HELP! rooster breathes in loudly through mouth and chest puffs out

[newbiechickenowner]

Hello. I am completely new and, although I have a thousand questions, my first is that my new rooster, Henry (Rhode Island Red) appears "healthy", but he breathes through his mouth and is loud when he does it. His chest expands at the same time. He then appears to exhale with his mouth closed so he is getting it out his nostrils. He seems to tilt his head just slightly and shakes it alot. He appears otherwise healthy. Does not have a cough that I noticed. I inspected his eyes, beak, nostrils and all seem bright and shiny. There is a little crud in his nostrils, but no more than any other chicken I ahve checked so far. He doesn't appear to be in distress when he is breathing, just very loudly through his mouth and his chest puffs out with each inhalation. Shiny feathers, eats fine, etc. etc. Please give information if you have anything at all. Thank you

 

[horsejody]

bump

 

[Chris09]

Does he have any thing like this?
Birds continually yawning, or gasping for air.
Constant shaking of the head.
The other thing is pick him up and open his mouth and smell in there does it smell fowl/bad like it makes you all most sick?


When was the last time you wormed them and what did you use?

Chris

 

[Chris09]

dbl post

 

[newbiechickenowner]

He doesn't seem to be "gasping", but, if you walk by the run you can still literally hear him "breathing in". When I watch him up close, he breathes in every time with opening his mouth. But, then he closes his mouth so that it appears he can move air out of his nostrils. VERY loud. His chest juts out with each breath. He shakes his head all the time. Not constant back and forth, just a deep breath and then gives his head a shake. They have just started a working process. He was not here the other day when I found the worm, but he just came in this weekend and so I am worming the new ones at the same time as the first batch to arrive. Do you have any ideas? It is the strangest thing.

 

[sammi]

I'd try to clean out the beak first.

use a flashlight and look in his mouth and throat for any whitish or yellowish sores or plaque coating, or sour smell..
check for red gapeworm in his throat.

check ears for mites

do you think he is wheezing? he could be showing symptoms of respiratory illness..
do you have any antibiotics on hand?
roos will hide it if they are sick until very ill...best to do the checks and consider antibiotic asap..
Gallimycin (Ery-mycin) or Tylan 50 injectable..
and get him on some vitamins and extra protein.

describe the droppings, in detail..color and consistency..

here's a link for flushing infected sinuses in case you need it..

http://fowlfacts.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=2008&thread=1819

 

[newbiechickenowner]

thanks for the advice and I will follow up. I know his breath does not stink. What would mites in the ears look like? also, the red gapeworm?

I haven't been able to catch his specific dropping. I am worming them all right now, but they don't seem to like the wormer, even though it is pulverized. May have to try the suggestion someone made of the kind you can put into the water...are you familiar with that? I appreciate the help. It is a really nice roo and I would like to not lose him. He is new to us. We have also noticed that he has a malformed toe. One that half way out bends sideways. Either deformed at birth or broken when he was little.
THanks for replying.

 

[Chris09]

Gapeworm looks like a little red worm.

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.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gapeworm

Ivomec Injectable (ivermectin)
Ivomec injectable is used for treatment of worms in your fowl, and can be used to help keep external parasites, like Red Mites, down too.
Dosage
You will need a syringe to get ivomec out of the bottle, and you can use it to apply the dosage listed below by holding the birds mouth open, and dripping it into the back of its throat. Another method is to apply the correct dosage to a piece of bread, then feed it to the bird you are treating.

5 to 7 drops orally for adult size birds.
3 to 5 drops orally for bantam size birds.

It is recommended to worm your fowl on a regular basis, and this method will need to be repeated every 2 to 3 months to keep worms under control. In severe cases, you may want to retreat the bird 10 days after the initial treatment, to make sure you take care of the problem.
Ivomec can be purchased at most farm supply stores in the cattle section.
Warning
Take care not to eat the eggs after treating with Ivomec until the treated fowl has laid at least five to seven eggs.

Retrieved from ultimate fowl . com / wiki / index . php ? title = Ivomec

Chris

 

[ChickenWisperer]

Quote:
I thought the gapes only occured in chicks?

 

[newbiechickenowner]

Thank you all for the help. We did end up doing two rounds of the duramycin 10 yellow powder. We added a pinch of jello, per manufacturer, each time we made it. Did it for five days. fresh each day, then took a week off and then did another course. Worked wonders for the crew! thanks for all the info!