Crackly rasping open beak breather.

[maarijke]

Crackly Duchess video <———

Im hoping someone can help.

I have researched sour crop. Impacted crop. Egg bound. Sent a cloaca video to my bff down the road who is an experienced goat chicken bee animal children mother and farmer. Me being a doula i said - watch out. Sorry for the chicken vagina video. But her cloaca was fine. Not red. Not puffy. No egg bound.

She seemed to think respiratory something.

I thought crop first- our oldest of the children tends to the hens w me. He said- Mama- shes making funny breathing noises so i immediately brought her inside the bathroom to assess. Crop felt doughy and like a balloon filled w playdough. Very moveable and squishy. Three times the normal size ive ever felt on the other girls. Nothing hard. Nothing grainy or pebbly inside i could tell from external manipulation.

No sour mouth beak smell. No eye bubbles. She pooped twice and it looked very normal just slighty looser than paste.

I tried some coconut oil on her beak. It melted and she swallowed it. She wouldnt ever breathe without this noise and unfortunately she passed within just a few hours. We were with her almost the entire time. She was walking fine. Standing fine.

I left for maybe 15 min and came back to check and she was warm and had passed.

Upon reading like a crazy person on byc I found- The treatments for sour crop were 180 contradictory. Was not impacted to my knowledge bc it wasnt hard. No mites. No eye irregularities. No head twisting or shaking. Sneezing yes. I dont know what happened! This is our first hen to pass as an adult and her birthday is in 4 days. They were all 2.22.22 babies.

Ive never done dissections of a chicken but I did work in a bio anthropology zoo archaeology lab in college- i dissected a himalayan bear. Gorilla. Ibex head. Iguanas. I refused to do the kittens. Too sad.

If you have done your own-
What do I put on my list for the necropsy tmrw?

gapeworm
Check crop contents
Look at oviduct
Heart

Thanks. The kids and i are so sad. We named them all. They are our pets and we love them. I feel like i have to go tell her hen sisters tomorrow. Whats the protocol for talking to children about losing chickens? Any good kids books about death?

 

[Wyorp Rock]

If you have done your own-
What do I put on my list for the necropsy tmrw?

gapeworm
Check crop contents
Look at oviduct
Heart

I'm sorry about your hen.

Yes, I would look at esophagus, crop, in the abdominal cavity, reproductive system, heart/liver.
It's almost like she aspirated a lot of fluid. Did you happen to note if she had anything like air accumulating under her skin? Chickens have 9 air sacs, so a rupture could cause distress, but with the crop being doughy... look at blockage in the intestines or crop.
Basically look at everything you can.

Take photos if you wish, we'll try to take a look with you. I've done a few necropsy but nothing like a formal one in the video below which is quite informative and labels the "parts".