please help wheezing chicken

[zleehic]

Please help first time chicken owner. So tonight I went out to the coop to close the door for the night . I noticed that all my hens were roosting except one. One of my Americanas was in her laying box and wheezing. I looked her over pretty well and she looked normal. No runny nose or watery eyes or anything like that. There was slight discoloration of her comb, not the normal red but a slight browning to it but it was very minimal. We have gotten a little colder weather this week but it hasn't even been freezing temps yet. any suggestions

 

[PeepersMama]

It sounds like she is getting a respiratory infection. Isolate her asap because respiratory infections are extremly contagious and sometimes deadly, depending on the specific disease that she has. There are quite a few that are fairly common, but they are all very hard to diagnose unless you're a vet or something.
Keep an eye on her and the rest of the flock. If any other chicken starts acting similar to her, then start taking some pretty extreme biosecurity measures: only wear one pair of shoes out to the coop, don't visit other people's chickens, don't let anyone visit your chickens (whether they have chickens or not). I recently dealt with what we think was possibly mareks, but when we found out that it can present itself in the form of a respiratory infection, it all matched up, and we ended up having to cull half the flock

I hate sickness

I hope my prophecy of doom doesn't come true!

 

[zleehic]

Thanks for the advice. Would you try administering antibiotics at this point?

 

[PeepersMama]

You could try it. I've never used any medicines for my chickens besides probiotics, which aren't even technically medicine. Mom got the flock started with organic feed (so we can sell the eggs for more), and we've never used antibiotics at this point. I'll let you know if I find a specific kind of antibiotics to use.