Sick chicken

[kettlerunchickens]

Hello all, I am new to chickens, (7 months) and started my flock with 6 chicks from a friend. 4 ended up roosters and gave them to a big farm. I just got two 7 month old girls from a nearby farm and waited a week before introducing them. They didnt have runny noses or sneezing or coughs so I put them in with my two girls. This morning I found one of my girls wheezing on inhalation and exhalation. She is also lethargic. I put her in a dog crate in the garage with some heat and a vaporizer of VetRX going. She had a messy butt, so I cleaned her up a bit and held a warm wash cloth on her vent to relax her some. Nothing seems to make her comfortable. She hasnt laid in several days. She lays an olive colored egg so its easy to spot. She will not eat or drink. I added Probiotic and electrolytes to her water in case she does. None of the other girls have any symptoms. I have not felt any abnormalities in her abdomen. Her whole abdomen moves when she breaths. I have cleaned out the coop and changed out all water containers to help control an illness if it is one.
Any thoughts on what could be going on? Im guessing respiratory illness or egg bound. Any help is greatly appreciated. Im trying to figure out how to post a video from my phone.

 

[azygous]

Are you familiar with where a chicken's crop is and how to check to see if it's normal? Sometimes raspy breathing isn't due to a respiratory illness but a crop disorder that is backing up into the chicken's throat.

The crop is high on the right side of a chicken's chest and should have about a half a cup of food in it during the day. It should empty completely over night during sleep and be flat and empty in the morning. A full spongy crop in the morning needs treatment.

A hen's abdomen is the area down below her vent just behind her legs. If this is what is swollen, she may have a reproductive issue, either an infection or a stuck egg.

Can you verify what part of the hen's anatomy you are concerned about?

 

[kettlerunchickens]

I guess its hard to tell if she is sick or in pain. The video should help see what Im talking about but the site dosent recognize the .mov file of it.

 

[azygous]

To post a video to BYC you need to first post it to You Tube, copy the link and post it here. When it posts, the video automatically embeds.

 

[kettlerunchickens]

I think I got it figured out on the video. She ate and drank a little this morning. So thats a good sign for now. She didnt seem to be as harsh sounding in her breathing either.

 

[azygous]

Your video didn't post. Did you post it on You Tube and copy the link from there to here?

 

[mountaingirl196]

No video access.

 

[kettlerunchickens]

How about now? It was set to private before.

 

[kettlerunchickens]

She is doing much better. No heavy breathing and she is eating and drinking. Ive been doing VetRx vaporizers and keeping her in a nice quite dark area. I guess I will keep her in her crate for a couple more days to make sure she is ok before letting her back out into the run with the others.
-Crop felt normal. I checked it against another hen.
-I didnt feel an egg in her abdomen area or near her vent
Maybe she just had a cold...

 

[Eggcessive]

In the video, the sound she was making is called stridor. It is usually from a small piece of food stuck in the airway. If accompanied by head shaking and sneeze or cough, it can be a sign of mucus or swelling in the airways from a respiratory disease. Since it has cleared, it was probably food. I had a hen who would eat too fast and have stridor for a few hours.