- Mar 17, 2016
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I have an 8 month old Belgian d’anver bantam rooster who is having some issues.
Signs and symptoms:
- heavy labored breathing (and occasionally a sound almost like a click when he breathes, more in his throat/mouth than in the lungs, might just be his tongue)
- purple comb (sometimes darker purple, sometimes more red like normal)
- pretty lethargic, he will occasionally be a bit more alert when we walk into the room or pick him up, but he has been getting more and more sleepy eyed as the days go on
- often seems to like standing more than laying down, I’m not sure if it’s easier for him to breath while standing perhaps? But he does lay down and sleep quite a bit too
- sometimes has drooping wings when he’s standing
- still eating and drinking, though he seems to get tired easily after eating or drinking
- poop seems normal
- he seems very thin, his breastbone is very prominent and he seems to have very little breast muscle
Treatment so far:
- we noticed his odd breathing 3 days ago but didn’t think much of it
- 2 days ago we noticed he was lethargic outside so we brought him inside and realized his comb was purple
- now we have him isolated in the bathtub with towels down
- have put Nutri Drench in his water
- had some amoxicillin laying around so we’ve been giving him that twice a day mixed with some yogurt in case it’s a respiratory infection
- have checked for mites/lice and also looked for ruptured air sacs, but didn’t find anything
- no sign of ascitis
- his eyes seem clear
- I haven’t seen any discharge from the nose or mouth, nor any sneezing
- I haven’t been able to look in his throat (his mouth is so small and he absolutely not like when we try to pry his mouth open, he has enough energy to fight us in that regard)
- crop is not hard, though it doesn’t seem particularly soft and squishy either. Feels normal as far as I can tell
Any thoughts? He’s giving me mixed signals because he seems so tired and breathing so heavy and clearly doesn’t have good circulation, but then sometimes he seems eager to eat and drink. But he’s also so thin that I wonder if he’s been sick for a while and it’s just flown under the radar. Sometimes he seems more alert and will walk around a little, but other times he just stands and breathes heavy and dozes.
My first thought was a respiratory infection, hence the antibiotics. But I suppose it could be a heart problem? Does that happen to such young chickens?
He’s not vaccinated for Marek’s so I know that’s a possibility as well, I just don’t know how to distinguish the symptoms from any other diseases.
Here’s a video where you can see his heavy breathing. This is at night just now so he seems pretty tired, but during the day he often pants a little harder with his mouth open. His comb isn’t too purple in this video but sometimes gets very dark.
Signs and symptoms:
- heavy labored breathing (and occasionally a sound almost like a click when he breathes, more in his throat/mouth than in the lungs, might just be his tongue)
- purple comb (sometimes darker purple, sometimes more red like normal)
- pretty lethargic, he will occasionally be a bit more alert when we walk into the room or pick him up, but he has been getting more and more sleepy eyed as the days go on
- often seems to like standing more than laying down, I’m not sure if it’s easier for him to breath while standing perhaps? But he does lay down and sleep quite a bit too
- sometimes has drooping wings when he’s standing
- still eating and drinking, though he seems to get tired easily after eating or drinking
- poop seems normal
- he seems very thin, his breastbone is very prominent and he seems to have very little breast muscle
Treatment so far:
- we noticed his odd breathing 3 days ago but didn’t think much of it
- 2 days ago we noticed he was lethargic outside so we brought him inside and realized his comb was purple
- now we have him isolated in the bathtub with towels down
- have put Nutri Drench in his water
- had some amoxicillin laying around so we’ve been giving him that twice a day mixed with some yogurt in case it’s a respiratory infection
- have checked for mites/lice and also looked for ruptured air sacs, but didn’t find anything
- no sign of ascitis
- his eyes seem clear
- I haven’t seen any discharge from the nose or mouth, nor any sneezing
- I haven’t been able to look in his throat (his mouth is so small and he absolutely not like when we try to pry his mouth open, he has enough energy to fight us in that regard)
- crop is not hard, though it doesn’t seem particularly soft and squishy either. Feels normal as far as I can tell
Any thoughts? He’s giving me mixed signals because he seems so tired and breathing so heavy and clearly doesn’t have good circulation, but then sometimes he seems eager to eat and drink. But he’s also so thin that I wonder if he’s been sick for a while and it’s just flown under the radar. Sometimes he seems more alert and will walk around a little, but other times he just stands and breathes heavy and dozes.
My first thought was a respiratory infection, hence the antibiotics. But I suppose it could be a heart problem? Does that happen to such young chickens?
He’s not vaccinated for Marek’s so I know that’s a possibility as well, I just don’t know how to distinguish the symptoms from any other diseases.
Here’s a video where you can see his heavy breathing. This is at night just now so he seems pretty tired, but during the day he often pants a little harder with his mouth open. His comb isn’t too purple in this video but sometimes gets very dark.
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