Hen with acute respiratory distress—help please!

[HorseGirlAbby]

@azygous thanks so much for all your help. My little hen is doing much better, and starting to gain weight back. It’s getting tougher to give her her medicine each day, because she’s getting stronger and smarter! I love to see that, of course, but I may have to enlist some help in holding her soon. She’s been talking more, still a little hoarse though. And her crop was full for the first time in a long time last night! It appears she’s on the mend.

 

[HorseGirlAbby]

@azygous well, you can pretty much disregard all I said there. I don’t know what’s stressing her out, maybe the heat, but she’s worse again. Definitely not as bad as she was before the medicine, but she might get there. She’s still eating and drinking, and walking around fine. I’ve kept on giving her her medicine morning and night, and she hates me now. I have to bribe her into the house so I can catch her in the mornings She has a follow-up appointment with the vet on Thursday, but I don’t know if she can wait that long.

 

[HorseGirlAbby]

Well, Silver went to the vet yesterday, and the vet said she’s doing much better. I can’t really see a difference, but she said her lungs were a lot clearer. She’s still breathing harder and faster than normal, though. And turns out she’s on both an anti-inflammatory and an antibiotic, which I didn’t know because I’m dumb So that should help her more, I think she has a little less than a weeks worth of medicine left. Thanks for all your help! I’m hoping this little girl never has to go see the vet again. Though she was very good during all the car rides!

 

[HorseGirlAbby]

@azygous, I’m so sorry to keep on bothering you, but my poor hen won’t stop making that noise. After two weeks of medicine, she’s no better than before. She can’t even take a breath normally. She’ll breathe in, chew a little bit, then make the noise again when she breathes out, really forcefully. It’s like a cough or a sneeze, and I’m wondering if she really does have something caught in her throat, though the vet should have found that. She only has a few days worth of medication left, and I’m worried she’ll get even worse when it’s gone. She didn’t get much to eat today, and though she’s acting fairly normal otherwise, she’s lost quite a lot of weight. I do think the noise is more of an annoyance than something hurting her, but it’s a big annoyance, especially when all the other chickens are trying to sleep at night. I gave them some new bedding today, and I think that’s what triggered it this evening, but she’s been getting steadily worse. I have no clue why the vet said she was better, she’s clearly not.

 

[azygous]

Her color looks good. Is there any sign of the comb going dark on the edges? As long as the comb stays red, she's getting enough oxygen.

But she might breathe more comfortably if she had a cool mist vaporizer or mister moistening the air she breathes. It will thin the mucous out so it drains instead of gluing itself to her respiratory system. If you have some Oxine or Betadine, some in the vaporizer can also help fight bacteria in her mucous membranes. Set the machine up to blow mist over her so she's breathing the droplets.

Call the vet and ask to have the anti-inflammatory renewed. That can help keep her membranes from swelling and it will make sure she can still breathe well enough.

It's more likely her noisy breathing is caused by mucous, not something stuck in her airway. Usually, a stuck foreign object will work its way out in just a day.

If this is a chronic respiratory disease, she will just need to hang in there until it runs its course. But if this mucous is a secondary symptom of a failing heart, that's a different story. The vet should probably reassess her and listen to what her heart is doing.

 

[HorseGirlAbby]

Her color looks good. Is there any sign of the comb going dark on the edges? As long as the comb stays red, she's getting enough oxygen.

But she might breathe more comfortably if she had a cool mist vaporizer or mister moistening the air she breathes. It will thin the mucous out so it drains instead of gluing itself to her respiratory system. If you have some Oxine or Betadine, some in the vaporizer can also help fight bacteria in her mucous membranes. Set the machine up to blow mist over her so she's breathing the droplets.

Call the vet and ask to have the anti-inflammatory renewed. That can help keep her membranes from swelling and it will make sure she can still breathe well enough.

It's more likely her noisy breathing is caused by mucous, not something stuck in her airway. Usually, a stuck foreign object will work its way out in just a day.

If this is a chronic respiratory disease, she will just need to hang in there until it runs its course. But if this mucous is a secondary symptom of a failing heart, that's a different story. The vet should probably reassess her and listen to what her heart is doing.

No, her comb is all red and normal. We don't have a vaporizer or mister that we could use with her, but I put her in the tractor for the day. I figured getting her out of the dusty coop would help, and it has. She has a cranky broody hen to keep her company, which she doesn't really enjoy, but oh, well. I'll call the vet and see if I can get her prescription renewed either today or early tomorrow. She's doing a bit better than last night, and it really does look like mucous, because she makes the noise right after she swallows. I guess it's like the chickens equivalent of clearing their throat, but not getting the mucous out, so you have to do it again and again.

Shouldn't she be at least showing a little sign of improvement? It's been over a month, and she's no better. The vet said her lungs sounded better, but I can't see a difference.

 

[azygous]

I just ordered a cool mist vaporizer from Amazon and got it today. My doctor recommended it because I have a problem with mucous at night interfering with my breathing. He said it would thin it out. I've been wanting to have a mister on hand should any chicken have a respiratory issue, and it was very reasonably priced.

Years ago I had a hen with a breathing problem and I just sprayed mist over her each hour figuring it was better than nothing. You can try that.

Mucous will persist as long as there is an irritant stimulating the production of mucous. Mucous isn't a huge issue until it gets so thick and sticky that it sits in the sinuses and clogs rather than drains. A mister helps it thin out and drain.

 

[HorseGirlAbby]

I just ordered a cool mist vaporizer from Amazon and got it today. My doctor recommended it because I have a problem with mucous at night interfering with my breathing. He said it would thin it out. I've been wanting to have a mister on hand should any chicken have a respiratory issue, and it was very reasonably priced.

Years ago I had a hen with a breathing problem and I just sprayed mist over her each hour figuring it was better than nothing. You can try that.

Mucous will persist as long as there is an irritant stimulating the production of mucous. Mucous isn't a huge issue until it gets so thick and sticky that it sits in the sinuses and clogs rather than drains. A mister helps it thin out and drain.

Unfortunately, my parents don’t really want to spend any more money on this chicken, as she’s been expensive enough. The vet visits and medicine weren’t cheap. So the probability of her having a mister is pretty low right now.

The good thing is, getting her out of the house all day really helped her. I think just having more air circulation was good. I mean, the coop has enough square feet of ventilation, but we have so little wind when it’s hot that it doesn’t help much. I’ll keep putting her out there, and hopefully she’ll continue to heal. I gave her some wet food this morning, and she ate quite a lot of it, which was good. Thanks so much again for all your help, and I’m sorry to be such a bother.

 

[Avocadoman]

Why is this Tylan stuff prescription only? Not all of us have deep pockets for vet visits just to get through the regulators. Seems unethical to block access to a life-saving med.

 

[HorseGirlAbby]

Why is this Tylan stuff prescription only? Not all of us have deep pockets for vet visits just to get through the regulators. Seems unethical to block access to a life-saving med.

From what I've heard, it's because the big chicken corporations were misusing it, and we small farmers have to take the fallout. Kinda sucks, because my hen would probably be better by now if I could've gotten the right medication.