Sneezing and coughing flock

[MeMotherHen]

I have 23 chickens and all of a sudden a lot of them are occasionally sneezing and coughing and having trouble breathing. I've done some research and it could be influenza or some respiratory disease but it seems like it's starting to get worse and more birds are beginning to have similar symptoms.
I'm very worried about them! We take good care of our chickens: 16'x20' house, heated and such, roosting, nesting and window, and ventilation. they have a huge closed in run outside that they are let into every day. We clean their poop out everyday, clean water, and food.

I really really really don't want to loose my whole flock so any advise would be soooo very much appreciated.

They are New Hampshire Reds, Aracaunas, and White Plymouth Rocks...and they are all 7 months old!

 

[Chicken Goddess]

If they are having trouble breathing, they could have a worm. the best thing to do is keep them away from each other and put the non infected chickens in a separate coop (try to stop the good ones from catching the sickness). give your flock some worming liquid, you can buy it at fodders. i also recommend some sulphurquin of poultry tonic. this would cure them of there sneezing and coughing. check you backyard, there could be a pollen or flower that would irritate their nose. Hope this helps.

 

[chickened]

It could be any number of respitory diseases check for secondary symptoms and try to identify the ailment before you treat

 

[Poultry Couture]

Mine have the same

 

[jak2002003]

Mine had that. They all ended up coughing and sounding gurgly when they were breathing.

Some were very bad, others seemed not to get affected hardly at all.

It was Infectious Bronchitis. Its a virus, so I did not use antibiotics.

Eventually they all recovered fully and are back to full health and laying lots of eggs.

If they are just coughing, sneezing and having breathing problems I think you birds might have the infectious bronchitis. (so long as they coop is clean and its not a problem with ammonia).

HOWEVER, if they start having other symptoms like swollen eyes, watery eyes, mucus from the nose or beak, strange poops, then they have a more serious disease the you should get them checked out.

I would treat the entire flock - at this stage its not worth separated the sick ones, because if a few birds have it, they likely all will come down with it. I gave mine vitamins in the water and extra treats to keep them eating. Also keeping them warm will help.

The strange thing with the infectious bronchitis in my flock was the ones that were worst affected (I thought they would die they could hardly breath and they just stoop there gasping for breath) recovered the fastest - just a few days.

The birds that only had mild symptoms took a few weeks to get better.

Hope you birds will get OK.
If they seem to be loosing weight or show other symptoms then get one to a vet ASAP or find out what medicine to give them from on here.

Good luck.

 

[chickened]

Infectious Bronchitis is one of those diseases that a bird can recover from but they remain infected and become carriers that will infect any new birds added to the flock. You can vaccinate for it but you need to know the strain.