Sick rooster, open mouth breathing.

[hmurphy984]

Ok I have a roughly 2 year old cuckoo maran rooster. Since Friday night I’ve noticed he’s been off, when I initially brought him in the first obvious thing I noticed as mites crawling all over him (ew). I’ve since treated the mites with a permethrin dust, and have been feeding him grain with scrambled eggs and giving nutridrench as well as a vitamin/electrolyte added to his water. I’ve already seen improvement to the amount of mites on him, as well as more normal looking poops today. Yesterday they were green diarrhea and today they are mostly normal, maybe a bit on the softer side. The thing that’s still concerning me is he is breathing somewhat open mouth. I wouldn’t describe it necessarily as “gasping”, but definitely not normal. No one else in the flock is sick, or even have mites (that I can see) which is weird but also not the first time we’ve noticed mites on just one chicken (she sadly did not make it). Considering also treating for gapeworm, but not 100% sure if that’s what I’m seeing. Any ideas?

 

[Eggcessive]

Usually with mites, all chickens should be treated and the coop bedding emptied while the coop is also treated. Permethrin 10 spray concentrate can be mixed with water to treat the coop. It lasts 30 days. Also retreat your birds at 7 days intervals until no evidence of mites is seen. Some mites only come on the birds at night, hiding in the coop during the day. The other type stay on the birds 24/7. Mites can cause anemia, and that might be a reason for panting. Make sure there are no eye bubbles, nasal drainage, sneeze, or crackles while breathing. Watery chicken feed mash could be good to feed him.

 

[hmurphy984]

Usually with mites, all chickens should be treated and the coop bedding emptied while the coop is also treated. Permethrin 10 spray concentrate can be mixed with water to treat the coop. It lasts 30 days. Also retreat your birds at 7 days intervals until no evidence of mites is seen. Some mites only come on the birds at night, hiding in the coop during the day. The other type stay on the birds 24/7. Mites can cause anemia, and that might be a reason for panting. Make sure there are no eye bubbles, nasal drainage, sneeze, or crackles while breathing. Watery chicken feed mash could be good to feed him.

Typically I do treat with the Permethrin 10 spray, but it’s winter right now and our temps have typically been below freezing so that won’t really work for us right now, it’ll just freeze. I can’t even give the coop a good cleaning like I normally would and wash everything down because, well, freezing. I probably have at least another month before we start having consistently above freezing temperatures. I’m not seeing any other symptoms other than the open mouth breathing.

 

[Myrshine]

Did he start the open mouth breathing before or after you treated for the mites? Maybe the dust got into his lungs?

 

[hmurphy984]

Did he start the open mouth breathing before or after you treated for the mites? Maybe the dust got into his lungs?

I’m honestly not 100% sure. I didn’t notice it until after, but I’m not sure I was paying attention for it either? The time between me seeing him down in the coop, bringing him in, and realizing he had mites so bringing him back out until I could treat the mites was so short. I don’t think I looked at much other than the fact I saw the mites. I was very careful about applying the dust around his vent and under his wings, and we were outside while I applied it. I just sat in the bathroom with him and now that my house is quiet I could hear there is a bit of wheezing, but he’s not getting any worse from what I can tell. Not getting better either.

 

[SapphireHill]

I pray it isn’t but can your vet test for the avian flu that’s been fast spreading across the US? It should be free. If not check with your county’s disease center or university extension ag program.

Hope they pull through

https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspective/2022/02/avian-flu-scan-feb-28-2022