Bantam hen with respiratory disease, gapeworm or neither?

[ColdArtist]

I have a very small rosecomb bantam, I don't know her exact age but I estimate it to be around 3-5 years, she's always been low weight and I've never noticed her losing any weight or gaining any either, but she has had some health problems in the past and we had to take her to the vet multiple times, one time she had an egg stuck inside her cloaca and they had to pull it out, the other time she had bumble foot and after treatment at home one time she jumped off too high on the floor and a piece of her toe fell off and it bled a lot.

but that stuff has been resolved almost over a year ago now, but since a couple of months ago she's had these very slight moments where she extends her neck and breathes out of her mouth(I suspected it being gapeworm from the beginning so I did research on it) but then after that even after long periods of observing her, she rarely did it again, unlike what I've seen with other birds where it's been constant, and then every so often, sometimes only if I touched her or pet her, she'd do it again and I'd raise suspicious again, but she'd stop doing it again for long periods of time shortly after those small cases, I still don't know for sure if it's anything to be worried about.

my sister even has this theory about seeing dirt or something stuck inside her nostrils keeping her from being able to breathe, but I really don't know for sure as I am not an expert.

I'm here to ask if I should be worried about her having a respiratory disease or gapeworm or if those examples involve them to be constant, as my hen only does it rarely and sometimes only if I pet her or if she's laying on her front.

if need be I could probably try to get a video of her doing it and then not doing it unless I touch/pet her again, I'm not sure if this would help a lot but I'd love to know what you guys are thinking or if I should take her to see the vet again.

thanks in advance if you come across this and decide to help me!

P.S as a first time poster I don't know if I should be using this many tags but I don't know if it'll show up if I don't so I'll do it just to be sure, would love to know how that works on here if anyone could tell me

 

[JaeG]

If its not constant then I wouldn't worry too much. It wouldn't hurt to worm her though, just in case. Make sure the wormer you get kills gape worm (some don't). I'm most likely in a different country to you so I can't advise you on a specific one.

Unless there is nasal discharge or rattling breathing/constant open mouthed breathing it's unlikely to be a respiratory infection.

Sometimes birds do what you are describing when they are rearranging the contents of their crop.