Gapeworm or Just Yawning?

[loveleavesascen]

My chick is about six weeks old now. It is a chicken that was hatched in a laboratory. I previously tried giving it a companion from a feed store but it acquired parasites from it and was sick. I just finished giving the vets' orders of antibiotics and anti-parasite medicine. It likes to come out and sit by me at night. I noticed that during the night, it would sometimes open its mouth and stretch its neck out. It would do this several times. A little air noise could be heard. But this seems to only happen at night and the chick seems to be tired by then. It is otherwise still very active, has a good appetite, still drinking water, etc. I am new at owning chickens and since it got sick already, I am concerned about it getting sick again or the medicine not working. Does anybody know if this is just normal yawning or whether it would be gapeworm?

 

[FlyHigher]

Respiratory symptom like this can means everything--lots of disease(ND, flu, Infectious Bronchitis, Infectious Laryngotracheitis...) can cause respiratory symptom. Is there any neurological symptoms? Any discharge from noise? How does the poop look like?

btw, has the chicken been vaccinated? If not, it would be better to get it vaccinated(at least for Marek's, ND, IB, ILT, Fowl pox...) ASAP.

 

[loveleavesascen]

No neurological symptoms or noticeable discharges from nose or mouth. the poop is usually solid, sometimes she will poop the more liquid kind but it is brown with no blood.

i brought the chick to the vet two weeks ago and I think she mentioned to me that she gave the chick vaccination but I will double check with her again.

what do you think? :/ is it highly unlikely that it is her yawning at night?

 

[FlyHigher]

No neurological symptoms or noticeable discharges from nose or mouth. the poop is usually solid, sometimes she will poop the more liquid kind but it is brown with no blood.

i brought the chick to the vet two weeks ago and I think she mentioned to me that she gave the chick vaccination but I will double check with her again.

what do you think? :/ is it highly unlikely that it is her yawning at night?

Does she look good? not lethargy? if so, then I think she might just catch a small cold, so everything will be fine soon.
However I'm not so sure, hope someone along can give you some better advice.

 

[Reurra]

Look up gapeworm on youtube and see if thats what your baby is doing. Videos are a great way to check symptoms.

 

[FlyHigher]

Some type of gapeworm can cause chicken open mouth like yawning -- google "Mammomonogamus laryngeus".

 

[Sylvestor12]

What is the sound it makes when it yawns?

 

[speckledhen]

Chickens don't "yawn" as in being sleepy, but they do try to clear things out of their throat that way. Mine do that all the time when they've swallowed something that didn't go down well. Could have some small something stuck in the windpipe, not necessarily worms.

Gapeworm is not very common, not as much as folks seem to think.

 

[dawg53]

They also adjust their crop by yawning.