My hens are sneezing and making a strange noise.

AuntNomi

Songster
7 Years
Aug 13, 2015
547
44
166
Callahan, Florida!
I have a few chickens that seem to have gotten sick. Coughing and/or sneezing. One is a Wyandotte 19 weeks, one a orpington 20 weeks, and one a leghorn 9 months old. I would guess that they are about 4 or 5 pounds. If I need to weigh them I can do that. I have noticed what I think is sneezing , however sometimes they will also make another noise almost like a squeak. The Wyandottes eye looks strange to me , I am going to have to grab her tomorrow and just take a really good look at her to see if it is discharge, or not. However her eye is the only body part that may have discharge. But the leghorn and the orpington do not have any discharge from the eyes, ears, or beak. Their stools I have not noticed any difference in at all, they seem to be normal to me. Aside from this I have noticed no other trauma or injury or sickness with these chickens. I am not sure what could cause them to start this. I made a change in their food. I started fermenting it. I only mix water and feed, I do not add anything else. I stir it each day a few times. It has never gotten moldy or anything like that. However in the morning I am going to resume with dry feed until this is resolved. I feed them Purina Flock Raiser, I also give them Purina Scratch Grains or corn occassionally. They always eat and drink normally that has not changed, they do not look or act sickly. It has been about 2 weeks. Because at first I thought nothing of it , it was random and I was quite sure that chickens sneeze as well. But I was home all day and noticed that it was all 3 of them and it seemed very regular occurrance that they sneezed to squeaked. I live in Florida, it does not get too cold here so we do have a warm weather coop, mostly hardware clothe. The back of the coop is solid closed wall. and the area where they sleep is only open in the front, with the sides and back solid wood. Dry Pine straw needles and dry leaves are in the floor, and on the poop board. I will video the sneezing tomorrow and add so that maybe it will be easier to advise me, I had no way to do that today or I would have. Thanks for and advise.
 
Hi there. Chickens do indeed sneeze. What you are seeing could be a number of things but possibly a respiratory infection of some kind. People approach such problems differently. Some treat with antibiotics (although this will not treat a viral infection, but does help fight off secondary infections), whereas others would not treat in this manner unless they were sure of what the problem is. There is no right or wrong way to go.

I personally prefer to add vitamin supplements drinking water as this can help give the immune system a boost thus help fight off whatever the problem is. If that does not work, I then consider treating with antibiotics (if it's something that is spreading through the flock).

I'd suggest reading the multitude of threads on respiratory sickness here on BYC to help guide you further.

Good luck

Ct
 
Thank you so much! I am trying to get this taken care of hopefully they are better soon. Some of the other threads I read are really scary, so I am hoping it is something that can be cured and not come back.


Hi, you are most welcome. Hope the meds work. If it is viral it could reappear again - bit like cold sores in humans, but worry about that if or when it comes. Most important to help them get fighting fit right now.

Good luck and keep us posted.

Ct
 
Ok so I wake up this morning to one of my almost 2 week old Easter Eggars making a weird sneezing noise. She's breathing mostly through her mouth but when she does it's a weird noise and when I held her up to my ear I did hear a sort of watery gurgling noise. She is separated from the others right now but from what I read this sounds like an upper respiratory problem. The closest thing I have in my area is a tractor supply. Does anyone know if they carry this antibiotic?
The closest that I have that will see a chick is over an hour away
 

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