Breathing problem

I am at a loss about this one. Ladybug is a feral who was treated for a fractured leg at a rehabbers. It healed but quite crooked and she walks with a bad limp. She was not releasable so I took her and she paired up with one of my males. She has been inside for nearly a year now with no problems. She is a young bird. She's been wormed.

The past couple of days I noticed her breathing to be more pronounced. I can't see any other symptoms. She's eating and drinking fine, normal poop. She sat on a clutch for 2 weeks and has been off eggs for at least a week now. No sneezing, discharges, mouth is smooth and pink, no mucous. No lumps or bumps anywhere. Normal feeling crop.

I would take her to the avian vet but for one thing. She is not hand tame and stresses out terribly when handled. She won't stop fighting to get away and winds up panting.
Any ideas?

I am getting some videos up at YouTube. Sometimes her breathing seems better, sometimes worse. The only thing I can think of is perhaps her posture has something to do with it? Because of her leg, she doesn't stand up like a normal pigeon. She tends to crouch a lot. I hope I'm overreacting.

Jen, does she open her beak while breathing heavily? And does she breathe in higher intervals than normal - also does her back move up and down while breathing - more than normal?
If not - you might be a bit too worried and it just has something to do with her positioning herself - as you already suspected.

Jen...what kind of wormer did you use? Maybe she has worms that the wormed didn't kill. I've had several this past year with more than one kind of worm.

Is it not her time for another set of eggs? I would try calcium and minerals.
It is true that some of wormers do not clear everything. Does she eats and drinks normally?

No opened mouth breathing but her back does move more, and her flight feathers move up and down. Although I think that's more noticeable as her flights stick out because of her posture. I got one video but it's hard to see when she's moving around. YouTube is down at the moment so I'll try to get more videos and get them uploaded.

I use Moxidectin which has worked great in the past. I'll recheck her poop. She should be laying eggs in a few days yes. Could the eggs be pressing on her air sacs? Eats fine. Bathed a couple of days ago. She has grit with calcium, pick pots, and greens. Also muti vitamin in the water weekly. Should I add a mineral/calcium to her water too?

This is her from a few weeks ago. She's a cutie!

If she's getting ready to lay, that could be what's going on.
She is very pretty little hen.

Here's one video. At the very beginning you can see her flights moving up and down. Sometimes it looks much worse than that, but then it gets better. I'll try to get a video when it's worse but it's not easy. LOL am I a worry wart? I hope so!

:eek: No video came throught for me, Jen.

YouTube is having issues I think.

Lady and Muffin

I can't see anything wrong with her. She places all her weight on the bad leg and that may be a problem.

She looks ok to me, Jen. If you have the feeling something is not quite right though, you are probably right. Keep a close eye on her.

Tonight she's sitting in her nest so she is getting ready to lay. She seems ok at the moment. She's had eggs before and I just don't remember seeing her breathe like that in the past. I hope that's all it is. It's just scary to think about having to bring her to a vet if she ever does need to go and the way she stresses out so badly.

I'm glad to hear Lady is seems to be doing OK now.
Let's 'think positive' that things will work out so she doesn't need to go the vet.

Please keep us posted.

She may need some extra calcium. I'm glad she's better.

Jen, she looks quite okay for me. I think there is no need to worry. If she were really sick I can tell you you would notice immediately.

Lady had her second egg today and her breathing seems to be back to normal. I'm very relieved! I never thought that it could be eggs. I've never seen any of my other hens having breathing trouble like this but it must be worse for Lady because of her posture. I did see that her eggs aren't as smooth as my other hen's eggs, they have rough little white deposits on them. I read something about that somewhere but can't remember. I think it was a site that Plamenh posted not long ago about problems with chicken eggs.

I had a little quail that breathed like that whenever she was about to lay an egg. It mostly went away after I started giving her extra calcium.

It's great to hear that Lady is doing well, Jen.

It's a relief to know she's alright!

Jenaka wrote:

Lady had her second egg today and her breathing seems to be back to normal. I'm very relieved! I never thought that it could be eggs. I've never seen any of my other hens having breathing trouble like this but it must be worse for Lady because of her posture. I did see that her eggs aren't as smooth as my other hen's eggs, they have rough little white deposits on them. I read something about that somewhere but can't remember. I think it was a site that Plamenh posted not long ago about problems with chicken eggs.

Yep, we had discussion with Niteowl about weird egg shels:

https://pij-n-angels.forumotion.net/pigeon-and-dove-chit-chat-f12/weird-eggs-t751.htm

Occasionally, one of my birds will lay an egg much smaller than the others. Years ago, I let one of the birds incubate one of them but it didn't hatch.