Chickens wheeze and sneeze: what to do?

2024 Author: Howard Calhoun | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:16

Chickens are perhaps the hardiest birds of all bred in household plots. They almost never bring trouble to owners in terms of he alth. But sometimes, of course, this popular economic bird also gets sick in the courtyard. Next, we will deal in detail with why chickens cough and wheeze. These symptoms may be a sign of a fairly serious illness.

What are the varieties of chickens

On farms and household plots, birds of different productivity directions can be bred. For meat, they often contain specially bred hybrid broilers. This bird gains weight very quickly, but, unfortunately, does not differ in good he alth. It is broilers that get sick on farms most often.

Many people also keep chickens for meat in their backyards. Representatives of these breeds also gain quite a lot of weight. In this regard, they are inferior to broilers, but at the same time they are distinguished by better he alth. Chickens sneeze and wheeze (how to treat a bird in this case depends on the specific disease) of this variety less often.

In villages and dachas, laying hens are also often kept. Egg hens are the most popular variety and are actually very he althy. Sometimes farmers also keep chickens of mixed productivity. Such a bird carries a lot of eggs and at the same time gains weight quite quickly. Representatives of the breeds of this group, like laying hens, get sick quite rarely.

What to do when coughing

Why chickens wheeze, consider below. To begin with, let's figure out what measures should be taken when such a symptom is first detected. Most often, such a problem, as you might already guess, is observed in broilers. However, representatives of any other productivity group can also develop a cough. But in any case, wheezing and sneezing are absolutely uncharacteristic sounds for a bird. Therefore, their appearance, of course, indicates he alth problems in the chicken.

Unfortunately, very often a bird's cough occurs with infectious diseases. Therefore, chickens that have begun to wheeze should definitely be immediately deposited in a separate room. Infections spread among poultry, unfortunately, almost instantly. But still, such a measure may help to avoid infection of the entire herd, and consequently, large losses.

Cough can be a sign of what diseases

So in what cases does a chicken wheeze and breathe heavily? Most often, coughing and sneezing in this economic bird are symptoms of any problems.with lungs. Wheezing in chickens usually occurs when:

• cold;
• bronchopneumonia;
• infectious bronchitis;
• respiratory mycoplasmosis;
• colibacillosis;
• laryngotracheitis.

Also, wheezing in a commercial bird can be a symptom of infection with worms. In this case, the cause of coughing is irritation of the bronchial and tracheal mucosa by parasites. Such a variety of helminthiasis as syngamosis, for example, is very often the reason why chickens wheeze.

Cold in a commercial bird

Most modern breeds of chickens and even hybrids in our country are bred taking into account the difficult Russian climate. Therefore, cold weather almost never causes any particular harm to this household bird in the farmstead (the only exceptions are some broilers). But to drafts in the barn itself, both meat and laying hens, unfortunately, are very sensitive. The same goes for dampness. Draft and high humidity in the house is one of the most common causes of wheezing and coughing.

Cold is a relatively harmless disease. Even without being treated, the chickens in this case will not die. However, at the same time, they will significantly reduce productivity indicators. Therefore, it is still necessary to treat a cold of chickens.

Cold Therapy

Since this disease occurs in birds due to hypothermia, the diseased individual should first be placed in a warm room. ATthe house itself must be free from drafts. The treatment of the cold itself, if chickens wheeze and cough, can be done at home, for example, using nettle decoction. This folk remedy will help strengthen the bird's immunity.

In addition to the decoction, the chicken must also be given some kind of antibiotic. For example, very often a cold in poultry is treated with the drug Oflosan. This medicine is simply added to chickens in food or water, according to the instructions.

You can also use a spray to treat bird colds. In this case, for example, the medicine "Lugol" is very good. It is very easy to use this drug. You need to open the chicken's beak and spray some spray in her mouth.

Chickens sneeze and wheeze: how to treat bronchopneumonia

Inflammation of the lungs is also a common cause of wheezing in chickens. The disease is much more serious than a cold, and can even lead to the death of a bird. Most often, bronchopneumonia is diagnosed in chickens 15-20 days of age. The cause of pneumonia, like colds, in chickens is most often hypothermia. Adult birds get sick less often than young birds, but they can still have similar problems.

At the initial stage of this disease, the chicken becomes inflamed bronchi. The disease then spreads to the lungs and pleura. Cough in chickens in this case appears due to irritation of the upper respiratory tract. Wheezes in birds with pneumonia are observed "wet". Also, “snot” begins to stand out from the chicken. The sick birdbronchopneumonia, usually completely loses activity - sits in one place, does not move and breathes only through the mouth.

Treat a bird with pneumonia should be started as soon as possible. Otherwise, after a few days, the number of the herd may be greatly reduced. In this case, chickens are also treated with antibiotics. In this case, penicillin or the drugs "Norfloxacin" and "Terramycin" are most often used. In addition, the chicken coop is sprayed with Ashpiseptol.

In combination with antibiotics, a mixture of honey and mummy is also used (20 g and 1 g, respectively). As with a cold, nettle decoction is used to strengthen immunity.

Chicken wheezing: what to do with infectious bronchitis

Wheezes in birds with this disease are also usually "wet". The danger to the life of a chicken, infectious bronchitis is as serious as pneumonia. Moreover, this disease is also very contagious. Sick birds should be separated from the rest of the individuals as soon as possible.

In infectious bronchitis, chickens wheeze, lose their appetite, become lethargic, and cluster around a heat source. Laying hens may lay eggs with defects. Sometimes this disease in birds is also accompanied by diarrhea.

