Rescued two new hens, one sounds congested/coughing but active.

[Mehpenn]

This morning I picked up two hens that have been living in small, very dirty, very crowded cages.
One is a Rhode Island Red, the other is a black Australorp.
I moved them into my lot/coop, and am going to leave my other hen to free range for a couple days.
The Australorp sounds congested, and I've heard her cough. But she's as active as the others are. She's eating and drinking well.
Do you guys think I should go ahead and start her on antibiotics?

 

[rcentner]

that's a tough one...if it is a viral infection then antibiotics will only prevent a secondary infection, she could be one of those hens that has a chronic cough/sneeze with no other ill effects. she might not lay a lot though. respiratory problems can be tough to deal with...it is easier if you can match up the symptoms to a particular disease and treat for that disease, see if it works. The top 3 to look at would be Infectious Laryngeotracheitis (ILT), mycoplasma gallisepticum (MG) and Infectious Bronchitis (IB). See which disease description best matches what you can see.
As for not spreading it to your hen....

pray? if you do such things?

Good luck

 

[Mehpenn]

The other hen that she was caged with isn't showing any signs or symptoms of being sick and the man I got them from said they'd been together since they were babies.
She's eating well, and she's active, she's so much fun to watch, she's really enjoying being out of that tiny cage. She's flapped all around the lot and even taken a bath in their water pan.
I think I'll wait a day or so and see how she does?