Hen pants while sleeping..... in winter?

PeepAndPeck

Chirping
Aug 18, 2020
34
24
69
My eight month old BO has been panting the last couple weeks while sleeping. She seems to be healthy otherwise but in the past two days she has laid her eggs in the run. I live in Oregon and it’s not hot at all, the hottest it’s getting is 45 and cools down to about 20-32 at night. The girls have a heater in their coop that puts off a little warmth. At first I thought that maybe my BO was getting too hot from it because she has more feathers than the others. I moved the heater away from her spot on the perch and she’s still panting. I looked at other posts and couldn’t find anything exactly like this so I hope it’s not a repeat. I have a little ring camera in the coop and caught some videos of her panting. The video has sound too. She usually wakes up the others and herself. I would like to get this under control so everyone can get a good nights sleep. Thank you!!https://ring.com/share/804ac418-f970-4574-955b-b7b77081549f
 
How warm does the heater make the coop? It's not just temperature that affects a chicken's comfort level. It's the temperature spread that can affect how much a chicken feels heat or cold. Just as you feel an awful shock when you step out of a warm house into a very cold morning, a chicken experiences a shock when the temp in coop varies a lot from the outside temp.

When heating a coop, it's wise to keep the coop from getting much warmer than slightly above freezing when it's freezing outside.
 
The heater turns on when it gets below 40 but I can change that. I think it shuts off once it gets back to 40 degrees but I’ll go check.
 
Definitely respiratory distress.
Might be a crop issue, first thing to check.

When I have a bird that is acting 'off' I isolate bird in a wire cage within the coop for a day or two....so I can closely monitor their intake of food and water, crop function(checking at night and in morning before providing more feed), and their poops. Feel their abdomen, from below vent to between legs, for squishy or hard swelling. Check for external parasites or any other abnormalities.

Best to put crate right in coop or run so bird is still 'with' the flock.
I like to use a fold-able wire dog crate (24"L x 18"W x 21"H) with smaller mesh(1x2) on bottom of crate under tray.
Then you can put tray underneath crate to better observe droppings without it being stepped in. If smaller mesh is carefully installed, tray can still be used inside crate.
 
Oh gosh I opened this expecting to see pants on a hen while sleeping...clearly I need more sleep, or more coffee.

Hope someone can help

Edited: I watched the video. It almost looks like she’s gasping for air more so than panting?
This is BYC. Thirty one people are sewing chicken pajama bottoms as we speak now that they got the idea.
 

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