Mouth breathing at night, small droppings, egg bound? Please help!

[tanvirglhs]

I have two hens as pets. Both are 9 months and 17 days old. One is a Swedish Flower Hen (named Blondie) and the other one is probably Australorp (named Brownie). Brownie started laying at the end of November last year and she is laying continuously almost every day. Blondie hasn't laid eggs yet. In the past months, she has tried to sit on fake wooden eggs for some time but didn't lay. There are two nests, Brownie chose one, and Blondie tried to use that one sometimes, but was never really interested in sitting in the other. Although both nests are completely the same and have the same fake wooden eggs. For the last few weeks, I haven't seen her sitting in the nest but she seems to lose her appetite and her droppings are way small. When we hold her she seems to start mouth breathing. At night she mouth breathes often (not continuously, in intervals). She doesn't mouth breath when roaming freely during the day. Please click on the link below to see how he breathes at night.

 

[azygous]

It's possible she has a CRD, chronic respiratory disease. She could also have aspergillus if there is any moldy straw or shavings in their housing. Or if there is a lot of accumulated poop, the fumes can casue respiratory illness, but it doesn't appear this latter is the problem.

 

[tanvirglhs]

Thanks for your response, Azygous. FYI, they have straws in their nests and hemp bedding in their housing. The sleeping coop gets cleaned and the bedding gets replaced by new bedding once in a few weeks. When they were little (around a few weeks old), they had wooden chips for housing for around 2-3 weeks, but it was all hemp after that. I read that hemp bedding is the safest and best of all available options. The one I use says it's especially for chicken. I'm not sure that's the cause. Moreover, if she has CRD, why not mouth breathing when she roams during the day?

 

[azygous]

Yeah, I could see the coop was spic and span. Respiratory illness is usually worse at night. I have a chronic upper respiratory issue and it sure gets worse when I'm sleeping.

When she's out ranging, she's moving and all her air sacs would be operating at full capacity. At night, perhaps lack of muscular activity would result in less air circulating in her body.

If it doesn't resolve on its own, you can try treating with an antibiotic if you can get it.