Chick swallowed tongue!!!?

[DrFarmersDrWife]

My 6 week old silkie has been drooling and tries to eat but food keeps falling out. Her crop is empty and she's moving and ranging but definitely more lethargic.

I took her to a local chicken guy (not vet). He helped me look down her throat for any thing stuck and we realized there was no tongue visible! Looking harder we saw she has swallowed it. We tried pulling it up with tweezers but with no luck.

Is there anything I can do for her?! Has anyone found a treatment?

 

[Sarevan]

Does the tongue make it difficult for her to breathe? I would try to tube feed her so she gets nourishment and water. I would also keep trying to bring her tongue back in place and check if there is anything around the tongue making it go down the throat.

I haven't had experience with this but would like to know how the chick is doing. Good luck!

 

[DrFarmersDrWife]

Went to the vet this morning. Vet had never seen this before but they don't get that many chickens they said.

Looked in her mouth and couldn't see tounge. They put her upside down to see if it would come up and then looked down throat. We saw yellow goo. So the vet decided on a course of antibiotics injected once daily for four days.

She was running around this morning, but after the stress of the visit she is gasping for air and very listless in her quarantine box.

I'm afraid I'm going to lose her, but at least we are trying.

I'll keep everyone posted as this seems to be a question no one has experience with.

 

[DrFarmersDrWife]

My poor baby Blue just died. She went down hill so fast after the vet today.

I came back from dinner to check on her and she sang to me very lightly, a little hello.

I decided to give her a few drops of electrolyte water and adjusted the heat lamp.

She's been gasping ever since we got back from the vet and it may have gotten worse after I gave her some water drops. Either that or I'm giving myself extra guilt, and it really was that bad to begin with.

I talked to her a bit and settled her in the box then left for less than five mins. When I got back she was gone.

I have no idea if I could have done anything different to help her. Maybe I should have culled and saved her some pain. I'm not sure but I hope that updating this thread will help the next person.

I don't have it in me to do an autopsy, even though it might help if this happens again. I'm sorry.

My advice to anyone who finds this thread is to go to the vet immediately. I'm still not sure how a chickens tongue can go down her throat like that but it did and over time it was harder and harder to find. I hope you have better luck than I did.

RIP Blue

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

Oh I am sorry for your loss.

It sounds like you did everything you could.

 

[Kiwi blonde]

Thank you for your post as I have just discovered my 11 year old Araucana has done the same thing, swallowed her tongue, her breath stinks and she is unable to drink or eat, I have been giving her electrolites with a dropper however she has lost weight and condition, I think because of her age the kindest thing to do would be to put her down, my poor old Dodo, shes a lovely bird

 

[Lighteye]

This happened to one of my chicks. She kept opening her beak. The first time I noticed we thought she has clogged nose so her mouth opening was to breath through her mouth. But the next day she was flipping her head and when I tried looking inside her mouth, the tounge's tip was almost down her throat. I tried squeezing it. I also noticed that her neck is a bit twisted I think it's coz of her swallowed tounge. I don't think she will last that long. She's 6 weeks old. I wonder what could have happened. Either she ate something big that pushed her younger that way or some of her siblings must have stepped on the neck while sleeping idk really but this is the first case I have a chick that swallowed it's tounge