Chick gaping

[epeloquin]

I have a barred rock chick who is about three weeks old. This morning we noticed her gaping her beak and stretching her neck as though she were having trouble swallowing though I don't know that she is. I massaged her crop a little and she seemed better after. She wasn't gaping as much. She is otherwise fine.

 

[Judy]

Sounds like she just got something stuck on the way down. They will often eat a little of the litter til they get things figured out. Let us know if it continues.

 

[Nicole01]

If it keeps happening, it could be a respitory infection. I just went through this with my SS. Make sure the brooder is cleaned and free from mold. Brooder pneumonia would be the cause.

I gave my chick antibiotics(fish mox), probiotics(probios), and polyvisol vitamins without iron. The vitamins worked best straight into the beak vs in the waterer. I use apple cider vinegar in their water also. I honestly thought my chick was going to die. She either got this from an impacted crop or getting wet when they knocked over the waterer.

They are a bit young for gapeworm, plus mine have only been in the brooder. Gapeworm also causes gasping. They can aquire gapeworm from earthworm and infected soil.

 

[Nicole01]

If something is stuck, give her a little olive oil. That will help it pass through. Good luck.

 

[newBonboard]

We have the same type of chickens and the same age ( we have 4 ) they just came home for the first day yesterday and I had one do the same thing and than all seemed fine

 

[elmo]

Sounds normal to me. I've noticed all of our chicks doing this. They're just rearranging the food in their crops.

 

[Nicole01]

My chick was gasping every 2 seconds for 5 days. By the 3rd day of gasping, she started sneezing constantly. Ruffled feathers, wouldn't stand up and she was steaming hot to touch. I should of culled her, but I couldn't. I'm so happy I kept her alive. She is a big sweetheart. It was very stressful.

I do agree it happens every so often. I'm pretty sure they are yawning. However, in some cases like mine, it's a severe respiratory infection. It's also a sign of gapeworm. I hope I never go through that again.

 

[LilyD]

I just posted the same thing last night. I had two chicks doing this and mine are almost three weeks old. I was told that it's normal. They will stretch their neck and open their mouth to shift the food they have in their crop. If they have no other symptoms and aren't acting sick then I would assume that it is just this and normal.

 

[Nicole01]

Quote:
It's not normal if they are constantly doing this, breath after breath. My neighbor just brought home chicks from the same store as I and one of her babies is constantly gasping for air. Now I wonder if this problem came from the farm store. The best thing that worked for me is vitamins. A drop right down the beak.

 

[LilyD]

I agree with you if the baby is "gasping for air" then it is definitely sick. But if all it is doing is opening it's mouth and stretching it's neck but still eating and drinking and otherwise acting fine it can be yawning or it can be readjusting the crop. Unless there are other symptoms I would not jump straight to medicating. My birds did this a lot yesterday (2 out of 20) but today they are not doing it at all.