Wildfire Smoke?

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ckuehn

Songster
Jul 5, 2022
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Southeast North Dakota
I live in North Dakota and we had a few days of critically dangerous air quality here. Keeping the chickens inside wouldn't have been helpful since they don't have a filtration system. The smoke has abated somewhat. Today, I noticed my Cuckoo Marans hen (4 years old but typically amazingly healthy) was gurgling and making a funny breathing noise. Then both of my light Brahmas were making little honking breathing sounds. They are two years old. My Icelandic hen was doing it also at times (gurgling). Everyone else seemed fine except I have a one year old easter egger who has always been healthy but woke up yesterday morning drooping. She is under the weather and just stands around. She is not egg bound. She has very watery diarrhea, will drink a bit and was only really agitated and lively when she wanted out of the quarantine cage to go and lay and egg today (which she did). I have given her probiotic water, poultry cell and hand fed her all her favorites. She has been like this 48 hours now. No better-no worse. I am at a loss. She drinks more water than she eats. Could it be related to the air quality smoke issue? How are chickens coping with the smoke in other places? I have an air cleaner on order for a quarantine coop because I'm sure it will get bad again...I just hope I am doing eveything I can...
 
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I’m not an expert, so I don’t know what exactly is going on with your birds. However, I’ve had some awful smoke here from fires in Canada. We had almost a week of air quality so bad it was off the charts and you couldn’t even see a quarter mile in front of you. We did nothing different with our hens, and they have an open coop and run, they were in and out all day. The smoke had absolutely no effect on them, I was surprised!

So I would doubt it’s the smoke that caused your birds to have issues.
 
I have to second the above. My parents have been keeping chickens for over 20 years in Montana and almost every summer is a wildfire fiasco that has no effect on their chickens. It sounds like your chickens are sick and either the smoke is exacerbating an existing condition or the timing is coincidental. I bought some hens once who had been in extremely dry, dusty conditions and I chalked their raspy breathing up to that. Big mistake. They wound up being very ill and one even had a recurrence of the illness a couple years later.
 
ckuehn said:
It was empty-a little spongy but not overly large. She is the same this morning. She is really not eating much.
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I wonder if I should force feed her. I gave her poultry cell this morning and all her favorites. She is sneaky though and won't eat or drink when I am looking at her, so I have to go away. I hope she doesn't lay another egg today. That takes a lot out of them. She just falls asleep all the time. It is very strange for her. I double-checked and she was vaccinated for Mareks as a chick. She doesn't seem to be in pain, but still has runny diarrhea. Her breathing appears to be good.
 
BlindLemonChicken said:
I have to second the above. My parents have been keeping chickens for over 20 years in Montana and almost every summer is a wildfire fiasco that has no effect on their chickens. It sounds like your chickens are sick and either the smoke is exacerbating an existing condition or the timing is coincidental. I bought some hens once who had been in extremely dry, dusty conditions and I chalked their raspy breathing up to that. Big mistake. They wound up being very ill and one even had a recurrence of the illness a couple years later.
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What was the illness?
 
ckuehn said:
What was the illness?
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I never figured it out actually. They had yellow snot and occasionally one of their eyes would get bubbly. Their breathing would be raspy. I put VetRx under their wings and put a heat lamp out in their quarantine pen and within a week or so they were better. It was really a bandaid. It was the only time I took a chicken to the vet and tried antibiotics. Which did nothing.
 
ckuehn said:
It was empty-a little spongy but not overly large. She is the same this morning. She is really not eating much.
Click to expand...

ckuehn said:
I wonder if I should force feed her. I gave her poultry cell this morning and all her favorites. She is sneaky though and won't eat or drink when I am looking at her, so I have to go away. I hope she doesn't lay another egg today. That takes a lot out of them. She just falls asleep all the time. It is very strange for her. I double-checked and she was vaccinated for Mareks as a chick. She doesn't seem to be in pain, but still has runny diarrhea. Her breathing appears to be good.
Click to expand...
The crop was not overly large and a bit spongy when you checked it this morning?

Check it again, first thing in the morning before she's had anything to eat/drink. The crop should feel Flat/Empty in the morning after a full night's sleep.
If it's spongy or doughy, then address that symptom.

Photos of your hen and her poop may be helpful.

If she's able to eat/drink on her own, provide food/water during waking hours and let her eat/drink as she wants. If she's not getting picked on and can be with her flock, leave her with her flock.

You "hope she doesn't lay an egg today" it takes a lot out of her? If she's exhausted laying an egg, then give her One 300mg tablet of Calcium Citrate+D3 once daily for a few days to see if that helps her expel and egg or material.

It sounds like your hen is having health issues. I can't say specifically what - maybe reproductive problems. If possible, get a fecal float to see if she needs deworming. https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...w-to-know-which-one-youre-dealing-with.73607/
 
Wyorp Rock said:
The crop was not overly large and a bit spongy when you checked it this morning?

Check it again, first thing in the morning before she's had anything to eat/drink. The crop should feel Flat/Empty in the morning after a full night's sleep.
If it's spongy or doughy, then address that symptom.

Photos of your hen and her poop may be helpful.

If she's able to eat/drink on her own, provide food/water during waking hours and let her eat/drink as she wants. If she's not getting picked on and can be with her flock, leave her with her flock.

You "hope she doesn't lay an egg today" it takes a lot out of her? If she's exhausted laying an egg, then give her One 300mg tablet of Calcium Citrate+D3 once daily for a few days to see if that helps her expel and egg or material.

It sounds like your hen is having health issues. I can't say specifically what - maybe reproductive problems. If possible, get a fecal float to see if she needs deworming. https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...w-to-know-which-one-youre-dealing-with.73607/
Click to expand...
She certainly is having health issues, but it came on so suddenly. Two days ago she was wandering around and scolding me. Now she is so low. I started the miconozole. I am going to let her hang with her flock tomorrow. She is roosting with them tonight. Everyone has the air purifier. I have Tiaguard in the waterers everywhere so no one can avoid it. I hand dosed four of the worst gurglers (my Icelandic acts like she can't catch her breath and then sneezes and does better for a while). I would say 5 are afficted but no one was sick three days ago (except my Speckled Sussex who is laying eggs that are long and soft like balloons). I will do the fecal float tomorrow.
 

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