Help!! Chicken hissing, sitting and comb is purple!!

[dlhunicorn]

The purple comb will usually indicate pulmonary insufficiency which could be due to many things (and the move and stress from that will certainly have weakened them)...
check your feed (does it smell old or have excessive fines in it? >I would get a new bag just to be sure)
check their coop for any wet spots or grains and such you may have missed
What are you using for bedding? > straw can hide mold which can make them ill.

 

[HallChicks]

Thank you for all of your ideas and help. We lost both birds, but so far the other two are doing well.

We had a chicken funeral yesterday and I hope we can fing some birds to replace the ones we lost or our last two will not survive the winter.....

 

[dlhunicorn]

:aww so sorry to hear that. I would clean out (thoroughly) the coop and disinfect with a bleach solution then replace all bedding ... you might also watn to think about replacing the feed if you have ANY doubts whatsoever about it (musty smell or excessive fines >replace!)

 

[aggiecatholicmom]

You know,
A few days ago under this same forum section, a guy wrote about his cornish rock crosses that were turning purple, then dying a few days later. He did not mention a breathing noise issue, but the answer for him was that his chickens were cyanotic.....their heart was not getting enough blood around with oxygen in it. This evidently is common in meat birds near their slaughter time. Another BYC person suggested googling cyanotic chicken to find more info.
Maybe you could try that and see if others on google have mentioned the breathing noise?

Or, I wonder if chickens have allergies. Perhaps they are allergic to something at your new home. Is anything around very different?
Good luck!
-Jennifer