Cinnamon Queen gasping

[KJV1611]

I have a 7 month old Cinnamon Queen hen, named Lucy, that has been gasping for air for going on 2 weeks now. What is strange, is it is not all the time. She will sit under the coop for a while, just gasping and wheezing. Her comb and wattles start to turn purple. But then she will just snap out of it, and start walking around scratching, eating, drinking, and even chasing off the younger hens. Her comb and wattles will turn a nice bright red again. Then later, she'll go back to stretching out her neck and gasping and wheezing again.

I have 11 hens in total, none of the other hens have any symptoms of any illness. Lucy also has no other symptoms. No discharge from sinuses, no swelling of the face, no watery eyes, no "external" blood, no signs of mites, no visible injuries, and no visible blood or worms in stool.

I have treated the entire flock's water with TiaGard for a week. No change. I have dewormed Lucy alone with Safe-Guard. No change. I tried using VetRx on Lucy for about a week. No change. I treated the entire flock's water with FlockLeader Recover 911 (electrolytes, probiotics, prebiotics, and oregano). No change. I tried segregating her, but when she snaps out of her gasping, she gets rowdy and I worried about her hurting herself.

I really have no idea what is wrong with her. My hens all have a 10'x18' coop and a 20'x30' run. They are not free range. I have also changed their feed, to no resolve.

But like I said, she eats and drinks, albeit not as much as she should. She has lost some weight. But I check her every night, and she always has some food in her crop. And she poops, albeit small ones.

Sorry about the long post, but I wanted to cover as many of my bases as possible. If anyone has any ideas, please let me know. The other girls haven't been too aggressive with her yet, but I'm worried that I'll go out to the coop one day, a see a pecked to death chicken. Thank you.

 

[KJV1611]

That is strange that her gasping comes and goes. It looks pretty serious when she is doing that. It’s also at like something is stuck in her airway. Does she ever cough or sneeze? Did she do this before you used the Sweet PDZ? I used that in my coop for about 2 years without any issues. Be sure to continue worming her with the SafeGuard 1/4 ml per pound for 5 consecutive days, since that is the dosage for gapeworms.

The closest thing I have seen to coughing or sneezing, is that little head jerk you can see in the beginning of the video I posted earlier, "Lucy Before Bed". I used the flashlight on my phone, and put in on the outside of her throat. I looked down her throat while she was gasping, I didn't see anything abnormal.

Yes, this started before I started using Sweet PDZ.

I did the full dosage of the Safe-Guard on her already. It didn't make any difference.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Hard to see inside her beak, do you see any yellow or white lesions?

Also, feel her body - feel if there's any air bubbles or pockets under the skin, especially around the 9 air sacs.

Do make sure her crop is emptying overnight.

Do you note if she starts to have this issue right after she's been eating/drinking?

You mention early in the morning and evening - is she in the coop when she's having issues? How's the ammonia levels inside the coop - it smell fresh, no burning of nose or eyes when you go inside?

Since this comes and goes, it's a bit of a puzzle. Could be Infectious Bronchitis, but she's clear eyes, has no mucous...

I'm going to tag in @Eggcessive to look at the videos and posts.

 

[KJV1611]

I've been checking inside her mouth, and down her throat. I have not seen any lesions.

I have been feeling her body daily, I have not noticed any bubbles or anything that felt unusual.

Yes, her crop is empty in the morning.

She starts first thing in the morning, usually before food and drink. She might gasp for an hour or two before eating and drinking. I live in Pennsylvania, and our November mornings have been quite cold lately. She usually starts to snap out of it, once it warms up a bit.

I have a poop tray under their roosts, that is filled with Sweet PDZ. And I scoop their nightly poop daily. There is no noticeable ammonia smell in the coop. And no burning of the nose or eyes. And this all started with Lucy, before I installed the poop tray, and started using Sweet PDZ. I thought that too much poop in the coop could be the problem. Even though I changed it in their old coop regularly. But Lucy's gasping is the reason I installed a poop board and started using Sweet PDZ.