Treatment of chickens for infectious bronchitis is a procedure, unfortunately, useless. The infected bird is slaughtered, and the farm is declared unfavorable. The shed is treated with disinfectant aerosols (Lugol solution, Virkon C, aluminum iodide, etc.). It is impossible to cure infectious bronchitis in this way. However, to preventinfection of chickens with this disease is not difficult. To do this, you just need to periodically disinfect the poultry house and exclude communication with farms that are unfavorable in terms of infectious bronchitis.

Respiratory mycoplasmosis in chickens

This infectious disease is very common for poultry. In this case, she has lethargy and loss of appetite, the chicken wheezes. What to do if mycoplasmosis is found in a bird, many farmers would also like to know for sure.

This disease spreads among chickens pretty quickly. Within 2-4 weeks, the number of infected individuals can increase from 10 to 100%. In addition to wheezing and coughing, the main symptoms of mycoplasmosis respiratory in chickens are loss of appetite and lethargy. In some cases, the bird may experience swelling of the eyelids and tearing.

Mycoplasmosis therapy

Treat this disease using all the same antibiotics. In this case, for example, drugs such as Farmazin, Pnevmotin, Enroxil, etc. can be used. It is believed that products based on tiamulin, tolosin or enrofloxacin help best with mycoplasmosis.

The selected antibiotic is diluted in water and the latter is poured into drinking bowls. The course of treatment for mycoplasmosis in chickens is usually 5 days. Vaccination is the most commonly used preventive measure on farms.

Colibacillosis: a description of the disease and its treatment

This disease, like mycoplasmosis, belongs to the group of dangerous. Damage to the poultry farmcan inflict really very large. Colibacillosis usually affects young chickens. In the acute form of the course of the disease, up to 30% of the entire herd can die. Infection with colibacillosis occurs through dirty food and water containing feces with Escherichia coli.

In addition to the fact that chickens sneeze and wheeze, they also have the following symptoms with this disease:

• loss of appetite;
• bluish beak color;
• diarrhea.

The anus of chickens infected with colibacillosis is always dirty. You can also determine this disease by the fact that chickens drink a lot of water.

So, if colibacillosis is found in the poultry house and chickens wheeze, how can they be treated? Most often, one of the following three drugs is used for this condition:

1. "Enronite". This tool is considered very effective and practically does not cause addiction in chickens.
2. "Lexoflon OR". This antibiotic also treats colibacillosis very well.
3. "Enronite OR". When using this medicine, the bird recovers already on the 3rd-5th day.

All three of these drugs are usually very good for colibacillosis, when chickens wheeze. How to treat this disease, therefore, is understandable. But what about prevention? Measures aimed at preventing the spread of this infection in poultry houses, of course, must be taken without fail. As a prophylactic drug, for example, the same "Enronit OR" is just perfect. It is this medicine, fed to the bird in small doses, that makes it possible to avoid infection of chickens with colibacillosis.

How to treat laryngotracheitis

Of all the varieties of poultry, laryngotracheitis most often affects chickens. Unfortunately, the virus that causes this disease can also infect humans. Transmitted laryngotracheitis "from beak to beak." Most often, chickens get sick in the fall or spring. In 10 days, the infection can cover up to 60% of the herd. In this case, the lunge is usually about 20%.

With laryngotracheitis, chickens wheeze and cough very much. Also, the symptoms of this disease are:

• wheezing, coughing, wheezing;
• outflow from the nose and eyes;
• redness of the larynx;
• accumulation of mucus and cheesy masses in the larynx.

When pressing on the bird's trachea with your fingers, it starts to cough.

Treatment of laryngotracheitis on farms is generally considered inappropriate. If a sick chicken coughs and wheezes for this very reason, it is usually simply destroyed. However, sometimes therapy of laryngotracheitis in farms is still carried out. In this case, only obviously sick and emaciated birds are slaughtered. More or less he althy chickens are treated with broad-spectrum antibiotics (tetracycline, norfloxacin, etc.). The birds are provided with good feeding and heating.

For disinfection of a chicken coop with laryngotracheitis, lactic acid is sprayed in the air. To maintain immunity, the bird is given vitamins "Chiktonik", "Nitamin", "Aminivital". Also add ASD-2 (1 mlper 100 heads).

Vaccination is used as a prevention of laryngotracheitis in farms. Injections are made when the birds enter the farm or at the age of 30-60 days.

Syngamosis treatment

As already mentioned, worms are often the cause of chickens wheezing and coughing. The causative agent of syngamosis parasitizes mainly in the trachea and bronchi of birds. This worm feeds on the host's blood. Attaching to the mucosa, the parasites destroy it and damage the walls of the bronchi. Symptoms of syngamosis in chickens, in addition to coughing, are:

• sluggishness;
• presence of eggs in the litter.

Chickens infected with worms usually lose weight, sit with their heads down and their eyes closed. Also, sick chickens often stretch their necks and open their mouths, as if yawning. At the same time, red mucus is visible in the mouth of the bird. If left untreated, the breeding parasites will eventually block the chicken's throat with their mass, causing it to suffocate to death.

Deworming with syngamosis is usually carried out using a mixture of crystalline iodine (1 gram), boiled water (1500 ml) and potassium iodide (1.5 g). The solution is first heated to a temperature comfortable for the bird (30 C). It is then injected into the trachea of chickens using a syringe with a long, blunt needle. At one time, it is supposed to use 1-1.5 ml of the product.

Instead of a conclusion

Thus, we found out why chickens wheeze. What is the treatment for cough? The answer to this question depends on this specific disease. If such symptomsappeared due to a cold, it will be easy and independent to help the bird. For other diseases associated with coughing and sneezing, the farmer, of course, should seek help from specialist veterinarians.