Chicken choked

[Samblast]

when I let my chickens out this morning one of my chickens(2 year old Isa brown) was choking on her saddle(she had a piece stuck in her beak). I safely removed it from her mouth but now she is sneezing and having trouble breathing. Please help. I removed her saddle immediately and the back of it had ripped allowing it to get caught between her beak. She also now has some and some rough spots on her comb.

 

[azygous]

What material is the saddle made of? Loosely woven stuff like a sweater? Are the fibers fuzzy and easily pulled off? If so she may have aspirated the loose fibers into her lungs. That's the worst scenario, and she can die from it. More likely, she has fibers in the larynx and sneezing will dislodge them. All you can do is wait and see.

I have a friend in India that made a bed for her chick with an old sweater. The chick pulled the fibers from the sweater off and choked on them. It's a painful lesson to learn, but loose textile fibers are dangerous to chickens.

It's one reason chickens like to go naked.

 

[Samblast]

It’s not made from a sweater Material, more of like a harder fabric. Cloth probably. I will just watch and hope for the best

 

[Samblast]

It’s not made from a sweater Material, more of like a harder fabric. Cloth probably. I will just watch and hope for the best

The part circled in green was stuck in her beak at the back of her throat.

 

[azygous]

Some threads and fibers may have been detached and she has them stuck in her throat. As long as she continues to cough and sneeze, she will probably be able to dislodge them. It may require up to 24 hours, but most chickens are able to clear the obstruction.

 

[Ascholten]

May I ask what exactly a saddle is for? I have heard of diapers for chickens today, saddle is my next new chicken word for today.
Thank you
Aaron

 

[Samblast]

It’s for protecting the chickens back from a rooster most of the time. But it can also be used to just cover the chickens back if the back has scabs, cuts, or is just bald. In my case, my chicken got feather picked pretty badly and the saddle was covering the bald patch so the feathers could grow back.

 

[Ascholten]

ahh, I should have known that. derp.
Thank you
Aaron

 

[Samblast]

Update: unfortunately she didn’t make it

 

[Ascholten]

Oh im sorry to hear this. So, what exactly happened? She continued to choke on it? Did she aspirate her phlegm and drown? Infect or what? I don't want to push too hard and if you do not feel like talking about it, I totally understand, just trying to get some info so we can warn other people.

Unfortunately things like this which we would NEVER consider to be dangerous, can be, even in a fluke accident. I had my little guy get a trip to the Bird ER, because he chewed cardboard, which he's done his whole life, cockatoo's chew that's their purpose in nature it seems, and one day his skwauck was off, turned out he aspirated a piece of the cardboard somehow and it got stuck in his larynx. I figured his voice was hoarse from screaming and was almost like, good you little A hole, teach you right for screaming, then I took a better look and seen he was not comfortable so figured I best take him in. The vet removed a small moist piece and said there was a good chance he may have eventually hacked it up, or if he didn't the irritation makes them salivate? and they can collect water in their lungs and die, and just the stress of having that in there can harm them too. It could irritate, get infected.

It really worried me, but after a bit I thought, there's not a heck of a lot I can do. In your case, Your chicken could have found a scrap of god only knows what in the yard, a piece of palm / leaf frond, chewed and choked on that too. I guess my point is, this just happens sometimes.. Since it was a saddle, one thing I might like to say is, if we have things like this on our pets, they DO like to chew and muzzle and pick on stuff, especially if it's a bit uncomfortable. Did the thing have any frayed ends / sides where she could have chewed at and ripped threads out and ate them? We might want to check our 'Bird Toys and Attachments' and if they are fraying / wearing out, replace them.

With the bird choking, is there anything a normal person can do, like grab the bird force it's beak open and look down it's throat and tweezer stuff out if need be? Or is this more something that'd you'd need a vet because it's way down in the lungs and we'd cause more harm than good poking around?

I was getting ready to post this and then decided to re read the thread to make sure I didn't say something totally stupid, or miss something. Then this thought came to mind.

Have you ever heard of dry drowning? She has something caught in her throat, it's irritating, just like when you start choking, the eyes water, the saliva goes into high gear etc etc. Or in the case of humans, you go under water, actually breathe in / aspirate half a cup full or even less, but make it back to air and think, oh crap that was close. BUT, in both cases, there are fluids in your lungs you are not aware of. In the chickens case, phlem from the choking experience, got aspirated. So now this fluid is down there, interfering with oxygen uptake IN the lungs due to fluid accumulation in the bursa. It's slow, but since your lungs are no longer taking in oxygen like they are supposed to (because you ARE DROWNING ON THAT FLUID IN THEM) just slowly., you eventually go into a coma and die. Or in the case of a bird which is a lot less resilient than a person, it just gets sleepy as the blood oxygen slowly drops and it dies. It sounds crazy I know but it IS a thing, and I wonder if this may have happened, considering you said she was still breathing ok?

Just thinking out loud, ... again, Im sorry for your bird.

Aaron