Chickens are perhaps the most hardy birds of all bred in household plots. Health owners almost never bring trouble to owners. But sometimes it gets sick in the courtyard, of course, and this popular farm bird. Further in all the details we will understand why chickens cough and wheeze. Similar symptoms can be a sign of a fairly serious disease.
What are the varieties of chickens
On farms and in homestead farms, birds of different productivity directions can be raised. Meat often contains specially bred broiler hybrids. This bird is gaining weight very quickly, but, unfortunately, is not distinguished by good health. It is broilers who get sick on farms most often.
Many are kept in the courtyards and chickens of meat. Representatives of such breeds also gain quite a lot of weight. In this regard, they are inferior to broilers, but at the same time they differ in better health. Chickens sneeze and wheeze (what to treat the bird in this case depends on the specific disease) of this species is less common.
In villages and cottages very often contain hens. Egg chickens are the most popular variety and are actually very healthy. Sometimes farmers also contain chickens of mixed productivity. Such a bird carries a lot of eggs and at the same time is gaining weight quite quickly. Representatives of the rocks of this group, as well as laying hens, get sick quite rarely.
What to do when a cough appears
Why chickens wheeze, consider a little lower. To begin with, let's figure out what measures should be taken when a symptom is first detected. Most often, such a problem, as you might guess, is observed in broilers. However, a cough may appear in representatives of any other productivity group. But in any case, wheezing and sneezing - sounds for the bird are absolutely uncharacteristic. Therefore, their appearance, of course, indicates health problems in chicken.
Unfortunately, very often coughing in a bird appears with infectious diseases. Therefore, hens that started to wheeze should definitely be put in a separate room immediately. Infections spread among poultry, unfortunately, almost instantly. But nevertheless, such a measure, perhaps, will help to avoid infection of the entire herd, and consequently, large losses.
What are some signs of cough?
So in what cases does the chicken wheeze and breathe heavily? Most often, coughing and sneezing in this poultry are symptoms of any lung problems. Wheezing in chickens usually occurs with:
Also, rales in poultry can be a symptom of infection with worms. In this case, the cause of the cough is irritation of the bronchial mucosa and trachea with parasites. A type of helminthiasis such as syngamosis, for example, very often is the reason why chickens wheeze.
Colds in poultry
Most modern breeds of chickens and even hybrids in our country are bred taking into account the difficult Russian climate. Therefore, the cold of this poultry on the farm compound is almost never done much harm (only some broilers are an exception). But to drafts in the barn itself, both meat and laying hens are, unfortunately, 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.
The common cold is a relatively safe 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 nevertheless necessary to treat the common 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. At the same time, drafts should be excluded in the house itself. Treatment of the common cold itself, if chickens wheeze and cough, can be done at home, for example, using nettle broth. This folk remedy will help strengthen the immunity of birds.
In addition to the broth, the chicken must be given some kind of antibiotic. For example, very often colds in poultry are treated with the Oflosan preparation. This medicine is simply added to chickens in food or water, according to the instructions.
You can also use a spray to treat colds. In this case, for example, the medicine "Lugol" is very good. The use of this drug is very simple. You need to open the beak of the chicken and spray a little spray into her mouth.
Hens sneeze and wheeze: how to treat bronchopneumonia
Pneumonia also often causes 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 of 15-20 days of age. The cause of pneumonia, as well as colds, in chickens most often becomes hypothermia. Adult birds get sick less often than young animals, but they may still have similar problems.
At the initial stage of this disease, the bronchi become inflamed in chicken. Then the disease passes to the lungs and pleura. Coughing in chickens in this case appears due to irritation of the upper respiratory tract. Wheezing in birds with pneumonia is observed "wet." Also, "snot" begins to stand out in the chicken. The bird itself, infected with bronchopneumonia, usually completely loses activity - sits in one place, does not move and breathes only through the mouth.
Treat a bird with pneumonia as soon as possible. Otherwise, in a few days the number of herds can be greatly reduced. In this case, hens 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 (20 g and 1 g, respectively) are also used. As with colds, nettle decoction is used to strengthen immunity.
Chicken wheezes: what to do with infectious bronchitis
The rales of a bird in this disease are also usually "wet." Infectious bronchitis is as serious a chicken's life threat as pneumonia. Moreover, this disease is also very contagious. Sick birds from the remaining individuals should be as soon as possible.
With infectious bronchitis, chickens wheeze, lose their appetite, become lethargic and group around a heat source. Layers can lay eggs with defects. Sometimes this disease in birds is also accompanied by diarrhea.
