Gasping appearance, very ill chicken

[waba8chicks]

I have a young Marans that started limping pretty severely one day, so we put her into "quarantine", a very large box and/or kennel in the house. The next day, she added a very slow gasping. By gasping, I mean she stretches her neck out and slowly opens her mouth...it appears that she is struggling to breath. However, there is no deep inhale, you can hold her and can't even tell she did any sort of breath at all, let alone a deep breath that it appears she was doing. There is no noise, no gasp or gurgle, nothing. This movement hasn't changed in 3 days. She won't eat her laying crumbles, but she will eat dry oats, and oats mixed with a little yogurt and water, just trying to get something different into her. She is also drinking water. She tried to stand up today, and struggled like she was drunk, and finally sat back down. We have been having some very unusual humidity this year, but does any body have any idea of what else could be going on? She does not have sour crop, and there doesn't appear to be any sort of impaction at all.

 

[Eggcessive]

Do you have a vet that could see her? She might be dehydrated, and gasping or gaping to breathe. There could be a respiratory infection or even something stuck in her airway such as mucus, tissue or a foreign object. I would look into her throat with a flashlight for anything unusual. Was she vaccinated for Mareks disease? Does the limp seem like an injury where she holds it up, or is she trying to use the bad leg, and it seems more numb or useless? Try offering her water with SaveAChick or Gatorade, and offer some chopped egg or tuna, and add a little water to some chicken feed to make it runny.