I have a 28 week old Buff Orphington hen who is acting strange this evening. She seems to be gasping while extending her neck. No sound comes out but every so often she makes a loud sneezing sound. She is roosting with the others, her crop seems empty. She is not shaking her head and seems alert at this point. It is 40 degrees in the coop, well ventilated and palatial in comfort. They have free choice access to layer mash, sand in the run (in a container), fresh water on a heated base and an all around clean coop. I have not allowed them out for the last two days as hawks have been circling. They do have open access to the run from 7:00 am on until evening when they are locked in for the night.
She shows no signs of trauma, she does have a slightly poopy bottom but no more so than any others. They all seems to have a tiny bit of yuck on their tail feathers since they started laying. The coop is clean and we use the deep littler method with a droppings board below the roost. The bedding in the nests is very clean and I replace it every few days. I did give them a little scratch this morning as a treat but only after they had been up for several hours.
I did hold her and look down her throat with a flashlight, looking for gapeworm, I saw nothing. No other hens are exhibiting any symptoms. It is full blown winter here in Idaho and typical temps are between 15 and 40 right now. I inspected her vent, and it does seem to be pulsing with her 'gasps'.
Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.
Heather
*Something I just thought of is that we have one buff that lays an almost white egg, I have not seen any of those for 3 days now. Is it possible that she is egg bound with these symptoms? Do they always lay the same color eggs, we have 25 hens and two days ago got 25 eggs, only 14 the day after that. We almost consistently get 20-22 eggs since they all started laying. Today we had 22 eggs.
She shows no signs of trauma, she does have a slightly poopy bottom but no more so than any others. They all seems to have a tiny bit of yuck on their tail feathers since they started laying. The coop is clean and we use the deep littler method with a droppings board below the roost. The bedding in the nests is very clean and I replace it every few days. I did give them a little scratch this morning as a treat but only after they had been up for several hours.
I did hold her and look down her throat with a flashlight, looking for gapeworm, I saw nothing. No other hens are exhibiting any symptoms. It is full blown winter here in Idaho and typical temps are between 15 and 40 right now. I inspected her vent, and it does seem to be pulsing with her 'gasps'.
Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.
Heather
*Something I just thought of is that we have one buff that lays an almost white egg, I have not seen any of those for 3 days now. Is it possible that she is egg bound with these symptoms? Do they always lay the same color eggs, we have 25 hens and two days ago got 25 eggs, only 14 the day after that. We almost consistently get 20-22 eggs since they all started laying. Today we had 22 eggs.
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