Rooster Breathing Funny. Contagious?

[Lacy Duckwing]

Note: I'm not looking to put anything into this bird, I only want to know what's going on. If anything, I'll be finding someone to cull it. Please don't judge me on this, but I'm not looking to keep this bird either way.

Saturday I rescued a flock of chickens, and I'm looking to keep a few of them and add them to my existing flock. The new ones are all in quarantine, and I have noticed a breathing issue with at least one of them. (I was questioning a hen, too, but I might not have been looking at the right bird.) I took a video of it last night and want to know what you all think it is. Also, I want to know if it's contagious. If it is, then all these birds are going.

From what I've observed, I am questioning if it's to do with his lungs. He does sneeze occasionally, but it seems tied with the breathing, not anything else, as when he starts breathing heavier, he sneezes. Last night while I was watching him, a hen started attacking him, which made his breathing worse, and his face turned purple, which is making me think it's lungs.

Here's the video:

New Rooster Not Sounding Well 3-22-26

• Lacy Duckwing
• Today at 10:04 AM

Edit as I forgot to add: These birds weren't living in the best of conditions, in my opinion. Though they had a coop, they were outside all winter, plus lived a lot of their winter under a coop with ducks (which wasn't clean at all), and roosted in the trees despite how cold it had gotten. Is there a possibility that any of that is tied to how he's breathing?

 

[Eggcessive]

He might have some stridor which is a sound made when they get a small piece of feed stuck in the airway. That usually clears up by the next day. But if he has a respiratory infection, it could be mucus plugs or bronchiolitis. Does he have any bubbles or secretions in either eye, or from his nostrils or beak? Being in damp cold conditions might also lead to a fungal infection. He might need to be separated in a dog crate with food and water so the others don’t attack him. If you have an antibiotic for respiratory diseases, such as Tylosin powder or enrofloxacin, oxytetracycline, you could try medicating him.

 

[Lacy Duckwing]

He might have some stridor which is a sound made when they get a small piece of feed stuck in the airway. That usually clears up by the next day. But if he has a respiratory infection, it could be mucus plugs or bronchiolitis. Does he have any bubbles or secretions in either eye, or from his nostrils or beak? Being in damp cold conditions might also lead to a fungal infection. He might need to be separated in a dog crate with food and water so the others don’t attack him. If you have an antibiotic for respiratory diseases, such as Tylosin powder or enrofloxacin, oxytetracycline, you could try medicating him.

Thank you for your reply!
I don't think he has any bubbles or anything, but I can look the next time I check on him. Unfortunately, I don't have any (safe) places to separate him in. This flock is in my quarantine coop, and my only other place I could put him has signs of rats. I don't have any antibiotics to give him, unfortunately, and as I noted in my first post, I'm not putting any money into him as he's not staying and may be culled anyway.

Do you think what he has is contagious at all? I do know, when I got these birds home, they were all starving and I gave them the feed the previous owners had given me, and some of that feed had some scratch that I could almost see getting stuck easily if he had eaten it too fast. (I didn't even think to make sure they didn't eat too fast when I had fed them.)