Treatment of chickens for infectious bronchitis - the procedure, unfortunately, is useless. An infected bird is slaughtered, and the economy is declared dysfunctional. The barn is treated with disinfecting aerosols (lugol solution, Virkon S, aluminum iodide, etc.). It is impossible to cure infectious bronchitis in this way. However, preventing the infection of chickens with this disease is not difficult. To do this, you just need to periodically disinfect the house and exclude communication with the farms that are unsuccessful in terms of infectious bronchitis.
Respiratory mycoplasmosis in chickens
Poultry is very often infected with this infectious disease. In this case, she has lethargy and loss of appetite, the chicken wheezes. What to do when a mycoplasmosis is detected in a bird, many farmers would also like to know.
This disease spreads among chickens pretty quickly. Within 2-4 weeks, the number of infected individuals may 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 lacrimation.
Mycoplasmosis Therapy
They treat this disease using the same antibiotics. At the same time, for example, drugs such as Farmazin, Pneumotin, Enroxil, etc. can be used. It is believed that agents made on the basis of thiamulin, tolosin, or enrofloxacin are best used for mycoplasmosis.
The selected antibiotic is diluted in water and the latter is poured into drinkers. The course of treatment for mycoplasmosis in chickens is usually 5 days. As a preventative measure on farms, vaccination is most often used.
Colibacteriosis: a description of the disease and its treatment
This disease, like mycoplasmosis, belongs to the group of dangerous. Damage to the poultry farm it can cause really very big. Colibacteriosis usually involves young chicken. In the acute form of the course of the disease, up to 30% of the entire herd can die. Infection with colibacteriosis occurs through dirty food and water containing feces with E. coli.
In addition to the fact that chickens sneeze and wheeze, they also have the following symptoms with this disease:
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 colibacteriosis is found in the house and the chickens wheeze, how can they be treated? Most often with this disease, one of the following three drugs is used:
Enronit . This tool is considered very effective and practically does not cause addiction in chickens.
"Lexoflon OR". This antibiotic also treats colibacillosis very well.
Enronit OR. When using this medicine, the bird recovers on the 3-5th day.
All three of these medications usually help very well with colibacillosis, when chickens wheeze. How to treat this disease, therefore, is understandable. What about prevention? Measures to prevent the spread of this infection in poultry houses, of course, must be taken. As a prophylactic drug, for example, the very same “Enronit OR” is just fine. It is this medicine that is fed to the bird in small doses that avoids infection of chickens with colibacteriosis.
How to treat laryngotracheitis
Of all the varieties of poultry, chickens are most often sick with laryngotracheitis. Unfortunately, the virus that causes this disease can infect humans. Laryngotracheitis is transmitted "from beak to beak." Most often, hens fall ill 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 badly. Also the symptoms of this disease are:
wheezing, coughing, wheezing;
outflows from the nose and eyes;
redness of the larynx;
accumulation in the larynx of mucus and curd masses.
When pressing on the bird's trachea with fingers, it begins to cough.
Farm treatment of laryngo tracheitis is generally considered inappropriate. If a sick chicken coughs and wheezes, and for this reason, it is usually simply destroyed. However, sometimes therapy for laryngotracheitis in farms is still carried out. In this case, only a clearly sick and exhausted bird is killed. More or less healthy chickens are treated with broad-spectrum antibiotics (tetracycline, norfloxacin, etc.). The birds provide good feeding and heating.
To disinfect the chicken coop with laryngotracheitis, lactic acid is sprayed in the air. To maintain immunity, the bird is given the vitamins Chiktonik, Nitamin, and Aminivital. ASD-2 (1 ml per 100 heads) is also added to the mixers.
As a prevention of laryngotracheitis in farms, vaccination is used. Injections are done when the bird enters the farm or at the age of 30-60 days.
Syngamosis treatment
As already mentioned, often the reason that chickens wheeze and cough is because of worms. The causative agent of syngamosis parasitizes mainly in the trachea and bronchi of the bird. This worm feeds on the host’s blood. Sucking to the mucosa, parasites destroy it and damage the walls of the bronchi. Symptoms of syngamosis in chickens, in addition to coughing, are:
Chickens infected with worms usually lose weight, sit with their heads bowed and eyes closed. Also, sick chickens often stretch their neck and open their mouth, as if yawning. At the same time, red mucus is visible in the bird’s mouth. If untreated, the breeding parasites eventually block the chicken's throat with its mass, as a result of which it dies from suffocation.
Deworming during 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). Then, hens are introduced into the trachea using a syringe with a long blunt needle. At one time, it is supposed to use 1-1.5 ml of the drug.
Instead of a conclusion
Thus, we found out why chickens wheeze. How to treat a cough? The answer to this question depends on this particular disease. If such symptoms are manifested due to a cold, helping the bird will be simple and independent. For other diseases associated with coughing and sneezing, the farmer, of course, should seek the help of specialist veterinarians.