Chicken yawning??

[newchickenmommy]

Now, I am not dumb, I know she isn't yawning. It just looks that way and it's the only way I can explain it. What is she doing??

I posted earlier that she seems strange the last couple days and I think she might be going blind, or something else is wrong, as she is 'missing' when she pecks at food. So tonight I was watching her and she started doing something I have never seen her do before. She started stretching out her neck and opeing her mouth really wide, and then she stops for a minute and does it again. It truly looks like she is yawning. She did it like 12 times!

Does anyone know why she is doing that??

S

 

[Illia]

She may be choking. I know I once had an EE who kept doing that. I figured she was choking on something, and indeed was. Sadly she ended up dying though. . . In the end it looked like she was choking on a really big peice of pine shaving.

 

[darkfur]

check that she's not got sour crop, does her crop feel really hard and distended?

 

[gaz131]

A gapeworm (Syngamus trachea) is a parasitic nematode worm infecting the tracheas of certain birds. The resulting disease, known as gape or the gapes, occurs when the worms clog and obstruct the airway. The worms are also known as red worms or forked worms due to their red color and the permanent procreative conjunction of males and females. Gapeworm is common in young, domesticated chickens and turkeys.

When the female gapeworm lays her eggs in the trachea of an infected bird, the eggs are coughed up, swallowed, then defecated. When birds consume the eggs found in the feces or an intermediate host such as earthworms, snails (Planorbarius corneus, Bithynia tentaculata, …), or slugs, they become infected with the parasite.

Ivermectin is a drug often used to control gapeworm infection in birds. hope that may help bet my last £££££ on it that's what it has

good luck

 

[oldbones24]

My hen has been doing the same thing, she is an 'only' and is 7yrs. I thought she might have a cold. I have to hand feed her to make sure she can find the food. I've checked several university agriculture sites and find no reference excessive yawning. I was thinking it was age or a virus. Sight problems makes me think of neurological.