Bantam chicken gaping, but not coughing. Wing held low, possible injury but not sure?

[ShipwreckHomestead]

Hi all!
I have a Sebright chicken, around 5 months old, who is giving me some concerns.

She is housed in a coop with about a dozen other bantams, (silkies, another sebright, two d’uccles, and a OEGB) as well as our last couple standard birds who are almost ready to join the big-bird-coop. No new birds in this coop since early October though.
We did move the entire small bird flock from one coop and run to another coop and run that had been unoccupied for about 3 months, but was cleaned before the new move-ins; this was 3 days ago now.
About an hour ago I heard what sounded like a bit of distress from (I believe) her from inside the coop, but it wasn’t anything too frantic, so I assumed it was just a little bickering, and didn’t rush to check. I made it over about 5 mins after the sounds and saw this Sebright on the floor of the coop, underneath the hanging poultry waterer, with one wing outstretched.

I picked her up, and her wing felt a bit “loose” but she didn’t seem bothered by me moving it. So i carried her over to the porch to set her down on a flat surface (I had a heat lamp on for our rabbit so i put her on top of his hutch under that lamp as it is roughly 28 degrees out here In Maine) to see if she’d walk around, and she just sat there. She had no issue letting me move her wings around or look her over, which is odd for her (she’s very flighty as Sebrights usually are) but after about 3-5 minutes of watching her, she started extending her neck and opening her mouth repeatedly, roughly every 3-5 seconds. She also seems lethargic.
So, I brought her inside the house with me. We are currently sitting on the floor about 10 feet in front of our (very low burning) wood stove. She has a small ramekin of water right in front of her, but has not taken any drinks from it. She hasn’t tried to go anywhere. She’s tucked her head a few times to try to nap but within a few seconds she stretches out and opens her mouth again.
There is no coughing or sneezing, no wheezing, gurgling, or any other sounds. She doesn’t appear to have a blockage, from what I can see. Her crop feels like there’s a bit of food in it, but it’s not full. Could it be stress from possibly hurting her wing somehow? She wasn’t stuck, but she wasn’t moving around to get herself up either.

Does anyone have any ideas?
Thanks in advance

 

[ShipwreckHomestead]

Update- she ate some cooked egg and some Flock Raiser crumbles, had a couple sips of water, and her neck extending has gotten further apart and less strained-looking. I tried wrapping her wing against her but she refused to move once I did, she just flopped on her side and started panicking, so I unwrapped her. She immediately got up and started walking around, but her wing is still low, and she is still occasionally extending her neck and gaping occasionally, though significantly less and not nearly as wide. She did sneeze twice while she was eating the egg, but hasn’t since.
Since it’s dark here now, and I know separation can be even worse for birds than just letting them heal with their flock sometimes, I decided to move her and her other tiny friends back to their previous coop and run, and left the bigger friends in the other. Anyone who weighs more than a pound and a half stayed behind, so there would be less chance of her getting hurt. The old coop is much smaller as well. I have one silkie who is older than the rest and has raised many many babies now, so I moved her and her last baby (a surprise Barred Rock hatched in October), my other Sebright, the d’uccles, and the OEGB, back to that coop in hopes that Mama Silkie will keep an eye on everyone. She’s so great with the little ones
Still hoping for any other info that may help me to be sure my little gal gets better, if anyone has any suggestions

 

[alinas2010]

Sorry to hear about her, sounds like she went through something traumatic, poor girl! Does she seem to be panting at all? As if in pain, maybe? Did you feel any breaks in the wing? I hope she didn’t somehow aspirate water since she was found down by the waterer, but I would think you’d hear wheezing maybe if that was the case. Could you get her to take some sugar water or electrolytes in if you used a dropper to drop some drops on the edge of her beak maybe? She could be in shock perhaps. I hope she makes a full recovery.

 

[ShipwreckHomestead]

Sorry to hear about her, sounds like she went through something traumatic, poor girl! Does she seem to be panting at all? As if in pain, maybe? Did you feel any breaks in the wing? I hope she didn’t somehow aspirate water since she was found down by the waterer, but I would think you’d hear wheezing maybe if that was the case. Could you get her to take some sugar water or electrolytes in if you used a dropper to drop some drops on the edge of her beak maybe? She could be in shock perhaps. I hope she makes a full recovery.

Hi!
An update as well and some answers to your questions…
We left her in the coop with the other littles for the night. About an hour after I left them in for the night, I checked back in on her, and she was cozied right up next to Mama Silkie, the rest of the littles all snuggled around her in a circle I let them out in the morning and the injured baby came out with the rest of them
She doesn’t seem to be panting, and she doesn’t react as if she is in pain when I touch or move the wing, but it’s been a day and a half and she is still dragging the wing on the ground. She trips over it when she walks, but that doesn’t seem to hurt her either. I’m very concerned that it’s broken/dislocated badly enough that she can’t feel it at all… Yesterday morning I tried clipping the feathers of that wing so it wouldn’t drag quite as much, but it just drooped lower so, I made her a tiny sling from about a half inch wide strip of vet-wrap, and she got the hang of walking around with it quite quickly! She got around well all day yesterday, and I checked on her roughly every hour. Most times I checked on her, she was either sitting outside near Mama Silkie, or she was sitting inside the coop having some crumble and cooked egg.
She has been eating and drinking consistently, but she does still extend her neck and open her mouth every minute or two… I picked up some VetRX to give her this evening before bedtime, in case she does have anything respiratory related going on.
She was a little clumsier today than she was yesterday as well, which does have me slightly worried, but I’m sure being all wrapped up in a sling isn’t the most comfy…
At this point I’m just hoping to get her to stop gaping, and to find a way to make her comfortable with this bum wing, you know? Like, if she’s gonna have a bum wing for the rest of her life, I’d like to find a way to make that as little of an inconvenience as possible for her?
I’ve been reading on some posts here and I’ve seen people trying a “gapeworm test” with a q-tip and have been wondering if I should give that a try… it’s all just so odd with the wing injury at the same time? I’m at a loss

Thank you for your thoughts, I really appreciate it!!

 

[ShipwreckHomestead]

Update. Got home, ready to go mix up some VetRX. Guess I was too late. She unfortunately did not make it through the day.

 

[alinas2010]

I’m so sorry she did not make it. You did a lot for her and she was very lucky to have a caring owner like you. Some things they can hide so well from us. Thankfully she will not be suffering anymore or hiding any discomfort. I hope that you can find some comfort and peace in knowing that you cared for her very well and if she indeed did have a break in her wing, you did who it everything you could. Wing injuries tend to heal on their own in time. Wrapping can help but sometimes they just need to carry the wing where it is comfortable for them for a while, too. You did great. As for the gaping, it’s hard to say, maybe she had an internal injury affecting her lungs or air sacs. Her entire episode is a bit mysterious. I don’t think there is a lot more you could’ve done.

 

[ShipwreckHomestead]

Thank you for all your input and for your kind words