Why Are My Chickens Sneezing? Part 1 • This is Z Life

Introduction

There’s always due concern when you hear sneezing in your chicken coop. I have recently had some issues in my own backyard chicken flock. Outlined in this blog post are the steps I took to answer the question: Why are my chickens sneezing? Have you ever looked up possible reasons/diseases of sneezing in chickens? There are so many possibilities (click here for Merck Manual Veterinary Manual article of Common Infectious Diseases in Backyard Poultry By Yuko Sato)

Screenshot of a poll I conducted on Facebook. Name of poll: Your Chickens are Sneezing!! What Do You Do?? Option 1: Cull Immediately (1 vote) Option 2: Nothing (14 votes) Option 3: Call a Veterinarian (0 votes) Option 4: Call The State (2 votes) Option 5: Treat at Home with Whatever's in Your Medicine/Herbal Home Remedy Stock (6 votes)

Pictured above is a poll I created in Facebook. As you can see, do nothing was the most popular response.

Possible Chicken Respiratory Infection Symptoms

Sneezing
Nasal Discharge
Eye Discharge
Conjunctivitis
Coughing
Open Mouth Breathing
Noisy Breathing
Decreased Egg Production
Lethargy/Depression

Why are my chickens sneezing? Healthy looking black chicken standing in green grass with brown fallen leaves around.

My Backyard Chicken Flock

The Beginning

This summer I decided it would be nice to add a few new chickens to my flock. I contacted a few people with chickens looking for new homes on my local Facebook group and picked up 2 birds from one family and 3 birds from another. Not a single bird had any chicken respiratory infection symptoms! However, the 2 birds from one family were very thin.

Young Easter Egger Chicken. Orange/yellow head and neck with some black feathers. Brown feathers with black striping accents. Grey legs. Standing outside by cut wood; leaves and woodchips around the ground and a little green grass.

Conjunctivitis in Chickens

About 2 weeks after introducing the new chickens, one of my original flock’s roosters suddenly became sick. He went from zero symptoms, to sitting hunched down, to conjunctivitis (basically swelling of the pink parts under the eyelid), and yellow eye discharge in about 14 hours. No other birds had symptoms, and I chose to humanely dispatch the bird.

My hand holding a clear plastic container with about 10 eggs in it above an orange/brown tiled floor. Eggs range from dark brown to light brown, to white, and on light blue egg.

Why Are My Chickens Not Laying?

All of my chickens where 2 years old or less. My young chickens were supposed to start laying in the late fall. Total, I had around 23 chickens. I expected to get over 12 eggs a day with those numbers. I did not. I was lucky to get 7 eggs a day! Usually, I was getting 2 to 4 eggs daily.

3 eggs sitting on yellow straw in front of a red wall. One egg is light brown with dark brown speckles. One egg is a very light pastel blue with some darker blue speckles. One egg is white with some brown speckles (probably just dirt on that one!)

Why Are My Chickens Passing Away?

Fast forward to winter! I had just fed my chickens in the morning and was outside doing a few other chores when I heard one chicken make a weird squawk. I looked up and saw one of my young hens (hatched less than 12 months before) flap a few times and drop over. There were absolutely no signs of fowl play, discharge, or anything out of the ordinary. Maybe a week, later I found another young chicken gone under her perch.

3 chickens (one black; one light brown; and one reddish brown and white) eating out of a tan plastic tub. 2 wood logs are sandwiching the tub so it doesn't flip) 3 tails of other chickens going out of the picture (one white; one brown and black; and one grey).

Why Are My Chickens Sneezing?

Within a week of the sudden departures, I heard a few chickens sneezing. Other than the chickens sneezing everyone looked healthy. All the chickens were eating and drinking well, running around, happy, and really seemed fine. Click here for my post about normal chicken life!

My Next Steps to Why Are My Chickens Sneezing

Since my chickens seemed relatively healthy, I opted to watch and wait. A week or so after the sneezing started, I read an article posted in my local Facebook group about the bird flu in West Virginia. They recommended calling the state immediately if there were any chickens with respiratory infection symptoms. I already wanted to talk to the WVU Extension Office in Martinsburg, WV about making my property into a farm, so I called and left a message about my property. I was called back in about 24 hours and went over my property questions and mentioned I had sneezing chickens.

I was given a number for the West Virginia Department of Agriculture. So, I called, told someone there about my sneezing chickens, and was told the state veterinarian would contact me. Within 24 hours the Assistant Division Director of the WV Department of Agriculture called to discuss my case. She asked if I wanted my birds tested for a few concerning diseases, including the Avian Influenza. I opted for the testing as I wanted to know what was happening to my chickens. The testing was free so that helped make my decision. Someone else would call and schedule a time to come test the birds.

Golden laced polish chicken standing on a roost with a white and light brown chicken behind it on the roost. Light brown chicken on floor of coop behind the roost. Red comb of rooster and eye in very front of picture photo bombing

I also called my local veterinarian to see how much a sick exam would cost as well as some general testing. A sick exam was $93 and an Avian Respiratory Profile was $608.

Conclusion

As promised, I have outlined the steps to I took to answer the question: Why are my chickens sneezing? Check out Why Are My Chickens Sneezing? Part 2 and find out how my chickens were tested and if my chickens were positive for the Avian Influenza! Click here for Part 2.