Sick hen - any insights

[AmandaJae]

This morning I went out to the coop to feed and water the girls and I heard a terrible rasping noise coming from the roosting area. One of our 9 month old hens was up there and coughing and wheezing/breathing raspilly. We brought her in the house and could not find information online that clearly indicated what she has so we took her to an emergency vet clinic. They looked at her and put her in an oxygen box. Said they have no idea what is wrong with her, but our best bet is to take her to MSU tomorrow for euthanizing and fresh necropsy to help determine if our whole flock is at risk of something. They didn’t even charge us for a Sunday morning, emergency visit.
Her symptoms are:
- coughing
- rattling breathing/wheezing
- non-smelly mucus, but does have specks of blood
- she is not eating or drinking
- she is still mostly standing, not laying down
- She does move about some, but mostly seems like she just wants to go back out to the coop
- laid a normal egg yesterday
- only sign of sickness before today was that she was the first hen to roost at bedtime two nights ago

Any thoughts or ideas on what could be going on? Any BTDT?

 

[LaFleche]

It could be ILT Infectious Laryngotrachitis:

https://www.slideshare.net/ossamamotawae/infectious-laryngotrachitis-ilt

 

[AmandaJae]

Update: I talked to an Avian vet at MSU on the phone and he encouraged us to stay the course since it was just the one hen that was sick and said that we could bring her in for the necropsy if things got worse. It took 2 weeks, but she is completely back to normal and no other hens got sick at all. The vet said that he sees similar illnesses when the weather changes, as it had been doing drastically here in Michigan, and that it usually takes 7 days with antibiotics to get better or 10 days without. By the one week mark our hen was still coughing, but was feeling so much better that she was trying to smash herself through the bars of the dog crate we had her in. At that point we took her back to the coop and she completely recovered by the two week mark. I am so happy that the vet was willing to talk to me and give me information over the phone.