Gurgling noises?

Our Faverolle hen has recently started making the odd gurgling noise - she has just gone broody for the first time wince we've had her, and I've noticed when booting her off the nest that she has started gurgling sometimes when she breathes. Then she sort of coughs and it stops for a while.

She is a big water drinker, and she has chosen a heat wave to go broody so could it be that she's just dehydrated?

Thoughts?

Isolate the bird with symptoms and look up poultry respiratory illnesses, yesterday (seriously, be quick because many respiratory ailments work quickly).

This is what I just went through with one of our chickens, but we were lucky and didn't have something very virulent/devastating: https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...rgling-rales-when-breathing-no-other-symptoms

Thanks - I now think she may have the early stages of gape worm :s. I think one of our older chickens may have suffered from this too before she died, we just didn't know what it was. but she was very old so hopefully our Gwendolyn will hold up better till we can treat.

I've put some anti-parasite spot-on stuff on her, which may help as it treats some forms of internal parasite and ordered some Flubenvet to give to them, so hopefully this arrives quickly - our vet would be useless here, I fear.

Other than the gurgling and odd neck stretching she is in perfect health, so hopefully I'm wrong, and it'll clear up by itself, but still, I'll be worming regularly from now on. (we've never wormed our chickens, I didn't even know you could till joining this site!)

Get someone to help you hold her and take a look down her throat (be gentle and have a hand held light). They're bright red worms that you should be able to see in her throat if they're present in quantities large enough to make the chicken gasp. A better way to confirm/deny worms would be to drop a fecal sample at a vet (any vet that tests for worms; doesn't have to be avian) and have them analyze it. They'll be able to tell you what worms/eggs are present and they can sometimes be infected with multiple types.

Ugh, I really loath parasites.

RedDrgn said:

Get someone to help you hold her and take a look down her throat (be gentle and have a hand held light).  They're bright red worms that you should be able to see in her throat if they're present in quantities large enough to make the chicken gasp.  A better way to confirm/deny worms would be to drop a fecal sample at a vet (any vet that tests for worms; doesn't have to be avian) and have them analyze it.  They'll be able to tell you what worms/eggs are present and they can sometimes be infected with multiple types.

Ugh, I really loath parasites.

 

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Thank you , I'll see if she'l let me - hopefully she doesn't have them in large amounts as this only started a couple of days ago :s. That's an idea I hadn't thought of, might give the vet a bell and see if they do that, think they must do for dogs/cats etc.

Jersey101 said:

Thank you , I'll see if she'l let me - hopefully she doesn't have them in large amounts as this only started a couple of days ago :s. That's an idea I hadn't thought of, might give the vet a bell and see if they do that, think they must do for dogs/cats etc.

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We take our routine (every six months) fecal samples to our cat vet and they run them like they would a sample of cat stool. They look for worms, worm segments, and worm eggs of all of the worms that chickens get (because cats and dogs are shared hosts) and it's only $30 for us to take care of the whole flock of 6. Never hurts to ask and always easy to know exactly what you're dealing with. I hope you can figure it out and get her fixed up quickly.

My chickens were having the noises at night when they are sleep , then one coughed and swallowed. I lost a hen about a month before this haqqened. No idea why. Now reading about your issue, sounds very familiar and my hen was also old. I called my vet and he suggested gaqeworms. I immediately used diatomatious earth on the food and a couple nights later I only heard one gurgle . I have some qiqerazine so I am using it. Ivermectin down the throat was recommended but I own Aussies so if they eat the feces after it could kill them so I am trying this. I thought having chickens roam free range was healthier but I guess it has its drawbacks. Hope yours get better and mine too. Sorry for the spelling I do not have the letter between o and q

mona Smith said:

My chickens were having the noises at night when they are sleep , then one coughed and swallowed. I lost a hen about a month before this haqqened. No idea why. Now reading about your issue, sounds very familiar and my hen was also old. I called my vet and he suggested gaqeworms. I immediately used diatomatious earth on the food and a couple nights later I only heard one gurgle . I have some qiqerazine so I am using it. Ivermectin down the throat was recommended but I own Aussies so if they eat the feces after it could kill them so I am trying this. I thought having chickens roam free range was healthier but I guess it has its drawbacks. Hope yours get better and mine too. Sorry for the spelling I do not have the letter between o and q

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This thread is almost a year old, you might get more and better responses/suggestions if you start a new thread. Sometimes if people see a thread is old they pass it by.

If your chickens are making respiratory noises, coughing, wheezing, rattling, or gurgling, and it's worse at night, they most likely have come down with a respiratory disease. This would be much more likely then gape worm. A course of antibiotic's will help get them over it. These diseases often go right into pneumonia and secondary bacterial infections, this is usually what kill's the bird rather then the disease itself, hence the need for antibiotic's. As well as keeping them warm, especially at night, until they recover.

DE (diatomatious earth) will not treat gapeworms nor help with any illness. It's an expensive product of little value but that's just my opinion. When you have an outbreak of anything, be it internal or external parasites, your much better off treating with something that is for sure going to solve the problem. You can use Safeguard to treat gapeworm if they did indeed have it, it's actually somewhat rare. I believe the dose for standard size chickens is a pea sized ball of the wormer per chicken for 3 to 4 days. I've never had to treat for gapeworm so double check that by doing a search on this forum.

Good luck with your birds, hope you are able to get them sorted out.