Chicken wheezing then hiccup

[tiffwilhelm]

I brought Nicky in to see the vet today. He examined her. The lungs are clear. No sign of gapeworm (which he says is more common in commercial flocks than backyard flocks). He thinks she has a bacterial infection and is treating her with vetisulid powder in the water for 10 days. We'll see how it goes. She was a trooper going to the vet. Sat in my lap the whole way and only pooped on me once.

 

[kelyeliot]

My chicken is having the same problem with the wheezing and sneezing. She is also getting picked on by my other hen today. Just wondering if your chicks have recovered?

 

[tiffwilhelm]

Funny you should ask. I just got back from the avian specialist (40 mins away!) Nicky took a turn for the worse yesterday ... stopped eating, couldn't wheeze, just breathing through mouth, eyes closes and shakey. I thought she would die in the night. But, our little trooper is laboring on.

Anyhow, we paid for an exam and x-rays, antibiotics, tummy medicine and anti-fungal medicine. We'll see if she pulls through. My son is devastated. We just got her home and got her to take some water. I have a syringe for squirting some food and water down her. The other chickens are being good to her so far. She is laying in the sun next to her little tiny waterer.

If you are going to take your chicken to the vet, make sure it is someone who knows specifically about birds.

 

[tiffwilhelm]

Let's see ... we have itraconizole 10 ml twice a day, metronidazole 1/4 tablet once a day and Baytril, 1 tablet each day. She got an injection at the vet. When she was coughing they swabbed her throat and found yeast, that is why the antifungal. Her liver seemed enlarged on the x-ray.

How much of this are we doing for us and how much for Nicky, I ask? Oh, the guilt. I just hope it makes her feel better and doesn't prolong the suffering. It's killing me.

 

[dlhunicorn]

We just got her home and got her to take some water. I have a syringe for squirting some food and water down her. The other chickens are being good to her so far. She is laying in the sun next to her little tiny waterer.

I do hope the vet explained to you that you cant just "squirt" it in there...A bird has two openings and no eppiglottis to close the one leading to the airways ... "squirting" it in is therefore very dangerous. It is imperitive that the bird swallow any liquid/food itself to avoid getting into the airways which will cause quick infection and often leads to death.​

 

[tiffwilhelm]

Oh, goodness. No, he didn't explain that part. He showed me how to squirt the antibiotics in there, but didn't say anything about more than one route down.

Well, she is drinking some water on her own and was pecking at the grass a bit. I did try squirting some mushed up food in her mouth. She spit some of it back out all over me. I'm washing those clothes now. I carried her over to her house and she crawled under the nesting boxes and made a little tunnel in the straw.

Do you have tips on how to properly get the food into her? She's gone from 5 to 4lbs in a week.

 

[my three chickens]

And now... another chicken with this exact symptom. Nine-month-old BO. Yesterday I thought she had just a cute/weird hiccup, today I noticed wheezing. Undiminished appetite, no discharge. Only symptom to add is that her eyes seem to dilate and un-dilate frequently--like she's having trouble focusing. (She does have a comb that hangs over one eye, so it may be that this is just her way of seeing and I've just never noticed before.)

Have quarantined her in the coop while others are in the run. Yogurt seemed to ease the wheezing momentarily. I'm going to try oil, then feed her some oatmeal and give her a heat lamp. Any other suggestions are welcome.

 

[tiffwilhelm]

Okay, this happened again recently. I have been in contact with the woman who breeds the chickens. First we treated with ivermeck (not sure if that is how you spell it). But then she had something else for gape worm. Honestly, I could not see the gape worm, but treating her cleared her right up. In fact, I now I treat all of my girls about every 90 days. I think there is something in the back yard that they are regularly exposed to. Good luck!

 

[my three chickens]

So, tiffwilhelm, do I understand correctly that what your chicken had before (and again recently) was gapeworm? Because your chicken's symptoms sound just like my chicken's (and those of many people here, it seems). Would be helpful to know.

If it is gapeworm, must I take her to the vet in order to get meds, or can I buy them at the feed store?

 

[tiffwilhelm]

You know, with the first chicken (the one who died last year) I don't think I'll ever know what it was. And we didn't treat her for any parasites. We'd given her antibiotics to no avail ... and chicken x-rays, blood tests, nebulizers, oxygen, etc. That poor chicken.

When the next chicken started making the sound we went to see the breeder. First we tried the ivermeck for general parasites. When the problem persisted, she suggested that we treat for gape worm. After a treatment for gape worm, the problem went away.

It came back again, months later in another chicken. It was co-incident with runny poop and broodiness too. We went back to get the gape worm treatment it went away.

So, now whenever we hear a funny honking or squawking and see them craning a neck, we head back for the treatment.

I have not done any tests to prove that this is what it was. But the treatment seems to be working. Our breeder advised us to treat for parasites every 90 days (topical as well as internal).