New Chick..head twitching and neck stretching with open mouth

[cityfolkchicks]

My chick, possibly 5 wks old, barred rock/americauna mix. Went outside for 1st time for 15 minutes today. 8 hrs later she is twitching her head..stretching her neck while opening her mouth wide. Shortly before that she was laying down funny and seemed like she counldnt stand for long. She was bought at a pet store along with another..they have been caged together at both places. He is showing no signs like her. They are on the medicated food which she is eating as well as drinking so I am lost? Any advice will be great. This is my 1st pair of chickens..and I have 4 more in a different area of the house which have never been around her. They came from a local certified farmer not the pet store. Thanks.

 

[Miss Lydia]

could she have eaten something that is now stuck in her crop? maybe long blades of grass? forgot to say

how does her crop feel and look?

 

[Iluvmychickens]

sounds like what my chicken is doing right now also. Is your chicken pooping?

 

[cityfolkchicks]

Her crop looks normal, feels ok to me but I am so new to this. If there is a foriegn object in there what would in feel like?

Yes she is pooping, it looks normal, not any odd color and no blood.

She is chirping like normal too. She is alert when I go and check on her, twitching has slowed, and standing normally. Oh and I dont know if it helps but I have pine bedding in their cage..which my hubby thinks he may have got a piece stuck in there. He said she is trying to fall asleep while he is whistling to her..lol.

also she is pecking at herself alot. he checked her for mites but didnt see any. she has her feathers coming in...do they normally do this? its like she is pulling all of her "fluffy hair" out.????

 

[Miss Lydia]

well maybe what ever happened is getting okay, I hope so. I have bantams they are sweet birds. and sometime they will eat the shavings but usually by 5 weeks they shouldn't be eating them. you keep food out for them all the time don't ya? when they start to get their feathers it is itchy so maybe that has something to do with it. Now mites are very tiny so you don't always see them. if you suspect mites you can dust your chicks with sevin or poultry dust.

 

[cityfolkchicks]

Yes food and water is always there unless I'm changing it.

Would she have picked up mites from being outside for 15 minutes?

She is still doing the neck and mouth thing. Oh and she just had a small brown runny poo. But the others were normal...maybe stress from being isolated? I only know what I read on this site so this information is like gold to me. Thank you all for helping me.

 

[Miss Lydia]

look around her vent area, and under her wings, mites are tiny and look like small flecks of pepper. they like to hang out around the vent and under wings. Seems like the other chicks would have picked them up too though. doing the neck and open mouth makes me think there might be something stuck in her craw. I am going to look for chicken anatomy be back. heres a diagram of their anatomy so we can think about maybe it could have picked up something outside and ate it and now it is stuck. is it pooping normal and having any problem eating or drinkling ? https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=10845

 

[cityfolkchicks]

last poo was brown and runny. she is sleeping so i havent seen another yet.

 

[robinwiththechickens]

Does what your chick is doing look anything like this:

I took this video of one of my girls last night, I wondered what was wrong with her.

 

[Miss Lydia]

so if she's sleeping does that mean the streching her neck and opening her mouth must not be stressing her out too much?