Droopy Chicken won't/can't eat!.......... Updated

[AZChickenlover]

I have a hen that is approx 1 year old with a beak that needs trimming periodically. When I notice that she is stuggling to eat, we get out the clippers, wrangle her and nip of a bit of the beak. It usually helps. This time however, she still won't eat. She seems to be gasping a lot also. She will stick her head into the food that is offered and not take any. I thought about gape worms, but I can see nothing down her throat. Now she just sits with that droopy hunched over sick chicken look. I can't afford a vet right now, and I am at a loss for what to do
I got her as a semi-wild hen from the local feed store. The fellow let his spring chickens have the run of his property and I rescued her so she wouldn't be eaten by the predators. Most of his flock were picked off by dogs or coyotes. She has been a pretty sweet and tame girl in spite of all this. I don't know what breed she is, but when I got her, she was our big black chicken. She was huge!!! Not so much any more
If she has gape worms will it spread to my other 4 hens?
Thanks for any info you might provide,
Jean



Update: 05/06
Well, The folks at one of our local feed stores claimed that we won't see much gapeworm her. His suggestion was Fried Chicken :|
Anyway, I thought I might have to put her down. In addition to "gasping", she started to develop some foamy congestion that was leaking from her mouth and nose. I was more worried about her passing some infection on to our other birds at this point. I'm afraid that I don't have a good place to keep her away from the the others at his time.
Today, she seemed a bit better so I made her some oatmeal and beans and locked the others up so that she could eat undistrurbed. She ate her fill and seems a little stronger. Keep your fingers crossed for her.

 

[dlhunicorn]

yes it will... contact Peter Brown at First State Vet (or his group www.featherfanciers.com) you can get albendazol which is a broad spectrum wormer and will be effective on the gape worm (he will ship overnite)...you dont always see gapeworm.

 

[AZChickenlover]

I updated in my original post. Please keep your toes and fingers crossed for Negra.
Tomorrow, I'm hoping to find some antibiotic for her.

 

[webdawg]

Glad to hear she is getting better AZChickenlover. Also, we are neighbors. I live 20 East of Kingman. I'm a District manager for Home Depot. Small world.

 

[AZChickenlover]

Ooh, I've been in there quite a bit lately. I've been stalking the bedding plants among other things

I was just out again, and other than being very skinny, she was almost her usual crabby self (crabby with the other chickens that is, not me) I was cleaning out my fridge and brought out a container of canned corn. She chased the other two adults away so that she could have it all.

I'm wondering if since she has that extra long top beak, that maybe she gulped down a bit of food that was too large and that started the problem. Throughout the cold weather, I was mixing their food with cooked oatmeal and it made a sort of mash that was easy to scoop up and eat. Lately, I have just added a bit of water to their crumbles and seed, but they have not shown as much interest. Hmmm.