egg (assuming this is from the other girl). I did find a tiny fairy egg one day, so it’s possible that’s from her. This was her a few weeks before I got her.
She came from a very trusted Serama breeder, so I’m almost positive she was fine before being shipped.



I don’t feel any bloat - she is light, but not super bony.

I might try giving her a 1/4 of a tablet of baby aspirin to see if pain meds help somehow. Poor thing looks like a mess, and I just want her to be healthy.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Isn't she sweet! (all of them are)
Listen to them, I love it.

I'm going to tag in @Eggcessive too, to see if she has any suggestions.

Do you think she has a bit of facial swelling around the eyes? Hard to tell in photos/videos and at angles sometimes.

She is eating well it seems. I'm not sure what else you can do except give her yet another exam, going over her inch by inch to see if there's an air sac rupture. That's still part of my though process after seeing her, but you know, she may have suffered some type of injury/trauma during shipping and it's taking time to recover.

I've had birds shipped to me before and I've always worried about how the box was handled...makes me shudder.

It may be worth seeing if she improves with pain meds, this may at least give a clue if it's illness or possible soreness/injury.