Respiratory disease?

[lizm1221]

Yesterday, we noticed our 2 year old brahma hen was sneezing quite a bit. We thought maybe she just had some dust in her lungs or something. But she is sneezing again today. I picked her up to check her over. Her breathing sounds raspy but other than that she seems fine. Her comb & face are nice and red, her eyes & beak look clear. I brought out treats and she came running as usual, so her appetite seems ok. Is there something I should do for her? I can see getting her on antibiotics if her eyes or nose seemed crusty or runny, but this is our first sick chicken, is that part coming and it would be best to head it off early? Any advice appreciated! We don't really have the space to quarantine her, but we could probably figure something out if we had to - how far away from the rest of the flock would she need to be? thanks!

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Probably not a bad idea to quarantine. It may be something she can get over on her own. If not, some lab work is in order. There are many things that can cause that. Bacteria are only a small percentage of what it could be. A viral infection is the most probable cause and antibiotics won't help. It can also be fungal, environmental or nutritional and antibiotics won't help that either.

When people's birds get sick, the are quick to worm and start antibiotics without knowing what they're treating. That's how superbugs are created.

Two examples:

I had several birds I thought may have had roundworms due to their diarrhea and thinness. Rather than start them on a wormer, I had a fecal sample read. They didn't have worms at all but a clostridial infection that needed tetracycline. Had I wormed them first, I wouldn't have solved anything and prolonged their misery.

I had a hen that was a little lethargic, the next day she was worse. I separated her and after 2 more days she had gone downhill badly. Did I consider antibiotics? Yes. Instead I drove her to the state lab 125 miles away to have her euthanized. The necropsy showed she had cancer. Antibiotics would have prolonged her misery. I also had to know exactly what was wrong and if I needed to treat other birds.