The first video I posted, shows her in the old coop, which I open up for them during the day. There's 1 other girl, who insists on using it to lay her eggs. But they haven't slept in that coop for about 3 weeks.

I'm baffled with this. I have been searching online, trying to find out what's wrong with her. I really don't want to have to put her down. But I'm afraid, if I she doesn't get better soon, I'm going to have to. The other girls are really starting to get annoyed with her gasping at night. I have caught a few of them starting to peck at her.

 

[Eggcessive]

That is strange that her gasping comes and goes. It looks pretty serious when she is doing that. It’s also at like something is stuck in her airway. Does she ever cough or sneeze? Did she do this before you used the Sweet PDZ? I used that in my coop for about 2 years without any issues. Be sure to continue worming her with the SafeGuard 1/4 ml per pound for 5 consecutive days, since that is the dosage for gapeworms.

 

[KJV1611]

I kept my girls in the coop for most of today. The weatherman was calling for freezing rain and snow. And my run is uncovered.

Lucy looked pretty bad this morning. It took her a while to snap out her gasping. But when she did, she walked over to the waterer and drank. And she even pecked at one of her sisters to get to the feeders, and ate. After that, I noticed that she walked over to the mini coop I keep inside of the big coop. A few of the girls use it as a nesting box. And she kept looking inside of it, like she wanted to lay. But she didn't.

It seems like no one has any ideas on here, what could be wrong with her. And I noticed that posts get buried under other posts pretty quickly in this forum. So this will be my last post for this issue, unless someone has an idea. I will just keep an eye on her, and if she gets too bad, I will have no other choice but to cull her. Thank you and God bless.

 

[KJV1611]

I'm sorry to hear she's still struggling and getting worse.

We certainly aren't vets here.
If you lose her and want to find out more, then sending the body to your state lab will likely give you the most information.

I agree, threads sometimes do get buried, those of us who volunteer and take the time to try to answer questions get swamped with alerts, tags, pm's and threads to follow up on and to try to catch new threads waiting to be addressed a well.


The only thing I can suggest is try an antibiotic like Tylosin to see if it makes a difference.
https://jedds.com/products/tylosin-powder?_pos=1&_sid=99e84da41&_ss=r
https://jedds.com/products/tylosin-powder?_pos=1&_sid=99e84da41&_ss=r

Oh, I understand. I wasn't criticizing, I just came to the conclusion, that no one on here saw this before. Thank you to everyone who responded. I will look into Tylosin. God bless.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

I have a 7 month old Cinnamon Queen hen, named Lucy, that has been gasping for air for going on 2 weeks now. What is strange, is it is not all the time. She will sit under the coop for a while, just gasping and wheezing. Her comb and wattles start to turn purple. But then she will just snap out of it, and start walking around scratching, eating, drinking, and even chasing off the younger hens. Her comb and wattles will turn a nice bright red again. Then later, she'll go back to stretching out her neck and gasping and wheezing again.

Can you get a video of her actions?

Upload video to youtube and provide a link.

Does Lucy lay eggs? If so, are they normal?

Is her crop emptying overnight?

Hard to know if these symptoms come and go, if she's not come into lay yet, then she may be starting to come into lay and the process is stressful for her.

 

[KJV1611]

Can you get a video of her actions?

Upload video to youtube and provide a link.

Does Lucy lay eggs? If so, are they normal?

Is her crop emptying overnight?

Hard to know if these symptoms come and go, if she's not come into lay yet, then she may be starting to come into lay and the process is stressful for her.

She was laying before this all started. She started laying around 19 weeks old. And the eggs were around medium size, but otherwise normal. And yes her crop empties overnight. Like I said, she is pooping. I will take a video in the morning and add the link to this post.

*She has, as far as I know, not been laying for at least a week now.

 

[KJV1611]

Sorry about the delay, but here is the video.