Help please! Mucus, sneezing, eye shut

[h-kay]

Looking for some guidance. Please help! Pics below

This morning one of our hens had so much mucus around her beak and one eye she couldn’t open them. She is weak and obviously having trouble breathing. She will take water with AVC when I give it to her using a syringe.
We have cleared the mucus from her beak but she’s not eating. She’s having trouble holding herself up but can stand. We have separated her and put a heater on her. Yesterday they were all active, eating and drinking though we were hearing a lot of sneezing a week or so ago.
Weather has been very wet and cold.
We’ve had a lice/mite problem we’ve been working to eliminate. Could this be related?
Could it be a crop issue?
One other Hen is gurgling when she breathes and didn’t want to come out of the coop this morning. She is normally very aggressive.
I’ve added AVC to their water and have been giving probiotics and garlic for a week or so.
We have 5 hens and we’ve only had them for two weeks.
What should we do next?
Antibiotics? Sterilize the coop? treat them all with something? We prefer to stay away from antibiotics but are willing to consider it if we could save their lives.
Please help!

 

[WDFlock2015]

There's a common belief that animals will not eat what they cannot smell. If your birds are clogged with mucus they probably can't smell, plus, it's not easy to eat when it's difficult to breath.

It's sounds like you've got a respiratory infection spreading through your coop. I would recommend Terramycin or Duramycin. These can be gotten any any farm supply store in your area (TSC, Farm & Fleet, etc.). Just follow the package directions.

I hope this helps.

 

[h-kay]

Thank you for your reply! BYC has been awesome!
Before anyone replied yesterday I purchased Tylan50. I haven't used it yet. What is the difference between these meds and would you recommend I get the meds you mentioned instead of using the Tylan?
I've read a lot of the posts on this topic but it's turned into information overload and there seem to be a lot of different opinions.
Thanks again!

 

[Suzie]

Tylan is the best treatment...

 

[h-kay]

Thank you Suzie! I could use some more advice.

I've been giving the Tylan 50 for two days. Neither hen seems any better. I know it will take more than a couple of days. The hen with the gurgling, not the one pictured, hasn't been eating on her own so this morning I decided to tube feed both of them as they hadn't eaten anything other than the baby food I had been feeding by eye dropper. When I went to feed the gurgling hen her crop was full yet I know she hasn't eaten anything. I cleaned the poop out of her cage this morning and she hasn't pooped all day. The hen that is pictured took the tube feeding well. Her eye is still shut we've been irrigating it with little success. I have been giving water with probiotic and electrolytes via dropper since I separated them from the flock.
Should I "vomit" the hen with the full crop? Could that be her breathing issue? How do I know when "vomiting" is necessary? She doesn't have the same mucus problem the other hen does. She's having a very hard time breathing.
Thanks again!

 

[Suzie]

I would suggest that you look up both sour and impacted crop issues...they are very different and you need to know for certain which of these it is in order to give her the best treatment...

There is a wonderful website that covers these issues...

I suggest that you read up on:

www.the-chicken-chick.com

She has some great advice in many aspects of care for debilitated chickens...there is also a sticky at the header for Emergencies etc...