Loud Breathing and Snoring in my New Rooster... What should I do?

[weeboing]

I just bought a pair of Mille De Fluer D'uccles... I get home and he starts making funny snoring noises and then a sneeze/cough/crow... I tried to take a video of it for you to listen to, but the sound wasn't all that great... No drainage from eyes or nostrils... The seller is reputable. I have never seen chicks or chickens or any other animal there that shows any amount of disregard or neglect.

Video is uploading but is taking a long time so I'm posting and will respond with the video when it finally finishes. So if you have any idea...

Oh my other question... I was going to put them in a separate cage in my chicken coop outside... But can I even do that now? Is that too unsafe? Do I have to keep them inside?

Thank you!

 

[weeboing]

Here's a still picture...

I don't know how to get the right code for the video so here is a direct link!
http://s260.photobucket.com/albums/ii15/weeboing/?action=view&current=001-3.mp4

 

[LisaLingaLonga]

Hi Weeboing,

I inherited two hens from a neighbour four weeks ago. I noticed a whistling sound the first night I locked them up. Then sneezing on subsequent nights. Finally figured out which hen it was - a bantam silver laced wyandotte. I did some research online and read all my books and it seems it might be a cold. Unfortunately it took 4-5 days to figure it all out so the other hen and my two existing hens have been exposed. Two of them are sneezing now.

The hen that got sick first was sneezing, had some clear liquid come out of her nostrils sometimes and seemed to be having trouble breathing. Her neck was expanding when she breathed. I caught her at night a few times and cleaned her nostrils with a cotton buds soaked in water and few drops of manuka oil. Don't know if that did any good. She's now opening her mouth and does that shake the head crow/bark thing and the breathing rattle. Yesterday morning she was snoring very load when I let them out and it was constant. When I got home from work that had stopped. She's till foraging around the backyard and eating the grain and pooping. This morning I gave them a warm bran mash with chopped garlic which they gobbled up. I read chickens can get bronchitis so that's a possibility?

How is your rooster now?

I'm new to chickens, got my first two last November. Never realised what great pets they can be.

 

[LisaLingaLonga]

My chicken got sicker and sicker and I ended up taking her to a vet. The vet said he doesn't see chickens very often! He looked down her throat and found white pustules. He said this can be due to Vitamin A deficiency which happens when birds eat too much grain. Vitamin A keeps mucus membranes healthy, among other things. He prescribed a week of twice-a-day liquid antibiotics ( Baytril ) and said to start mixing pellets in with the grain and give a vitamin supplement in the water. That was a few weeks ago and she's doing well now, laid her first egg today. The other four chickens are fine. None of them are very happy about being fed pellets! I had assumed free range chickens with lots of greenery to forage would be fine. I read somewhere that Vitamin A deficiency tends to happen in Autumn and it was Autumn when this started ( Australia ). I'm also feeding grated carrot, broccoli and pumpkin as all are supposed to be high in Vitamin A.

The following web page has a list of foods that are high in Vitamin A and foods that are low:

http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?c=15+1835&aid=2054