Hen sounding congested with a smelly mucus coming from beak!

[Eggcessive]

In what state are you located? Each state has different policies and prices for testing and necropsy. Your own regular vet might know how you could get some swabs on your chickens yourself, and send them in for a culture. Zoologix.com will do a test for up to 8 respiratory diseases. They send you the swabs to collect, and send back. That is $90. It is possible to have more than one disease present. The fowl odor you are smelling would more likely be coryza or canker. The foamy eye is common with MG, but may be found in other sinus or respiratory diseases. If you could post pictures of the yellow plaques inside the beak, it would be helpful. Here is a link for Zoologix to contact and ask questions:
http://www.zoologix.com/avian/Datasheets/PoultryRespiratoryPanel.htm

Your state poultry vet (found in the list below) could be helpful about testing as well, and also may cost less to test one or two birds:
https://www.metzerfarms.com/PoultryLabs.cfm

 

[Raeganmh02]

The picture form the site https://redrockfarmstead.com/battling-fowl-pox-home-remedies-for-sick-chickens/ that you sent me to read about fowl pox had this picture describing what wet pox looks like in the beak of a chicken. This is almost exactly what the inside of my two sick hens beaks look like! The hens are not huddling in a corner or unresponsive, but they do keep their feathers fluffed up a lot (as if cold) and they also have that cheese like substance in their beak, and they are struggling to eat and drink.

 

[Raeganmh02]

I live in Indiana. I will try to get some pictures when I get home from school. Thank you for your replys, they have been very helpful in helping me narrow down what kind of respiratory diseases my hens have. Hopefully I can find a good way to get them tested so I can know for sure! Swabbing them myself sounds like an easier rout than taking them to a vet and paying the fee. I will look into that. I do know a vet, but I don’t think he knows much about chickens.

 

[Eggcessive]

If the yellow plaques on inside the beak like those pictures in the above link, and it smells bad, I would suspect it is canker. That is best treated with FishZole 250 mg daily for 5 days, and the link for buying online is in post 6. Wet fowl pox does not stink, and would only be possible if you were seeing dry pox with scabs on the comb and wattles. Wet pox is more rare, but doesn’t usually occur without the dry form as well.

 

[Raeganmh02]

Thank you for the reply! Canker sounds a little less serious than Coryza and wet pox, so that is a little bit of a plus. I will send pics this evening!

 

[Raeganmh02]

Good evening everyone! Upon arriving home, I inspected all my chickens. My one and only best rooster has it now. He does not have any symptoms so far besides the terrible breath and his breathing sounds a little strained (just enough to notice) I was able to get some good pictures of the two sick hens with the help of my sister, so I will be sending those.

 

[Raeganmh02]

These images are of the hen who was first to get sick (On Friday Dec 4th) The hen is breathing more normally now, and is not longer so congested and full of mucus. However, she still has a lot of yellow thick gunk in her beak that still reeks of a rotten egg! I’m down to thinking this disease is either (1) Coryza (2) Mycoplasma gallisepticum,or (3) Cankers. Here are the images of the first hens beak..,

 

[Raeganmh02]

Here are the images of the second hen that came down with it this morning. Her breathing and lungs do not sound near as badly as the first hens did, but she has the cheesy like lesions really building up quickly (as you can see in the image). I am getting some Chlortetracycline from a vet to treat the sick, and I have a shipment of Copper Sulfate on its way to give to the rest of the flock(it will be in on Dec. 16th)

 

[Liz Birdlover]

It can be any one of those illnesses, symptoms mimic eachother.
Usually States have a laboratory that do testing at no charge because they are also set up to monitor large, commercial poultry organizations.

Regardless of where you get testing, small vet or the State lab, IF the results are of ANY illness or disease deemed contagious, it will be reported to the State, as that is the legal protocol.

When it is a large commercial poultry business, they actually must provide samples ongoing, of their flocks, because chickens are coming & going constantly. When they get a contagious disease, it can be overwhelming & devastating. Years ago there was a viral outbreak & many poultry businesses had to euthanize hundreds of thousands, it was just horrible from what I've heard.

Yours is probably a small, private back yard flock, no birds coming & going. What they are concerned about & trying to prevent is spread of disease to other flocks and other chickens elsewhere & safety to the general public. That's why there are strict rules and regulations about quarantines.

My friend went through this with her small backyard flock, it was MG. She had no idea, it was all very shocking, but all in all, she only lost 3 birds, that was 2 years ago. Every state is different so I can't say what another state will do, but at least in her case, they were lenient in letting her try to make her birds well, and gave her a few months to try several medications & inoculate, after they knew it was MG. When she saw medicines were not helping, she said the mucus in nares, eyes & cleft just get worse, & poor birds were suffering, she went ahead & had those 3 humanely euthanized by the Lab guy at the State facility. She told me he was very kind about it & he said it would be quick & painless as possible. She remembers a lady from the State office calling her when she was trying the different medicines, about every 2 weeks, just to see how the birds were & how things were going, what meds she tried, and they were very compassionate and caring because they knew these were her pets.

I asked her about the symptoms.
1st bird sounded congested in chest so she brought him in & put on penicillin. He seemed to improve, 1 week later no chest congestion but then his eye started to swell & nares were congested.
2 hens started to show symptoms so they were brought in, set up in their own cage. They had a bit of chest rattle congestion.
The Roo steadily got worse, bad breath, gunk in cleft, nares full of mucus, eyes got worse with swelling & mucus. The hens inside of their beaks were cheesy & stinky. They didn't have bad swollen eyes like the Roo but they never got better & had off and on chest rattles. She said when the poor Roo was getting worse and worse, she knew the hens were just a step behind, they'd end up getting worse, too. So at least she had the diagnosis to know they were not going to get well, even after trying various medications for several months. Usually, birds do not last that long with MG.

Anyway I'm just sharing this with you because I know how frightening this can be, especially if you don't know exactly what you are dealing with. Correct diagnosis would be very beneficial, so you could treat with the proper medicine. I realize you may not be able to get testing where you are. I guess we are a little more fortunate in this region because we have a lot of chicken industry nearby, so we have the resources to get testing done. As far as any kind of veterinary treatment though, we do Not have that, so while we can get a diagnosis we are often on our own as far as treatments & determining what medicines are best to treat with. I'm just sharing this all with you to try to help, and I truly hope that your birds only have canker. MG produces really foul breath but canker can give stinky breath as well. Nasty sinus infections can really stink badly too. I wish you the best and I hope everything goes well For you and your feathered friends.

 

[Raeganmh02]

Your words are really helpful and encouraging! You have helped me narrow down my options and learn more about the different possible diseases! I can’t thank you enough for all your help! I think I will talk to my vet friend and see about getting a wet mouth preparation. If I figure out what they have for sure, I will let everyone know! Thank you again!