We are new to this whole chicken thing...I need your help. My 7mth old hen started wheezing, she coughs and shakes her head like there is something on her face. When I hold her, she opens her beek and seems to have trouble breathing.
I'm hoping she has something caught in her throat. We just recently put down wood shavings, then a few days later we added straw....lots of it. I wanted to help keep them warm....and with the rain we had lately, I thought it would keep things dry...is it possible that she is having a hard time digesting the fresh spinach and watermelon and bread I gave her. I have read that olive oil helps...and I even added apple cider vinegar to her water.
Has anyone experienced this?
Please post, I've fallen madly in love with this chicken!
Thanks LisaLu
Help, my chicken is wheezing
LisaLu, Is she eating and drinking normally?
Doesn't sound like a digestion problem.. The spinach and watermelon will go right through, would be my guess.
Sounds respiratory..
Is there discharge from her nose?
Is she the only one with these symptoms?
What about her eyes, is she the only one you have, if not is she isolated from the rest?
LisaLu -on the reference thread at the top there are a bunch of links with info and more where DGers have discussed this. You might check it out. These are, I think, the most relevant. But there's a lot there.
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/928333/ DGer had this prob..
http://www.afn.org/~poultry/flkman3.htm infectious bronchitis
http://www.msstate.edu/dept/poultry/diagext.htm diagnosis by symptom
Thanks Grow! You are a wealth of Knowledge.
And the offical keeper of knowledge!
LisaLu, Keep us posted.
yer gonna scare me off talkin' like that!!!
hehehe! Is the pressure crushing? Sorry. I will lighten the load sum.
agh!
LucyLu? Where are you? How are things going?
How is that little girl?
Sounds respiratory to me.
Thank you all for your input. "Bumkin" is still wheezing, but is eatting and drinking fine. I contacted the woman I purchased her from, and she told me to go to the feed store and get "Sulsadimethoxine", it's a powder that is diluted in water, and that I should isolated her. I am getting a little disallusioned with these chickens.....we have 10 hens, about 7 months old, and 4 smaller hens, about 3 months old. None of them are laying, the chicken lady said it was due to the colder temps. We are considering putting in a light, but first I need to fix this problem with Bumkin.
If it's unseasonably cold, or they've had a recent change to their environment or any other little thing they can stop laying for a short while. Bumkin looks fat and sassy from that angle and should lay well once the dust settles...
it sounds respitory to me also. u said it was raining, check bedding for mildew and mold. if there is that would cause respitory probs. sometimes them being in the rain or new bedding if it is dusty will do it also. the med u listed is an antibiotic yes it will work if it is respitory. check the roof of her mouth too and make sure the air vent in the roof of the mouth is not clogged with food or something also.
Oh they are purdy! I sure hope the treatments work for you.
Keep us updated! Please. ^_^
Hi there Lisalu: Wanted to check with you and see how things are going for you and the girls (chicks)? Don't let these things get you down. It's like anything else, overwhelming in the begining but slowly things will settle in and soon you'll be blessed with feathered friends and lovely eggs. Please let us know how things are going. Haystack.
Thank you all for your concern and well wishes.....I think Bumkin is doing better, I can't wait to put her back in with her friends. I'll wait until Tuesday, and hopefuly I can relax a bit.
The woman I purchased her from said she has 4 month old Cochin's that are white with blue spots, so maybe next weekend I can make the trip!
I would love to see pics of others....please share!
LisaLu- I'm glad to hear the hen is better but now I think you can be diagnosed with the chicken bug!
yes the nonlaying problem sounds like colder temps and also they need at least 14 hrs of light a day to lay..mine are 4 mo now and are laying like crazy..i have golden comets and i just love them..i just have a regular light on a timer.
What do you all think?... Bumkin has stopped wheezing, but it looks like she is somewhat laboring to breathe. I can't really tell. Her beek is just a little open, her eyes look great, her poop looks normal, and she eats anything I put in her cage. I plan to keep her isolated for a couple more days just to be sure.
I noticed all of this after the first rain, we had put down wood shavings, then some straw....I wonder if she didn't just have a reaction to mold? My hubby says "no there's no mold..." so I don't know. How long should she be on this med? I thought 5 days sounded good.
LisaLu, I am glad she seems better.
I am not a good one to answer a med question though, as I have never had to use any.
They also open their mouth when they are hot. It is how they cool down.
Someone else can answer better I think. ;)
I am just glad she is eating and drinking good.
She sure is purdy!!
The antibiotic I have used I alawys kept them on for 7-10 days. It may say on the directions. If you stop too soon you run the risk of only the "strongest" bacteria still survivng. Hope this helps! Where is Wildomar I'm originally from the SF Valley.
1lisac:
Bumkin is going to stay on her meds until Friday now, I'll be able to keep an eye on her and the others come Friday. I want to make sure the other hens welcome her back.
