1 month old chick gasping for air

[DahlHouseFarms]

Hi all,
We have a 1 month old black Maran that has been gasping for air for the last 12 hours.
No others in the flock showing symptoms. Separated her from the flock with food and water. Gave her some
Antibiotics last night but this morning she seems worse. Doesn’t seem like she can breath, each breath is labored.
Our older flock is going through dry fowl pox. They have been separated from the new flock though still as they are too young to mix. We have plan to combine in a month or so.
We keep very clean coop. Pine shavings. When we realized the older girls had dry pox we got mosquito device to eliminate bugs in the coop.
Planning on vaccinating younger birds when they are old enough at six weeks.
We do not have a chicken vet in the area. We are in Long Beach CA, if you know of a vet nearby let me know.
I am going to try and post a video of her breathing.
Not sure what else it could be but maybe wet fowl pox, or some other respiratory problem.
Her stool seems normal. No blood for sure.
I gave her water with a syringe last night but she doesn’t seem to be eating or drinking at this point.
She is quarantined separated from flock with one buddy. Buddy chick is eating and drinking normally.
She is starting to shake randomly because I think breathing is getting worse.
I can’t figure out how to post a video but I’ve posted pics. With each breath she opens her mouth.
Her eyes look swollen and she is not a happy girl.
Any advice is welcome.

 

[Debbie292d]

Hi all,
We have a 1 month old black Maran that has been gasping for air for the last 12 hours.
No others in the flock showing symptoms. Separated her from the flock with food and water. Gave her some
Antibiotics last night but this morning she seems worse. Doesn’t seem like she can breath, each breath is labored.
Our older flock is going through dry fowl pox. They have been separated from the new flock though still as they are too young to mix. We have plan to combine in a month or so.
We keep very clean coop. Pine shavings. When we realized the older girls had dry pox we got mosquito device to eliminate bugs in the coop.
Planning on vaccinating younger birds when they are old enough at six weeks.
We do not have a chicken vet in the area. We are in Long Beach CA, if you know of a vet nearby let me know.
I am going to try and post a video of her breathing.
Not sure what else it could be but maybe wet fowl pox, or some other respiratory problem.
Her stool seems normal. No blood for sure.
I gave her water with a syringe last night but she doesn’t seem to be eating or drinking at this point.
She is quarantined separated from flock with one buddy. Buddy chick is eating and drinking normally.
She is starting to shake randomly because I think breathing is getting worse.
I can’t figure out how to post a video but I’ve posted pics. With each breath she opens her mouth.
Her eyes look swollen and she is not a happy girl.
Any advice is welcome.

To post a video, post it on YouTube first. Then can share the link here.

What antibiotics are you giving her?

 

[azygous]

Have you pried her beak open and looked into her throat for obstructions with a strong flash light? Sometimes a thread wrapped around the tongue or dried food clogging the throat is the problem. Please do that so you can rule out foreign body obstruction.

Next, you need to administer emergency treatment to counter any dehydration or starvation causes for her decline. Find a narrow oral syringe and mix up one cup warm water with raw egg yolk and a teaspoon of sugar with a squirt of Poultry Nutri-drench and give it to the chick directly into her crop as shown in this photo. Give just enough at one time to fill her crop.

 

[DahlHouseFarms]

Have you pried her beak open and looked into her throat for obstructions with a strong flash light? Sometimes a thread wrapped around the tongue or dried food clogging the throat is the problem. Please do that so you can rule out foreign body obstruction.

Next, you need to administer emergency treatment to counter any dehydration or starvation causes for her decline. Find a narrow oral syringe and mix up one cup warm water with raw egg yolk and a teaspoon of sugar with a squirt of Poultry Nutri-drench and give it to the chick directly into her crop as shown in this photo. Give just enough at one time to fill her crop.
View attachment 3914138

