Hen Struggling to Breathe! Tips for Dealing with Bacterial Infection

[Sir Clucks-A-Lot]

Hey All, we have a hen under a year old who started to wheeze Sunday night. On Monday she was sneezing a lot and and started to talk funny as well as wheeze. We gave her an epsom salt bath (which helped with the sneezing) and separated her. Her water has thyme and rosemary tea in it and her food is fermented/soaked feed with cayenne and garlic. Today she was sneezing less but come nightfall she started to gasp, neck stretched, beak open, wheezing hard, tail down. She also started to drink a lot of water, and when she tried to preen herself she'd regularly stop to gasp for air.

Up until this point she's been very active, laying eggs, and eating and talking normal amounts (she's also been trying to break out of her sick cage to join her flock mates). Her poops are also normal. She eats fermented/soaked layer feed with a grain mix (flax, wheat, corn). I believe she has a bacterial infection but I'm not sure what infection she could have. I've only ruled out egg yolk peritonitis. Any ideas of what it could be and any tips for dealing with infection in chickens?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Tonyroo]

@Eggcessive , can you help.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Do you have photos of her?

A video of her breathing/actions may be helpful - upload video to YouTube and provide a link.

When was her last egg? Do you notice any fluid or bloat in the abdomen?

Drinking a lot of water can often point to the crop not functioning like it should - check to see if her crop is emptying overnight. Sometimes when the crop is slow, this can cause some gurgling or symptoms similar to respiratory distress.

Have you added any new birds recently or have you had respiratory illness in your flock in the past?

If you feel that she's suffering from respiratory disease like Mycoplasma, then Tylosin or Tiamulin can help treat symptoms.

 

[Sir Clucks-A-Lot]

Do you have photos of her?

A video of her breathing/actions may be helpful - upload video to YouTube and provide a link.

When was her last egg? Do you notice any fluid or bloat in the abdomen?

Drinking a lot of water can often point to the crop not functioning like it should - check to see if her crop is emptying overnight. Sometimes when the crop is slow, this can cause some gurgling or symptoms similar to respiratory distress.

Have you added any new birds recently or have you had respiratory illness in your flock in the past?

If you feel that she's suffering from respiratory disease like Mycoplasma, then Tylosin or Tiamulin can help treat symptoms.

Sorry for the late reply! It seems everytime I try to record her she stops wheezing
She's been consistently laying eggs four days a week. I left her overnight with only grit and no food to see if her crop was draining properly and the next day her crop was flat. This is our first experience with respiratory illness (our only experiance with something similar is when we believe one of our hens had allergies). No new members have been added to our flock. Her wheezing has decreased dramatically over the past few days but she wheezes harder when she exerts herself.
Thanks for the medicine reccomendations and your help so far!
I'll try and upload some videos soon.

 

[Slicker chicker]

Sorry for the late reply! It seems everytime I try to record her she stops wheezing
She's been consistently laying eggs four days a week. I left her overnight with only grit and no food to see if her crop was draining properly and the next day her crop was flat. This is our first experience with respiratory illness (our only experiance with something similar is when we believe one of our hens had allergies). No new members have been added to our flock. Her wheezing has decreased dramatically over the past few days but she wheezes harder when she exerts herself.
Thanks for the medicine reccomendations and your help so far!
I'll try and upload some videos soon.

What happened with your hen? Did she get better? Do you know what it was?