Sick 1 1/2 year old hen with open mouthed breathing but no eye discharge sneezing etc

[dennisma1]

My 1 1/2 year old Barred Rock hen has been breathing through mouth for a week + and wheezing. I had her on oral tylan 50 for 5 days. Slight improvement, but I also moved from FL to MA while hen was sick so weather helped . I don't suspect gapeworm , her throat looks normal. Her croup was fine earlier but now not eating much. I did give ivertimycin wormer (excuse my spelling) just in case. No diff in hen or poop. Her eyes are fine. Her nose is fine , no discharge. No sneezing or head shaking. The other chickens are all fine. I was wondering it it was a fungal issue, but I don't do chicken vets. Is there any thing else I can try that doesn't need a vet rx? I looked up fungal meds for chickens but nothing in my fish / tractor supply arsenal seemed appropriate . She doesn't seem on deaths door yet , but I'm out of ideas and don't want to torture her. I have her separated, giving liquid with tetratex in it and a slurry of catfood/yogurt/ prebiotic by blunt needle. They all free range but no poison, chemicals around. It doesn't seem like the usual resp. infection which usually responds to tylan. I may just cull her but I'm always trying to expand my chicken vet skills. It's not that hot here, so it's not that. She was laying until 4 days ago. Any ideas? Poor girl is just struggling to breath too hard.

 

[Goosebaby]

How does her abdomen feel? Hard, swollen, squishy? Does it look enlarged? Does she have more trouble breathing during or after she’s active?

From what I’ve expierienced with Asper usualy they’ll have some mucous discharge from the throat but if the infection is low in her respiratory system it could be more of a dry cough maybe.

The other possibility is she has something obsructing her airway, has she been shaking her head like she’s trying to hack something up, that’s a usual sign of that.

If she has lung cancer it could present itself like this, heart failure also causes something like this, but you’ll see excercise intolerance plus ascites developing if they aren’t already present.

If she does have Asper, the only effective treatment is itraconazole possiblely with other antifungals, but effective isn’t truthfully the best word, Aspergillosis takes months of treatment, and it isn’t effective in many cases unfortunately.

Another possibility is mycoplasmas, they can be sneaky and not always show typical symptoms, antibiotics don’t really get rid of them, they just relieve the symptoms, but those can reappear if she gets stressed.

Hopefully she turns around and starts feeling better soon.

 

[dennisma1]

How does her abdomen feel? Hard, swollen, squishy? Does it look enlarged? Does she have more trouble breathing during or after she’s active?

From what I’ve expierienced with Asper usualy they’ll have some mucous discharge from the throat but if the infection is low in her respiratory system it could be more of a dry cough maybe.

The other possibility is she has something obsructing her airway, has she been shaking her head like she’s trying to hack something up, that’s a usual sign of that.

If she has lung cancer it could present itself like this, heart failure also causes something like this, but you’ll see excercise intolerance plus ascites developing if they aren’t already present.

If she does have Asper, the only effective treatment is itraconazole possiblely with other antifungals, but effective isn’t truthfully the best word, Aspergillosis takes months of treatment, and it isn’t effective in many cases unfortunately.

Another possibility is mycoplasmas, they can be sneaky and not always show typical symptoms, antibiotics don’t really get rid of them, they just relieve the symptoms, but those can reappear if she gets stressed.

Hopefully she turns around and starts feeling better soon.

Thanks for answering.. She surprised me this morning by looking a bit better. I upped the tylan 50 yesterday ( sometimes hard to be sure she gets it all with the blunt needle and her avoidance attempts) She was breathing better this am and quieter, and did some preening which I hadn't seen in a few days. Her poop looked normal . She had a little more fight in her today for her meds and force feeding. She just feels skinny but otherwise normal. So she gets to live another day .

 

[Goosebaby]

Thanks for answering.. She surprised me this morning by looking a bit better. I upped the tylan 50 yesterday ( sometimes hard to be sure she gets it all with the blunt needle and her avoidance attempts) She was breathing better this am and quieter, and did some preening which I hadn't seen in a few days. Her poop looked normal . She had a little more fight in her today for her meds and force feeding. She just feels skinny but otherwise normal. So she gets to live another day .

Glad to hear she’s putting up a fight!

 

[tessathecheese]

My 1 1/2 year old Barred Rock hen has been breathing through mouth for a week + and wheezing. I had her on oral tylan 50 for 5 days. Slight improvement, but I also moved from FL to MA while hen was sick so weather helped . I don't suspect gapeworm , her throat looks normal. Her croup was fine earlier but now not eating much. I did give ivertimycin wormer (excuse my spelling) just in case. No diff in hen or poop. Her eyes are fine. Her nose is fine , no discharge. No sneezing or head shaking. The other chickens are all fine. I was wondering it it was a fungal issue, but I don't do chicken vets. Is there any thing else I can try that doesn't need a vet rx? I looked up fungal meds for chickens but nothing in my fish / tractor supply arsenal seemed appropriate . She doesn't seem on deaths door yet , but I'm out of ideas and don't want to torture her. I have her separated, giving liquid with tetratex in it and a slurry of catfood/yogurt/ prebiotic by blunt needle. They all free range but no poison, chemicals around. It doesn't seem like the usual resp. infection which usually responds to tylan. I may just cull her but I'm always trying to expand my chicken vet skills. It's not that hot here, so it's not that. She was laying until 4 days ago. Any ideas? Poor girl is just struggling to breath too hard.

My chicken also had similar symptoms. She began to have diarrhea and stopped eating for two days, when I decided to take her an animal hospital. Turns out she has a heart murmur. I've been given injectable tylan that goes into her breast muscle. We're on day 5 and she seems to be getting slightly better. She's eating more, at least.

 

[dennisma1]

Glad to hear. I upped the tylan at the end. I did it orally. She is still ok. It's always a good idea to have antibiotics on hand before something happens.