TheDuckLover
Chirping
- Dec 15, 2018
- 20
- 30
- 57
Hi. So my about 3 year-old Blue Orpington (which I'm not sure is the breed, largely resembles them but got her as a gift) is suddenly gasping for air. I've been out of town for the past two days, and on the first I asked my mother to check up o my chickens and then a friend to on the second day. When I got back and was rounding up my flocks (my friend let them out during the morning, then after I got home I round them up as the sun sets), and I found my baby Ash (the sick chicken). I didn't recognize her at first because I have some other grayish chickens and Ash normally runs right up to me, but she didn't and I immediately knew something was wrong. She was standing there and gasping for air (making this heart breaking gasping noise every time she does also). This was about 30-15 minutes ago, and right now I'm in my house keeping a very close eye on her. I'm suspecting Chicken Respiratory Disease or Gapeworm. I keep my coops very clean, they're on a chicken-tractor I move around every week. Also, none of the other chickens seem to have symptoms. But what's really weird is that she doesn't have a loss of appetite (which I was really worried about), she doesn't have any discharge, and was fine in the morning I'm assuming. My mother and friend have grown up around livestock, know when something was wrong and would've told me. I'm assuming this was sudden. Another this is that the town I live in has been getting some really weird weather. Yesterday, it was in the 50-40's while today it's summer hot. This has been happening all month, and something my mother told me is that the sudden change in temp could be the cause. Since I've had her, I've been giving her meal worms. She didn't eat the regular food (which I can just roll my eyes at because they are spoiled rotten chickens), but immediately stole my bag of meal worms. I've been mixing her food with meal worms, and she's been eating. I've put some meal worms in Gatorade (for the electrolytes) so she will drink willingly (which is working). But she's still gasping, and it's still keeping my paranoid. She's also just a tad bit lethargic, but immediately brightens up when she sees the meal worm bag. What do y'all think? Have you seen anything like this? If you have, do you know of any treatments/cure?