Hen acting like choking please HELP!

LilyLovesBugs

Chirping
8 Years
Aug 1, 2011
214
5
91
1) What type of bird , age and weight (does the chicken seem or feel lighter or thinner than the others.) Blue laced red Wyandotte hen, about 34 weeks, she seems to be the same weight as the others, I'm not sure what she weighs.
2) What is the behavior, exactly. She is bobbing her head, almost acting like she's choking.
3) How long has the bird been exhibiting symptoms? I've been sick so I haven't been outside, I first noticed last night.
4) Are other birds exhibiting the same symptoms? No
5) Is there any bleeding, injury, broken bones or other sign of trauma. No
6) What happened, if anything that you know of, that may have caused the situation. I don't think anything has happened
7) What has the bird been eating and drinking, if at all. Layena feed mixed with oyster shell, on christmas they had peanut butter suet cakes with raisins and bread, scratch, cheerios, stuff she has found in the dirt, greens.
8) How does the poop look? Normal? Bloody? Runny? etc. I haven't looked, but I haven't seen any non normal looking poop.
9) What has been the treatment you have administered so far? None
10 ) What is your intent as far as treatment? For example, do you want to treat completely yourself, or do you need help in stabilizing the bird til you can get to a vet? I just want to find out what is wrong.
11) If you have a picture of the wound or condition, please post it. It may help.
12) Describe the housing/bedding in use A normal coop and pine shaving
She seems like she is breathing okay, she does it every maybe 5 minutes, she seems slightly lethargic, she'll sit on their outside roost choking and just standing there, but then she'll go scratch, and then choke again.
 
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She may have an impacted crop. Only thing I can suggest is a bit of veg oil in a syring into the mouth and gently massage the crop. It may dislodge anything she might have stuck and also help her to digest what is in her crop. Over eating can cause this and they do have a lot of treats over Christmas!

Oesdog - Oh and
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Thank you Oes I went outside and tried that and she seems to be acting better. Thank you for the welcomes. This is the first time something went wrong, and I think all is well. I will look up gapeworm
 
I just went out there and checked, she is choking again, I'm getting really worried about her. I'm looking at symptoms of gapeworm, she is breathing through her nostrils, does anyone have a list of gapeworm symptoms? Is there anything I should be looking for besides the gaping that is obvious gapeworm signs? Thanks
 
they stretch their neck and cant breath when they have gape worm. Put a q-tip in the throat and twist it to get a sample of the stuff in the throat. If it comes out red with stringy red stuff on the qtip then its gape worm. Might be crd and you can treat with denagard or tylan injectable.
 
She's not acting like she can't breathe though, every little while she will do the choking thing, it just doesn't sound like gapeworm. I am looking all over to find out what's wrong.
 
I took the food away last night so I could check her crop today, it seemed pretty empty, not sure how empty it should be, I haven't noticed her choking today, so maybe she's better. Thanks for all of the suggestions everyone!
 
I just went outside for awhile, she is not doing good. Even though I took treats out, she wouldn't go eat, but when I let them out to free range, she seemed fine, she ate and scratched with the other hens. When I locked them back in their run she sat back on the outside roost and closed her eyes, then opened them and choked, then closed them. She keeps repeating this every so often, it just doesn't sound like gapeworms and I'm not sure if it's sour crop.
 
Could be a respiritory infection - If you put out a question on how to treat that someone will answer I haven't had to deal with it so not sure. What bedding are you using could be a factor?

Oesdog
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