Peacock with Gape Worm?

[Blackjack11]

Hello, I have a peacock that started gasping for air on Wednesday evening. I went to the feed store and they advised me to give him a shot of 3 CC's of Ivermectin which we did. He seems a little better but still gasping for air. He does seem to eat. I was just wondering how long it takes for the Ivermectin and if there is anymore I can do for him. Thank You very much!

 

[MeepBeep]

From my experience the gaping and gasping for air is more likely a bacterial chest infection not gapeworm (as gapeworm is honestly pretty rare) and thus the proper treatment for a chest infection would be antibiotics, like Tylan 50... Even on antibiotics it can take several days to see positive results and for them to stop gaping/gasping, other times results are within a day...

If you really want you can test for gapeworm with a q-tip swab of their throat, if you see very thin 1" or so red stringy worms it's confirmed gapeworm if not it's likely a chest infection... But, as I said gapeworm is rare so the test is up to you from my experience it's almost always a chest infection that causes similar gaping/gasping symptoms...

 

[KsKingBee]

I totally agree with MeepBeep, that is why I asked for a photo. Note if you swab to look for mucus in the throat. The main cause of death with a bacterial infection is from asphyxiation. I recently went through a particularly nasty bacterial infection that is not cured by any of the 'normally' used antibiotics. Look up Pseudomonas.

 

[casportpony]

Actually, gapeworms live in the trachea, not the esophagus, so swabbing will tell you nothing.

Also found a study that says ivermectin must be given in very high doses to treat gapes, and 3cc by injection is quite a bit.

-Kathy

 

[casportpony]

Gapeworms are rare, rare enough I've only seen it here twice, once in a chicken, once in a peacock. Both times I treated with Safeguard at 0.23ml per pound for five days and the gaping ceased at day three.

-Kathy

 

[casportpony]

Funny, I thought I would be the last to go kicking and screaming into the metric world. Now it seems odd when I see dosing that isn't in metric.

I was the same way 4 years ago, and it's taken some getting used to, but now I "see" everything in grams and kg. For example, little chick at my feet right now I see 35-40 grams.

-Kathy

 

[casportpony]

@KsKingBee, being the way I am, lol, I decided to weigh the chick and it weighs 38 grams!

-Kathy

 

[KsKingBee]

Hello, I have a peacock that started gasping for air on Wednesday evening. I went to the feed store and they advised me to give him a shot of 3 CC's of Ivermectin which we did. He seems a little better but still gasping for air. He does seem to eat. I was just wondering how long it takes for the Ivermectin and if there is anymore I can do for him. Thank You very much!

Could you post a pic of him? A really good close up of the face from the side?

 

[Trefoil]

The treatment I found for gapeworms was .5ml (1/2 cc) ivermectin orally. It might take longer to kill the gapes if given IM.. After 10 days when you retreat, maybe do it orally?

 

[casportpony]

Roundworm




Cecal worm




Capillary worms




Gapeworm




Tapeworm




Coccidia




-Kathy