Rooster lost his voice, wheezing

[gemmaster]

I have a rooster who since this morning has been wheezing with each breath, and seems to have lost his voice. Sounds almost like humans do when they have a bad flu or something when he tries to talk. I read a little about respiratory illnesses in chickens like CRD, and that it can be brought on by stress caused by high temperatures weakening their immune systems. The last few days we've been experiencing something of a heat wave, it went from being around 60 to highs in the 80's every day. Could that be what's going on with him? His comb and wattles still look fine, and he has no nasal or eye discharge. I also looked down his throat and saw no signs of gapeworm or any other obstructions. None of my other birds are acting this way and they're all housed together.

I can attach a video if it would help, but he's one of my more skittish chickens so I'm also trying to not stress him out too much.

 

[gemmaster]

I don't know how quickly replies come here but I would really appreciate some input, kind of starting to freak out. I ordered some Doxyvet liquid antibiotics for him, and they should be here in a couple days. My poultry vet is two towns away and I can't drive myself, so if he does end up needing to go to a vet I won't be able to get him there until next week some time

Besides his wheezing, he's not acting sick. Still as strong and flighty as ever.

 

[dawg53]

Welcome to BYC.
CRD is Mycoplasma Gallisepticum (MG). MG is highly contagious among birds and there are more noticeable symptoms. Do you have any other birds showing symptoms? If not, I would suspect something else might be going on.

The only way a bird can get MG is via another MG infected bird. Carrier birds when stressed will show symptoms of the disease.

Have you opened his mouth and closely looked for any lesions, white spots at the back of his mouth, excess saliva or mucus, or anything else out of the ordinary? Smell his breath close up and let us know if there is a foul or sour odor.

Also, you're not going to see gapeworms down his throat. The only way to determine gapeworms is a fecal sample on a microscopic slide, looking for gapeworm eggs.

Is your rooster eating and drinking normally?

 

[gemmaster]

Is your rooster eating and drinking normally?

Thank you for your reply. I've been gone at work today so I haven't had much of a chance to watch him closely yet, but he doesn't have the stereotypical puffed up, lethargic behavior of a very sick bird. He still has a good appetite and is drinking a good amount, and is still alert. The only thing visibly wrong with him is the awful wheezing. They're all kept in the same building, but this particular rooster is kept in close quarters with only one other rooster for company, since he doesn't get along with other birds but they have always been friends, and the other rooster doesn't seem to have anything wrong with him at all. This all came on very suddenly.

I don't see any lesions or excess saliva/mucus, and there is no odor to speak of. Should I go ahead with trying the antibiotics when they get here? I'm not sure if taking him in the house, or letting him stay with his friend is the right decision. If this doesn't resolve in a couple days I will be taking him to the vet at the earliest opportunity next week

I will attach a video when I take him out a little later tonight to give him some colloidal silver

 

[gemmaster]

His breathing, while still heavy, is a little less labored sounding when I leave him alone and am not handling him. He is a pretty skittish rooster.

 

[dawg53]

Is there anything in the environment that could be an issue? Examples are; ammonia fumes from soiled bedding, improper ventilation, inhalation of feed dust or feed granule when eating, pollen, excess dander in coop, pesticide use, DE, dust from dust bathing.

 

[gemmaster]

Is there anything in the environment that could be an issue? Examples are; ammonia fumes from soiled bedding, improper ventilation, inhalation of feed dust or feed granule when eating, pollen, excess dander in coop, pesticide use, DE, dust from dust bathing.

I'm so sorry I didn't reply sooner. Things have been horribly hectic for a lot of different compounding reasons. Something environmental is the only thing I can think of if viruses/bacteria can be somewhat ruled out by no one else falling ill. But I don't know what in the environment could be doing that. I clean their bedding enough that there's no noticeable ammonia smell. The crumble i give them isn't particularly dusty and has never caused problems before. I did dust them with permethrin a couple months ago, but he was just fine then and so was everybody else. I don't use DE on them. I don't have the most ideally ventilated coop, but there is air flow in there and I've never run into problems like this before.

He's going to the vet on Monday. Is it possible that he has food lodged somewhere in there that I'm just not seeing when I open his mouth? I feel so awful for him, and helpless because I have no idea what's even causing this, so don't know the first thing to do to fix it.

 

[dawg53]

Hopefully the vet will find out what's going on with your rooster. I'm wondering if it could possibly be an air sac issue, just a thought. Let us know how it goes with the vet.