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[Achenbach]

Hi. My three year old leg horn started wheezing on Monday. I attached the video of her. She was acting normal; eating, drinking, and even laid an egg on Monday. I isolated her & treated her last week for worms with safeguard for 5 days. She was so infested with them that her crop became impacted. I cleared her crop also treated her for a sour crop with miconazole for 7 days. She was put back into her coop on Sunday with the others and doing great until this breathing issue. What should I do? The other girls are beating her up and I don’t want her to suffer but, other than the breathing issue, she fine.

 

[Achenbach]

Please help me.

 

[TheFatBlueCat]

Isolate her again so they can't pick on her, ideally somewhere she can still see her buddies so she doesn't have the stress of being seperated also.
She may just need some more time to recover her strength so she can hold her own with thr flock. Chickens can be very brutal to weak flock members. It's just how they are.
Make sure she has her regular food, and give her some extra high-protein food like boiled eggs, cat food, tinned fish etc, and some dark leafy greens if she likes them. Hopefully she just needs to regain her strength.
Have you wormed the rest of the flock too? If one chicken has worms they will all have worms.
Unless you want to take her to the vet (I do not take chickens to the vet, I cull them if it's that serious) all you can do is make her safe and comfortable and see how it goes.

 

[Eggcessive]

Her crop looks full now. How does it feel—hard, doughy, or puffy soft? It can be dangerous to empty the crop since they can aspirate (choke.) She seems to be gaping and adjusting her crop. She is also having rales (crackles) which could be a respiratory infection or crop contents coming back up in the throat. Recheck the crop in early morning before she eats or drinks to see if it empties. Is she drinking enough water? Did you give her 0.25 ml per pound of the SafeGuard?

 

[Achenbach]

Thank you so much for responding.

Isolate her again so they can't pick on her, ideally somewhere she can still see her buddies so she doesn't have the stress of being seperated also.
She may just need some more time to recover her strength so she can hold her own with thr flock. Chickens can be very brutal to weak flock members. It's just how they are.
Make sure she has her regular food, and give her some extra high-protein food like boiled eggs, cat food, tinned fish etc, and some dark leafy greens if she likes them. Hopefully she just needs to regain her strength.
Have you wormed the rest of the flock too? If one chicken has worms they will all have worms.
Unless you want to take her to the vet (I do not take chickens to the vet, I cull them if it's that serious) all you can do is make her safe and comfortable and see how it goes.

Her crop looks full now. How does it feel—hard, doughy, or puffy soft? It can be dangerous to empty the crop since they can aspirate (choke.) She seems to be gaping and adjusting her crop. She is also having rales (crackles) which could be a respiratory infection or crop contents coming back up in the throat. Recheck the crop in early morning before she eats or drinks to see if it empties. Is she drinking enough water? Did you give her 0.25 ml per pound of the SafeGuard?

I’m going to isolate her again. Her crop is puffy soft. When I massaged it, she really started making the noises. She will not put her head down to get treats after I did it. Yes, she about 2.5 pounds for I gave her in between .5-.75 ml for 5 days.

 

[Achenbach]

Thank you so much for responding.



I’m going to isolate her again. Her crop is puffy soft. When I massaged it, she really started making the noises. She will not put her head down to get treats after I did it. Yes, she about 2.5 pounds for I gave her in between .5-.75 ml for 5 days.

She’s eating and drinking normally. She even hunches down when I approach her.

 

[Achenbach]

Her crop looks full now. How does it feel—hard, doughy, or puffy soft? It can be dangerous to empty the crop since they can aspirate (choke.) She seems to be gaping and adjusting her crop. She is also having rales (crackles) which could be a respiratory infection or crop contents coming back up in the throat. Recheck the crop in early morning before she eats or drinks to see if it empties. Is she drinking enough water? Did you give her 0.25 ml per pound of the SafeGuard?

Thank you again. May I message you tomorrow once I see if her crop is emptied?

 

[TheFatBlueCat]

Post an update here tomorrow

 

[Achenbach]

Thank you so much.

 

[Achenbach]

Post an update here tomorrow

Post an update here tomorrow

I placed her in a large kennel inside of their chicken run/coop last night. This morning her crop was empty! She didn’t have that phlegmy rattling sound either. She was chirping and making noises at me when I talked to her, I’m so relieved she seems to be doing a bit better. So going forward, I should keep her in the kennel until she gains so weight & strength? What’s so weird, to me anyways, is she is/was the alpha hen, I call her mean Macy lol. Hopefully she’ll be back to her old self soon.