Hen with noisy breathing - already searched - please help.

[gritsar]

I've done an extensive search but didn't find anything that really fit. She's acting absolutely fine, laid an egg today, droppings are normal. Her breathing is noisy, that's it. No nasal discharge, no coughing or sneezing.

To answer the suggested questions:

1) What type of bird , age and weight. easter egger, 14 months old, approx. 5 lbs.
2) What is the behavior, exactly. noisy breathing
3) How long has the bird been exhibiting symptoms? For about 4 hours
4) Are other birds exhibiting the same symptoms? No
5) Is there any bleeding, injury, broken bones or other sign of trauma. No
6) What happened, if anything that you know of, that may have caused the situation. In the middle of the night last night we had our first significant rainfall since May. The birds were in their dry coop of course, but it does have large windows. It's very damp today.
7) What has the bird been eating and drinking, if at all. She's eating well - flockraiser, seven grain scratch, a tiny bit of cheese and banana (the cheese and banana after the symptom started), drinking both city water and well water.
8) How does the poop look? Normal? Bloody? Runny? etc. Normal
9) What has been the treatment you have administered so far? None
10 ) 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? At home treatment only
11) If you have a picture of the wound or condition, please post it. It may help.
12) Describe the housing/bedding in use chickens are in a 12 x 14 coop (20 chickens, various ages), with plenty of ventilation, bedding is pine shavings. They free range all day.

I only have two antibiotics on hand right now, Pen G Inj. and tetracycline.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Quote:
I just saw this by speckledhen and wonder if it could be possible with yours? https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=560301

 

[dianaross77]

I was just thinking that. My new BR hen is doing more poorly than your EE but its the same thing as yours. You can hear her breathing. No rattling no discharge. I ordered the Oxine and am going to try that first. Then I might give her Tylan.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Oxine is great, I use it in their water every other night, AVC on the night I don't. also mist them with it every week, I just use a hand garden sprayer. I also spray out the coops with it. I wouldn't be without it.

 

[dawg53]

Sounds like it could possibly be environmental; a granual of feed somehow snorted up her nostril. (I had it happen to my greedy Red Star, but she didnt have noisy breathing, shook her head occasionally.) The rain stirring up dust hitting the ground, dust and pollens blown or driven by the rain out of trees or bushes etc... It could possibly be fungal as stated in Speckledhen's post.

 

[speckledhen]

Kat, can you describe the noisy breathing more? Is it loud? Does she honk? Wheeze? Gurgle? Whistle?

I had a hen once who strained to lay her first post-molt egg and suddenly, she sounded like air blasting out of a balloon when she breathed. I freaked out and called Pine Grove in south GA. He listened to her and said either she had something stuck in her windpipe or she'd ruptured an air sac, he felt. So, we syringed oil down her throat to help pass whatever might be stuck. By morning, she was breathing normally and screaming to get out of the cage we had her in.


ETA: I'm off to bed. Will check the thread tomorrow morning, Kat.

 

[easttxchick]

Is she rattling in her chest and does her breathing seem labored at all?

 

[gritsar]

I checked her again just a few minutes ago. It sounds a little like an asthma attack (in humans), just very loud breathing. No gurgle, no whistle. I guess I'd have to describe it as wheezing more than anything else. Sorry for the bad description but it sounds like uh-uh-uh-uh. It is not in her lungs, I listened carefully. It's in her upper respiratory tract.

Thanks for all the replies.

 

[speckledhen]

Ok, well, it may not be anything wrong with her lungs or trachea. Could be heavy breathing due to pain elsewhere or maybe she has fluid somewhere in her body. Lexie had fluid in her body a long time before she passed on, but she was always one to breathe heavily in times of stress from heat, etc. It was similar to what you describe; not necessarily specific to her respiratory system, but a symptom of stress somewhere else in her body, if you understand what I'm saying. It's really hard to know exactly what to tell you. Not sure there's much you can do.

Could be something that she has in her windpipe that is partially blocking it off--in that case, dose her with some veg oil down her throat, just with a needleless syringe into her mouth. Maybe oil will help whatever it may be slide down. It helped Nora when she had something in her windpipe about a year ago.

After our bout with fungal stuff this summer, I swear by Oxine, which kills bacteria, spores, fungi, viruses and mold. If any of those are the culprit in her respiratory system, unless her body has walled them off somehow, the Oxine will kill it. It's not a cure all for everything, of course, but when you don't know what you're dealing with, can't hurt to try some misting with that and some in her water.

 

[gritsar]

Thanks for trying to help. Pumpkin passed away in the middle of the night.

Not been a good year for my chickens. Sometimes I think they are the hardiest creatures put on this earth; at other times I think they are the most fragile.

One thing I did notice late last night when I went to put the days eggs away, that I hadn't noticed earlier. Pumpkin laid a super-sized egg yesterday, compared to the medium sized ones she usually laid. There was no bleeding from her vent or a distended abdomen, so I don't know if that had anything to do with it or not.