Wheezing chicken... respiratory infection? Help Please!

[CedarAcres]

So I am not having a good week with my chickens. I had one that had a sour crop (all better now!) and now this morning I have one that is wheezing. It sounds similar to this video:

But not as severe and only when she is inhaling. She's 2 1/2 months old, eating & drinking fine, acting normal, except for the wheezing. It seems to stop when she sleeps. No discharge from her eyes or nose. She is currently seperate from the rest, in the house. I have given her a full inspection & I can't notice anything wrong externally. I have looked into her mouth and I don't see anything. Her lungs sound fine, it almost seems as if it is coming from her nose rather than chest.

I'm confused as to how she would get this.. as I was always taught it was exchanged from infected chickens. My family always had a protocol to not bring in any adult birds and don't bring our birds to fairs to cut down on possible sickness. We don't really have any contact with any other chickens other than our feed store. I don't remember any of our birds getting respiratory illnesses in the past and no one in my family does either. We've had birds on the property for over 50 years and have never really had anything too bad illness wise. Very minor things here and there.

Any recommendations? I have contacted my vet and she wants me to just watch her today and if she doesn't improve or gets worse she wants me to bring her in tomorrow.

 

[Eggcessive]

Wild birds can bring in diseases. It could just be dust or an allergy in this chicken. I'm sure you are watching for swelling around the face or eyes, and nasal drainage or bubbling in eyes. which is how most respiratory illnesses behave. Just for precaution you could give some Tylan 50 1/2 ml. into the breast muscle for 3 days. It can be given orally for a longer period if necessary, but not as effective.

 

[CedarAcres]

Thanks for your reply! She doesn't have any external symptoms at all, which is what I've been looking for. I'm wondering if you are correct about the allergy. Could a chicken be affected by pollen? It's so thick in the air here that you can see it. Since I've brought her inside, she has barely been doing the wheezing. She's eating like normal, enjoying the treats I've given her, behaving totally normal.

 

[CedarAcres]

I just had a thought... during my last sick bird issue, my vet told me to dose the whole flock with corrid as a precautionary measure and they just finished the treatment.. I thought that corrid could cause an issue with vitamin A.. and don't vitamin A deficiencies mimic respiratory symptoms? I can swear that I read something about that. Does anyone know?

 

[cafarmgirl]

I would be extremely surprised if the Corid had anything to do with the symptoms you describe. Corid is a thiamin blocker so if anything perhaps a vitamin B1 deficiency if on the med for a long period of time which is not the typical course of treatment.

Most likely is your bird is reacting to something environmental or she has a respiratory disease. Usually when they pick up a disease they don't feel well and in some diseases the symptoms worsen at night. If your bird is clear eyed, otherwise acting normal, eating and drinking and moving about, I'd suspect environmental cause such as allergic to something.

 

[CedarAcres]

I would be extremely surprised if the Corid had anything to do with the symptoms you describe. Corid is a thiamin blocker so if anything perhaps a vitamin B1 deficiency if on the med for a long period of time which is not the typical course of treatment.

Maybe this is what I remember reading and got totally mixed up in my head. She seems totally better now (inside) and is no longer doing the wheezing at all. Her symptoms seemed to diminish quite rapidly after coming in. I'm wondering what it could be that is irritating her so much. They were all having a dust bath party earlier this morning, so maybe she just breathed in wayyy too much? We have quite dusty soil. The only other thing I can think of is the heavy pollen in the air here right now. She wasn't wheezing this morning at 6am when I let them out, so it started after she was outside a few hours.

 

[CedarAcres]

Well, she's still breathing clear this morning. I'm nervous to put her back outside though. If it were a respiratory infection, would the wheezing have suddenly started for a few hours then stopped? Still no other symptoms and she's acting totally normal. She actually has been trying to bust out of the isolation box.. repeatedly. One of my family members thinks I'm reading too much into this and that she just breathed something into her nose that has since dislodged itself. I made a vet appointment with our avian vet.. now I'm wondering if I should cancel?

 

[CedarAcres]

Well I did end up taking her to my vet, since I practically live in the vet's office anyway, lol. She thinks she had something stuck in her nose, and she has a weird sinus cavity that could have been making the noise. She had no signs of illness at all. She ran a fecal as well, nothing in there.

 

[Betsy57]

My year old Cinnamon Queen started wheezing Monday. I've been giving her an injection of Tylan since Tuesday and no real improvement. I have her in the basement and that is getting old. No drainage or other signs, just wheezing. She is eating and drinking ok. Last fall, I had one start this way and it was very quick to where she was really struggling to breath. It hurt me to listen to her. She wasn't eating or drinking so I put her down. Hate to do this again to a good layer.

 

[CedarAcres]

So sorry about your chicken! Can you check her mouth & see if there's anything odd going on in there? If she has no signs of a respiratory infection (other than the wheezing) could it be gape worm?