We have had a lot of rain the last few days here and the temps have been very cold. I have an elderly neighbor with 10 laying hens who I help care for. Especially now that winter is here. She is not able to make it out in the mud and rain to get to her coop every day without risk of falling. She has already fallen once and broke her hip so we do what we can to help her out. I go over in the morning to let them out for her and feed and water them and get eggs at night when I lock up.. I don't believe any of them are vaccinated, I think she got them all from either wilco or coastal feed store. She couldn't remember either. Yesterday and today while feeding them I heard some sneezing but couldn't tell who it was. I picked them all up individually and looked them all over but there arn't any other symptoms that I can tell. all had healthy looking eyes and no runny noses. I cleaned their coop about a week ago and the shavings I use is very course and has little to no dust. There is no light in the coop and no cover on the run so I am wondering if the drop in temps and rain could have caused or brought out an illness? They do seemed to be consuming less food and none are laying right now but many are coming out of a moult and a couple are not quite old enough yet..... And with the nasty weather we have my own birds aren't laying well either. I am stumped here any ideas? I looked thru the shavings some with a flash light and didn't see anything abnormal like blood and they didn't seem to be to runny but its hard to tell for sure. Any thoughts or ideas appreciated.
