Help..pullet gasping, rales.

[pthurston]

Iam desperate to help her. Have 4 layers, bought 4 pullets. One pullet is breathing raspy, heavily so i can hear her from 5+ feet away, like a gurgle. Coughs and sticks her neck out, gasping. Eyes, nose clear. She eats and drinks. Free range with other chickens. Has been like this for 4 days. I put Durmycin in water for all chickens so wont be eating eggs for a while. Other pullets act fine, as well as layers. Any suggestions? Have had her for a week, went away for 4 days, came back and she was breathing funny. Help!!!

 

[groundpecker]

She may have been exposed to a respiratory disease. Separate the chicks as far away from the other birds NOW or they will be infected or are already infected. There is no cure for many poultry diseases even though the symptoms may go away. They will be carriers for life and will spread the disease..
The other birds may in fact be the cause of the disease.

If you have other healthy birds, it may be best to put the infected birds down.

 

[pthurston]

all the hens and pullets have been exposed already. And you are right, the older gals may have given it to the younger. No one else seems to show signs except the ameracana The feed stores here (small town, no avian vet) say to just try the Durmycin in the drinking water for all of them so ive done that for 3 days now. I just looked down her throat with a flashlite and swabbed with a qtip and no worms, no marks on the throat, less coughing, but still mouth breathing and occasional rattle. Doesnt smell. She is still roaming and eating and drinking. What is wrong with this chicky?
Can i try something new after 3 days? is durmycin,tetrcycline, strong enough or could it be a virus where nothing works? Shes more laid back than the other 3 pullets, but still roams and pecks and so on. Havent noted any strange poops. The pullets all came from the same feed store. They arent saying to me if any other birds are ill.

 

[Gonda]

I don't know if this will be of any help to you, but I had a situation last spring when my chickens had rattly respirations. I started by giving my ionic silver in their water (natural antibiotic), then treated the worst ones for gapeworm using fenbendazole. That did not result in improvement, and others started making the gurgly, rattly sounds as well. They had no other symptoms, no runny nose, eyes, and were acting normal.Then my Ameraucana hen became "croupy" - I could hear her breathing from outside the chicken coop.

In the end, I concluded that this was not a gapeworm issue after all. When my Ameraucana hen developed the loud, croupy sound I did some quick searching to find out what I could give her in terms of a natural bronchodilator. I learned that there are various things that could relax the airway: licorice, cayenne pepper, bromelain, coffee, magnesium, anise seed oil, and ACV would help also, I read. I made a mixture of whatever I had available, and gave the croupy hen a few mls. She took it well from the syringe (by mouth). Twenty min later she was still making the croupy breathing sounds, very loud noise on breathing in, no other symptoms. I then decided to give the mixture to another hen as well, as she was rattly. As I was doing that, I suddenly realized that the noise from the Ameraucana hen had stopped. Her breathing was quiet. I came back later and she was making only the occasional slight noise, and the other hen was no longer gurgly. So, I concluded that they had something that was affecting their airways, and it seemed the natural bronchodilators helped (my theory). I then treated all of the rattly gurgly chickens with the same mixture and they all were breathing normally within 30 min. I repeated the treatment a few times the next morning and evening for a few when I heard the noises, and each time, they settled to normal breathing. The next day they were all back to normal. No medications needed, didn't have to discard any eggs, and the symptoms did not recur.

 

[pthurston]

wow, thank you. What is ACV? Most of the time my Chicken just mouth breathes and looks like her whole body is taking the breath. Poor thing. I will mix up whatever i can find. Even went to the feed store today and everyone who knew about chickens said it didnt sound dangerous as she is walking around eating etc. I rescue wild birds here in the summer (i do babies only) and release them from where they came from and i have never heard this gurgle heavy breathing in any bird, and almost a honk/rooster sound, yet. Any other suggestions?

 

[Gonda]

ACV is apple cider vinegar. I add that to the water regularly, just for overall health, 10 mls per 1 litre.

I'm curious to know if you've tried a mixture of some of these natural broncho dilators, and if it worked at all. Is it possible she has something in her throat, or an obstruction for some reason? I hope you can figure it out as it doesn't sound like she's having an easy time of it.

 

[pthurston]

i tried the pineapple acv and coffee mixture yesterday. shes had the rales again and was just laying around breathing heavily. Then i picked her up to give her some of the mixture and she died. Just like that. She may have had some abnormality. I looked in her throat and it was clear. A beautiful chicken. Died on Mothers day, yet. Iam so sad.

 

[Gonda]

So sorry about your loss. It's hard to know sometimes what to do. Sometimes I'm afraid that the harder I try to keep chickens alive when they have a problem, the more I might be causing problems. And then I think I should have just let nature take it's course. And then all of a sudden I can have a success when I do intervene, and that motivates me to try again next time. I have a hen that's off right now so I'm trying to keep her alive. So far so good, but it might still go the wrong way, if she's really not well and has something wrong inside. It's hard to lose a beautiful chicken though, isn't it? Take care.

 

[pthurston]

YES, VERY HARD TO LOSE. I TRIED SO HARD TO KEEP HER BUT SHE MAY NOT HAVE HAD A CHANCE, ANYWAY.
SURE DIDNT KNOW HOW MANY ILLNESSES CHICKENS CAN HAVE AND IF YOU DONT HAVE AN AVIAN VET IN THE AREA YOUR IN TROUBLE. I HAD SOME GOOD ADVICE ON THIS WEBSITE, AND FROM MY LOCAL FEED STORE, AND MY FRIENDS WHO HAVE CHICKENS BUT MINE DIDNT FIT THE SYMPTOMS OF ANY ONE THING.
IAM REALLY SPOOKED NOW BUT WILL BE ON ALERT FOR MY OTHER 7 LEFT.
THANX, EVERYONE