Chicken was fine, and passed two days later. Gapeworm?

[Madelinethehuman]

Hi everyone,


My partner and I went out of town on the 24th but all of our chickens were fine. When we returned on the 25th at night and we realized our welsummer was very sick.

She’s about 20 weeks old, and they haven’t started laying yet.

She was outstretching her neck, and constantly wheezing/struggling to breathe. She was closing her eyes, and wouldn’t take any food or water. We did isolate her with food and water.

Being Christmas Day, we called but couldn’t get her any help. We decided to try again in the morning, but she passed away over night.

Could gapeworms have killed her in 2 days? The symptoms seem most consistent with gapeworm, and I am worried about the rest of my flock.

We don’t have any avian clinics near by, and it seems like the best advice has been to dose with horse dewormer? Any advice?

 

[nuthatched]

It's likely a respiratory or crop issue, gape warm is quite rare. I'm sorry for your loss.

 

[Madelinethehuman]

It's likely a respiratory or crop issue, gape warm is quite rare. I'm sorry for your loss.

I know gapeworm is rare, but our chicken was outstretching it’s neck almost continuously. Usually with respiratory this isn’t a symptom right?

She kept stretching its neck upward, and closing her eyes. Her head was so far back that it was touching her body.

Is there something else we could do to differentiate?

 

[nuthatched]

I know gapeworm is rare, but our chicken was outstretching it’s neck almost continuously. Usually with respiratory this isn’t a symptom right?

She kept stretching its neck upward, and closing her eyes. Her head was so far back that it was touching her body.

Is there something else we could do to differentiate?

Some respiratory problems can have similar symptoms, but it's sounds more like a crop issue to me, I'm not sure what.

 

[Madelinethehuman]

Some respiratory problems can have similar symptoms, but it's sounds more like a crop issue to me, I'm not sure what.

Thank you!
I’m still quite new to chickens, so I will look into this more.

She was still using the pooping/peeing at the end. Crop impaction wouldn’t have prevented this?

 

[nuthatched]

Thank you!
I’m still quite new to chickens, so I will look into this more.

She was still using the pooping/peeing at the end. Crop impaction wouldn’t have prevented this?

It may just be something in the crop, but not necessarily a blockage, just something to irritate the tract. if you're up for doing a necropsy, you can find out for certain but most people aren't.

 

[Madelinethehuman]

Thank you again!

My partner and I are tempted to avoid a necropsy, but we may actually do one to rule out the gapeworm. When we watched videos online it seemed to match perfectly with what we found.

 

[nuthatched]

Thank you again!

My partner and I are tempted to avoid a necropsy, but we may actually do one to rule out the gapeworm. When we watched videos online it seemed to match perfectly with what we found.

Most videos should be taken with a grain of salt. Gape worms look like little red Ys, if you do attempt a necropsy of the throat area.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Welcome To BYC

I'm sorry to hear about your pullet.

It would be very hard to know what caused her rapid decline without further investigation.
If you still have the body, refrigerate it and make arrangements to send it to your state lab for analysis. https://www.metzerfarms.com/poultry-labs.html
Alternatively, you could do an informal necropsy yourself, looking at the trachea for evidence of Gapeworm and the rest of the internal organs to see if there's anything obvious.

Gapeworm is not that common but depending on where you live it's a possibility. I don't think a bird would die within 2 days though, but that's my opinion. They would be symptomatic for several days before they showed a marked decline.

There are many things that can cause gasping - from getting something stuck in the throat to respiratory disease (and everything in between).

 

[Razzlefrazzle]

Unfortunately most symptoms have many possible causes including gasping and stretching the neck. People google "gasping chicken" and Gapeworm pops up and suddenly everyone with a gaping chicken thinks it's gapeworm even though it's one of the less likely causes. In my experience chickens that are stressed, in pain, or that have any number of crop or respiratory issues can all exhibit "gapeworm symptoms". What you describe just sounds like a chicken in general distress to me... If no one else is showing any symptoms I personally would hold off on deworming.