Hen is Making Weezing Sounds!

[xoxoAnny]

1) What type of bird , age and weight? Easter Egger, almost 1 year old, about 4 lbs
2) What is the behavior, exactly: Making a wheezing sound, sometimes sneezing, scratches her head once in a while. She seems to have a fever too.
3) How long has the bird been exhibiting symptoms? Just today, starting from maybe in the afternoon.
4) Is there any bleeding, injury, broken bones or other sign of trauma. No, she is walking around fine, and has enough energy to struggle around when I try to get a closer look at her.
5) What happened, if anything that you know of, that may have caused the situation. She free-ranges, so maybe she ate something she shouldn't have... I'm scared she has gapeworm but dont know for sure what that would look like. The weather has been pretty hot lately.
6) What has the bird been eating and drinking, if at all. I feed them Layena Chicken Feed and give them water... but sometimes she drinks from puddles and dirty water too. Also my chicken free ranges so they eat bugs and grass and seeds.
7) How does the poop look? Normal? Bloody? Runny? etc. It's watery. Some earlier poops looked like thick pellets surrounded by clear/whitish liquidy stuff, but now its been mushy greenish/blackish blobs.
8) What has been the treatment you have administered so far? None so far. I've gave her some yogurt, she doesn't seem to have much of an appetite.
9 ) What is your intent as far as treatment? For example, do you want to treat completely yourself, or do you need help in stabilizing the bird til you can get to a vet? I would like to treat her myself if possible. I live in an urban area though, so it might be difficult to get my hands on treatment at a feed store.
10) If you have a picture of the wound or condition, please post it. It may help. I uploaded a video of her on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWc52Gs1dF4
11) Describe the housing/bedding in use
She sleeps in a rabbit cage shared with a banty mille de fleur and a silkie. The bottom is wire squares, and the poop falls into the catcher thats about a foot down, on top of newspapers.

 

[LadyinRed]

My vet recommended for the same weezeing to give Duramycin-10 for a week. He said what our hen had was an upper respiratory infection. Do her eyes look any bit watery in person?

 

[xoxoAnny]

Quote:
Thank you for replying Lady. Her eyes do seem to be getting more watery than my two other hens. She is also getting some watery discharge when she sneezes sometimes. I will try to find duramycin for her-- but is there maybe some alternative treatment I might be able to find at a pet store? I don't live close to any feed stores.

 

[LadyinRed]

I'm not sure of any that you can get at a pet store but you can probably call any local vet and get an similar antibiotic for her. I think Tylan would probably work for it too if you can find that. Good luck with your girl.

 

[xoxoAnny]

My mother came home and gave her some Chinese cough syrup when I told her you said it was probably an upper respiratory infection. She actually studied to be pharmacist in China before moving here, so she has a whole stash of medicine and stuff (that she always tries on us first before taking us to the doctor for antibiotics). We gave Misty about 1/10 the normal human dose, and she complained the whole time taking it down. Finally managed to administer it by getting my sister to hold her down while my mother pried her beak open and I squirted it in with a old rinsed eye dropper bottle. I was worried because Misty didn't sound much better at first, but as the night went on her wheezing got a little bit quieter. We gave her another dose about 4 hours later, and her wheezing finally stopped maybe 6 hours after that, around 4am. She seems to be normal now, doing chicken things and chasing down June beetles. No more wheezing at all. Didn't see her eat a lot but her poop is regular again. I'm just keeping an eye on her for now, hoping it's a complete recovery. Still haven't heard her make her usually low clucking sounds, so just waiting for that to come back but I really do think she'll be fine.

Sometimes I find medicine labels interesting, so just in case you or anyone else is curious, the English parts that I can read calls it "Compound Licorice Mixture" and the side information (without the spelling and grammer mistakes

) says "Ingredients: Tincture of Opium, Fluid extract of Licorice, Anise Oil, Camphor, Antimony Potassium Tartrate, etc. To be used as an Antitussive and Expectorant, in treatment of coughing in pharyngitis, bronchitis, bronchial asthma, etc. Tincture of opium depresses central nerves and has antitussive, analgesic and sedative actions for cough relief. Fluid extract of Licorice lessens stimulation to the mucosa of throat, relieves smooth muscle spasms of the gastrointestinal tract. Cough is almost always caused by the common cold and Anise Oil has some effect of relieving cold. It regulates the flow of vital energy and assuages pain caused by functional disorder of organs. Camphor is used as an expectorant. Antimony Potassium Tartrate can stimulate increase of mucus secretion of the bronchi and dilute the sputum to facilitate expectoration." It tastes pretty mild and sweet, very licorice-y. I imagine some over-the-counter cough/decongestants may work too, but we might've just been lucky. (My grandma used this for years and swears the newer cough medicines aren't as good)

Thank you again for your help diagnosing her and for your support. I don't know what I would've done without this board besides freaking out. Any idea how our hens got to these conditions? I was thinking maybe she inhaled some mold or something, sometimes she plays in the leaves in the back, and its been rainy/humid recently so some of it is moldy.