Chicken not quite right - any advice?

[SophieM]

I’ve had a cuckoo cochin chicken for about 12 weeks now. I got her from a breeder when I got a few to start my little flock. At the time we didn’t realise (what with all the other clucking and excitement) but she couldn’t make a chicken noise! She’s been nicknamed Darth Vader and she can only make a husky rasp, and the odd thing is she moves her head in the way a cockerel does to crow, not like the other girls do when they just cluck cluck away. She was also sold as P.O.L. but has never produced an egg. She seems very happy, eats well and is social. Recently she also seems to have a lot of ‘bubbles’ building up to a froth in one eye. It doesn’t bother her too much, and I’ve used some Optex drops every other day for a week, but it’s made no difference.

I know the sensible thing would be to go back to the breeder, but I had my doubts about him on our second visit when we went to pick up the birds, and he persuaded my 20 year old daughter that she ought to have one particular bird that I’d already turned down. It was a Silkie at a cost of £30 – a bargain apparently, as he thought she was such a nice girl...(being a girly girl, the idea of a fluffy chicken was great, and Mum agreed to look after it.) Sadly it died within the week, had a runny nose and a funny smell from the start…think he saw us coming. Still the Silkie had a very happy last week with us. Anyway..that being the case I don’t think he will be very helpful in offering any advice (I’d believe). So I thought I’d come to you – has anyone heard of this before?

I’ve read about things like ‘infectious laryngitis’, but she has never got any worse or any better, and I would have thought that if it were a serious problem she would be showing other signs of illness.

[cheeky chicken]

Ours had "Bubbly eye" which came as a secondary thing after a respiratoy infection.

They started off wheezy and sneezy I noticed it when we got them home. To cut a long story short we went to the vet and he gave us some baytril antibiotic stuff which we had to give them all twice a day by syringe.
I think you might have to phone or take her to the vets, also you might have to treat them all, ours caught it off the one who was most poorly.
This all happened a week after we got them, they were from a comercial breeder so by law they have had all their "immunisations".
I was still really worried and convinced it was terminal or something.
It all cleared up really well with no remaining ill effects. Don't know what would have happened if we had left them without any treatment, as they go down hill so fast.

Phone a chicken vet, I think they are common symptoms of illness and he will probably perscribe a general antibiotic.

I'm no chicken medical expert though just going by our own experiences.

[cheeky chicken]

Also we found that things vastly improved when we draugh proofed the chicken house. Still left overhead ventilation but cut out the side winds!