Chicken yawning/gasping

[Jackik]

I have a chicken that’s yawning/gasping. The neck looks much bigger than her sisters.i felt it and it just feels like extra skin, not fluidy. I’m worried as we found 1 of her sisters dead in the very secure coop a few weeks ago with no apparent injuries.
they are about 15-16 weeks old. They free range during the day and go to the coop at night.
our dogs go out supervised but that’s it. The only other animals they encounter are the squirrels that try to eat the food. There are no other chickens right around us.

 

[Fluffs_flock]

Maybe @Gallinarium would know?

 

[Gallinarium]

I would check for gapeworm. Touch the back of her throat with a q-tip. If little red lines show up, worm her.

 

[Jackik]

When we had a problem with our last chicken before she died we used zyfend-a dewormer according to the directions. That chicken was gasping terribly before, but then stopped. She died a few weeks later. We treated the whole flock.
Of course this chicken is the most skittish in the group, but we will go try the q-tip trick

 

[Jackik]

We live in central florida. It has been raining a lot. We don't have standing water, but there is a lot of moisture and it is very hot. The chickens do have a lot of shade to hide and rest in, if any of this makes a difference.

 

[Jackik]

The q tip test was so much fun to do, but was negative. I hope we were in the trachea not the esophagus. She is eating and drinking fine. We looked down her throat with a flashlight and didn't see anything. we were able to collect a stool sample, It appears to be mostly grass. I wish we had access to a microscope.I don't know of any vets in Tampa that treat chickens.

 

[Gallinarium]

Respiratory disease? Out of my league, hope someone else comes along.