Hen gasping, scratching beak, squeak/honking! Help!

[@~rosecityfarmgirl~@]

My 1 yr old White Leghorn started doing this yesterday at some point, I don't remember when - she has dirt and feed at the edges of her beak, scratches at her beak, and when she tries to eat feed, she opens her mouth and there's un-swallowed feed inside. She then sticks her neck straight up and opens her mouth and SQUAW-SQUAWKS. Sometimes, she shake her head and HONK. I've tried picking her up and feeling her neck, nothing unusual. I haven't seen her drink lately, but that's not unusual either. I gave the hens an apple to eat, and she (surprisingly) wasn't interested! She pecked, couldn't manage to swallow the small piece, and walked away. She seems to hiccup too...
Also, I gave her and the others a warm flea/oil bath (she ran under a parked car that had been oil-guarded) with salt, vinegar, and Dawn, all very diluted. She was then rinsed in warm water, wrapped to dry, then blowdried.
Should I try giving her water with a tiny dropper? I'm worried!

 

[Chikndinner]

Give her some water. Also clean some of that stuck food out of her beak and then give her some water.

 

[@~rosecityfarmgirl~@]

With a water dropper? I don't think she'll drink on her own

I just don't want to end up doing chicken CPR!

 

[Clay Valley Farmer]

Look up CRD, tetracycline and neomycin may give help fight the bug. Feed supply stores often carry it I think one brand is Neo-chlor.

 

[@~rosecityfarmgirl~@]

A feed store recommended piprazine (or something that sounds like that) to be mixed in their water, it's supposed to be for poultry. Also, it's one of the ONLY poultry dewormers in the area, I'm in a city so if I need meds, anything else must be ordered online

 

[Clay Valley Farmer]

I don't think that wormer will help and if anything might just add stress. It is not much of a broad spectrum wormer and I don't think effective for gapeworm anyway even if that is what's causing the respritory problems.

 

[jaimslee4u]

If she is not drinking on her own use the dropper and put it along the side of her beak - without getting it in her nostrals

 

[@~rosecityfarmgirl~@]

Well, here's the thing - neither feed store carries poultry gapeworm remedy. Both recommended piperazine, to be mixed in feed or water (I chose water, and I'll use the dropper tomorrow even though she IS drinking). I've always added 3 Tbsp cayenne pepper to 1 gallon of feed, to prevent worms. Should I even bother anymore? It was highly recommended in a BYC post.

 

[Clay Valley Farmer]

Do the feed stores carry Safeguard (Fenbendazole) could be sold for horses, cows, sheep or such?

Off lable dose for chickens from what I have read and used is between a BB and small pea sized glob if using the 10% paste. You can get technical with all sorts of mg/lb but in the end Fenbendazole would need a huge dose to cause toxicity problems, something like giving a chicken a whole horse sized wormer.

If your chicken has worms it sounds the best approach is to use the piprazine first then wait a week or so and follow up with something like Fenbendazole, idea is the first wormer expells the round worms and the second gets the other worms and larva. Use of a broad spectrum worm right off the bat does run the risk of too many worms being passed at once causing a blockage. But as gape worm can kill by blocking off air it might be better to risk going with the broad spectrum wormer right off the bat.


Read and been told all sorts of natural wormers and worm preventers, some swear by them but I have my doubts. Sure they may help but I doubt are anywhere near as effective as medicine designed for the job.

 

[@~rosecityfarmgirl~@]

Thanks Clay Valley Farmer!
My main concern was her airway - she can't breathe well or eat well either, so I just needed to take care of that ASAP. It says mix in water, treat them for 1 day, then again in a month (I might wait a week, since the med isn't harmful to the birds). I just hope she's better in the next 2 days because I have the newspaper coming for an interview with the girls!