I agree that antibiotics must be used for the recommended time, but I was never told what that was. I guess I could call the "Chicken Lady" and ask.
Wildomar is just north of San Diego, 1 hour east of Orange County, in Riverside County. Wildomar is nessled inbetween the Temecula Wine County and Lake Elsinore. We are on 2.5 acres, and surrounded by rolling hills. I love it here. We are still working on the land, it was raw dirt when we moved here 3 years ago. So far the house is done, the vineyard, the orchard, and my beloved garden and chicken coop. The landscape around the house is done, but then there is all the rest of it....and with $$$ getting tight, I think I need to learn to love the dirt! Be thankful for what we have and wait and see what's in store for us all.
What is Texas like?
LisaLu
LisaLu-We are near the Hill Country and it is really beautiful. Gardening is so completely different here. Many seeds need to be sown in the fall-winter for spring bloom. We have lived in the same place for 15 yrs. and have 26 acres the only animal I don't have is a sheep! It is a great place to raise my kids, I still have family in CA so I do get to go back and visit many people don't realize how much land in CA is used for agriculture.
Please keep us posted on Bumpkin
Lisa
Garden2grow
Tomorrow is Bumkin's big day....I will be putting her back in the coop. I hope she is ok. She sounds raspy, but maybe that's just her voice. She gets excited when I visit, and makes a funny sound, almost squeeky. She isn't nervous, I really think it's her voice!
How often do you clean your coops? I scrape the droppings off the tops of their nesting boxes every morning. And I have noticed blood in several of the droppings....now what? They all seem perfectly fine.....am I being rediculous? I think it's just inexperience that has me so nervous.
WOW, every day??? I clean my coop every other month or so. When it looks like it needs it. I through fresh hay ontop of the old until then. Gee, I dont know. I have never found blood in their poo. Lets wait and see what someone else has to say. Lisa, you are not being rediculous. I am the same way. I just dont want to over look anything. Its okay. We learn as we go. ;)
Blood in poo can be nothing or very bad... Check out how much there is and where it's coming from, then go to the reference sticky -there's a link for diagnosis by poo...Claire and Harmony and a few others have done this. See what you can find and check back.
Thanks for the lead...I wasn't expecting such poo detail...wow...pics & everything! Really helped put me at ease, my girls are just fine. The specs of blood are tiny, and I have a feeling they are from the Mexican hens, and they are going bye, bye tonight. We found a family that will take them.
Tjhanks again for all the help, you all are great. I guess it's really true...."Birds of a feather do stick together"!
Have a great day, I'll post more photos tonight of Bumkins' welcome home party!
if it is not that much blood could be just new layers starting to lay too, sometimes they lay bloody eggs. coops don't need to be cleaned everyday my gosh that would be expensive. i do mine once every 2 weeks because i got so many birds but in winter time i deep litter method to make heat. i don't clean the coop i just keep adding it on top when they need it and turn it. while it decomposes it creates heat.
Glad you found it. There's a ton of really good info in these threads. If we can just keep track, lol. I tend to forget before the next crisis.
I don't clean the coop out completely everyday, I just scrape off the poo that piles on top of their nesting boxes. They like to sleep on top!???! I want the poo for my compost pile! It better make a difference in the garden because I really don't like the chore at all! Anything for my garden though!
Bumkin is going to take a trip to the "Chicken Lady" on Sunday. She is still wheezing. (Bumkin not the "Chicken Lady"!) Could it be allergies? We had really bad winds today. Anyway, I'll feel better if someone with experience can take a look at her. I'd hate to infect the rest of the girls, besides...I want to give her the Mexican hens, and I want some new ones. I'm excited to see what she's got for sale.
LisaLu
That sounds like a plan. I hope she is fine. I have never heard of chickens with allergies. But my dog does. He gets ear infections from them. Good luck.
I see, they sleep ontop of the nesting boxes!!! Ithought you went out and cleaned your coop everyday! I was like, wow, she is OCD. LOL
If you put a slanted board on top of the nesting boxes that will keep them off of there.. but I can relate about the poo.. it heats up the compost real good!
Also I was reading that if your roost is above the nest box level.. that will keep them off too.
I am very happy to report that Bumkin is back in the coop with her friends! Along with a new girl....I just couldn't resist. I can't believe I spent $60.00 on this new one! She is so pretty, she's called a "Lemon something, something".... I'll post photos and ask for help from you all for a name. She seems a little scared of the others, so I'll wait until she calms down.
The mexican hens are now gone, the chicken lady promised to give them a good home.
So I think my flock is now complete. Well, unless someone happens to have a pure white hen, I don't have one of those! (Does this ever end?)
I'll post in a couple weeks.....
LisaLu
Neverends...lol. Thanks for the update and glad Bumpkin is up-n-running!!
Yeah, Bumpkin!!!! You did it, against all odds you overcame!!! Why is Chariots of fire playing in my head? huh? Enjoy your new friend!!! woot!