Hi all,
We have a 1 month old black Maran that has been gasping for air for the last 12 hours.
No others in the flock showing symptoms. Separated her from the flock with food and water. Gave her some
Antibiotics last night but this morning she seems worse. Doesn’t seem like she can breath, each breath is labored.
Our older flock is going through dry fowl pox. They have been separated from the new flock though still as they are too young to mix. We have plan to combine in a month or so.
We keep very clean coop. Pine shavings. When we realized the older girls had dry pox we got mosquito device to eliminate bugs in the coop.
Planning on vaccinating younger birds when they are old enough at six weeks.
We do not have a chicken vet in the area. We are in Long Beach CA, if you know of a vet nearby let me know.
I am going to try and post a video of her breathing.
Not sure what else it could be but maybe wet fowl pox, or some other respiratory problem.
Her stool seems normal. No blood for sure.
I gave her water with a syringe last night but she doesn’t seem to be eating or drinking at this point.
She is quarantined separated from flock with one buddy. Buddy chick is eating and drinking normally.
She is starting to shake randomly because I think breathing is getting worse.
I can’t figure out how to post a video but I’ve posted pics. With each breath she opens her mouth.
Her eyes look swollen and she is not a happy girl.
Any advice is welcome.

Update - we lost Batman the black Maran at about 830am.
With some advice from my responders here I pried open her beak to inspect for blockages etc post death.
Her throat was definitely full of fluid. Posted pics. I don’t know if that is a normal mortem response but I doubt it. It was viscous and yellowish. I fliped her over and the fluid drained out. Then when I held her upside down more fluid filled her throat.
Her weezing developed very quickly and she was gone in less than a day after I noticed it.
So whatever this is it moved quickly.
I’m very worried because I have 11 other month olds that were exposed to her until yesterday.
If anyone has any idea what this is or if it’s contagious please let me know.
It for sure seemed like fluid in the lungs to me just from a common sense point of view. But I’ve had mostly healthy chickens so I’m new to chicken problems.

 

[DahlHouseFarms]

More pics after it filled up again

 

[azygous]

Chicks can get constipated pretty easily. That forms an obstruction that causes the crop to fill up with fluid. When the crop is full to capacity with fluid, it overflows into the throat. It can cause the wheezing you hear.

You should see that these chicks get grit if they are on grass or eating things other than chick feed. If you see a chick acting lethargic, examine the poop. If they are not eating or pooping, assume constipation and treat with coconut oil to soften the obstruction and if that fails, give a mild molasses flush with one teaspoon molasses in one-fourth cup warm water to stimulate the intestines to move material through.

Never hold a chicken with a crop full of liquid upside down as that causes the crop fluids to go into the airway at the back of the throat and it can cause immediate death and if not, it can cause pneumonia and that will kill the chicken later.

If you must empty the crop to be able to treat the chicken, place the chicken on the ground between your feet and tip the chicken forward at a slight angle. This will safely draw the excess fluid out of the crop, thus avoiding any going into the airway at the back of the throat.

 

[DahlHouseFarms]

Here we are about a month later and we’ve got another sick hen. Almost 2 month Olive egger. Some similar symptoms to the black maran previously mentioned. Our year olds are just getting over dry fowl pox and bumble foot, both things successfully treated.
The 2 month olds are separate in a coop within the year old girls coop.
Both breathing the same air but don’t come in contact with same surfaces.
We have a very strong mosquito trap inside the coop. They have an indoor coop and outdoor run. The 2 month olds are given yard time in a separated area close to our quail pen but separated from the big chickens.
I ordered for sick girl tylosin but it hasn’t arrived yet.
Poop seems normal. Eating and drinking via syringe and hand feeding. She is obviously separated and has been for 3 days with heat lamp. She cuddles by the heat lamp you can tell she has trouble seeing due to intensely swollen eyes.
She’s been on amoxicillin 1.25 mg about 2/3 times a day.
Waiting for that tylosin to arrive.
She had labored breathing on night one but that part seems to be getting better.

Any idea what this is? Is it wet fowl pox? Any other ideas of what to do for her?
She seems very tired.
Worried the other young girls are going to start with symptoms.
Trying to do everything we can for her.

 

[QuacketyQuackQuack]

I’m not sure if this works for adult chickens but in the past when my chicks got lethargic and looked like they were gasping I gave them sugar dissolved in water to help them get their energy back. It also stopped the gasping. Your bird probably has something different though. I hope she gets better