Luvachicken Posted May 8, 2015 Share Posted May 8, 2015 (edited) One of my lavender pekins sounds snuffly/chesty BUT only when I have tried to catch her. If I sit and watch them she makes no coughing sound at all but as soon as I try to do anything with her, as soon as I have caught her she sounds wheezy. Once she has calmed down it goes away. I learned today that if you want to check if a chicken has a cough you listen at night when they have gone to bed when everything is quiet and then you should hear coughing etc easily, so I will do that later, but any advice for now would be good. She is fine in all other ways and has just been wormed but I'm not sure if she is laying at the moment. I'm finding it hard to know if she is ill or not Edited September 11, 2015 by Guest Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beantree Posted May 9, 2015 Share Posted May 9, 2015 We bought two Buff Orpingtons recently Luvachicken. They were quarantined for ages because we couldn't decide if they had anything contagious or not. Apart from the chronic lice and poor digestion they were both wheezing and sneezing. One has since settled, but the other continues to wheeze occasionally and sneeze. We think it is a dust problem from where they were reared, judging by the colour of their nostrils when we collected them. Once a chicken has lung damage it is irreversible our vet told us. She is worst when dust bathing but any excessive activity brings it on as well. It is also evident when we catch her. We liken the condition to asthma and don't think it is treatable. She is laying and is about to go broody, which may finish her off unfortunately because she wheezes badly in the nest box as well. Their condition improved when they came out of quarantine and went into the big coop and its vents were left fully open. The vents equate to 10% of the floor area. Perhaps the ventilation is insufficient in your coop? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mimi5 Posted May 9, 2015 Share Posted May 9, 2015 Hi Luvachicken. You listen between the shoulder blades (or wings if you like) put your ear close up (it needs to be quiet) If there's infection you will hear wheezy sounds or a kind of rattling. I do wonder though if chickens can suffer a sort of hayfever? Martha who is out with the chicks on grass has had a few snezzy sounds and the chicks too, but all are well. Where as Max and Polly are mostly in the run on woodchip. Anyone any thoughts?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mullethunter Posted May 9, 2015 Share Posted May 9, 2015 Luvachicken I know you have experience of this so would probably recognise it but that's kind of what Bernadette was like when she was getting sour crop. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beantree Posted May 9, 2015 Share Posted May 9, 2015 Chickens certainly can get apparent 'hay fever' in my experience. We have had several oldies that have suffered from what appeared to be that and were treated with a single dose of cod liver oil (0.5mL per Kg bodyweight) to boost their immune system. With complete success (or because the pollen source went) I don't know? Apparently fir trees and Silver Birch are the worst. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
miller30 Posted May 9, 2015 Share Posted May 9, 2015 If she's only doing it when you do anything with her or catch her she's getting stressed as once she calms herself down is fine again she may just be a bird that doesn't like much human contact handling etc you do get them Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mimi5 Posted May 9, 2015 Share Posted May 9, 2015 Apparently fir trees and Silver Birch are the worst. Interesting Beantree as Martha and the chicks are next to a conifer hedge! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luvachicken Posted May 10, 2015 Author Share Posted May 10, 2015 If she's only doing it when you do anything with her or catch her she's getting stressed as once she calms herself down is fine again she may just be a bird that doesn't like much human contact handling etc you do get them I'm pretty certain this is when she does it. I did listen in the other night and could hear nothing. Apparently fir trees and Silver Birch are the worst. This could be a problem, we have 3 massive scots pine trees to the left and 2 big ones to the right of us in each neighbours gardens. She is still absolutely doing everything chicken but I will keep a close eye on her for the next few days and see how she gets on. Thanks everyone for all your replies Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luvachicken Posted May 15, 2015 Author Share Posted May 15, 2015 I did my usual and took Zoe to the vets just to be on the safe side. He said her chest was clear but he wasn't able to give me a diagnosis. He did give Zoe an antihistamine injection and said she should sound better in the next 5 days. So glad it wasn't anything serious and probably just dust and pollen. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mimi5 Posted May 16, 2015 Share Posted May 16, 2015 Well, better safe than sorry So now you can just wait to see improvement Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luvachicken Posted September 11, 2015 Author Share Posted September 11, 2015 Well here we are almost in the middle of September and Zoe's symptoms have gone. I noticed a couple of weeks into the summer holiday that she was no longer making any noises at all and had started laying again. Today though she got stressed with something I was doing and the sound came back. I'm pretty certain that it is a stress related thing and that all the neighbouring pollen didn't help. It's taken a while for it to clear up but now pollen levels have dropped I'm sure that has helped her. Hopefully she will grow out of it and it won't return over the winter ( as asthma did with one of my children ) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
