hen stops laying, shakes beak, squawks weirdly

[quirkus]

Hi, I'm brand new at chicken raising and acquired 4 new pullets a week ago. My 9-month-old Dominique was laying every day or every other day for the first week after bringing her home. Three days ago she stopped laying and started making an unusual noise. She shakes her head and gives a shrill, high-pitched squeak. She still makes her "normal" noises -- warning clucks and "I want out of the coop" clucks.

I worried that she might be egg-bound because of not laying, so I read up on the symptoms and decided she was not in distress--not hunched, no fluffing feathers, not lying around, not panting. I also picked her up and checked her vent--I'm new at this, so wasn't sure what to check for. The vent is clean, does not look red or swollen, and underneath is soft and squishy. Above the vent is hard and bony--I assume this is the backbone or pubic bones?

Just now I went out and watched her for a while, and she was walking around with her beak open, making this odd squawk. At one point she shook her head and I could see saliva fly out from her beak.

Should I be worried? She is passing waste normally, so I ruled out an impacted crop.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Have you ever heard of gape worms? might want to research about it, sounds like that could be the problem.. or she has something stuck in her throat. Hows her crop look and feel? oops

 

[quirkus]

I did read up on gapeworms, thanks for the advice. She doesn't seem to be gasping for air, and she doesn't do the beak-open thing very often. It does seem more as if she's trying to clear her throat, or cough. There is a bit of a rattle or gurgle in her throat, which could be gapeworm or could be respiratory disease.

Also, I checked her crop and it's fine, she is eating/drinking/passing waste normally, and doesn't seem to be distressed.

But how on earth do you check inside a chicken's throat, let alone decide if she has an obstruction? Also, should I just go ahead and use flubendazole on my whole flock in case it is gapeworm, and since I don't know anything about how these chickens were kept before I acquired them a couple of weeks ago? Please give me some insight into the advisability of using a broad-spectrum wormer if I don't know exactly what the problem is.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Are you in the USA? if so then Valbazen is the wormer of choice it kills the worms slowly so their system isn't compromised with dead worms all at once.
heres a guide to worms and treatment. http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:atzohf6gEh0J:www.healthybirds.umd.edu/Disease/Deworming%2520Birds.pdf+http://healthybirds.umd.edu/disease/deworming%2520Birds.pdf&hl=en&gl=us&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESiwLilQSVzmufCruZ6ya6fERs0ZFbYn1iUc8Pc1701a57X19Nqav1B8nI8XHvKMpNS8jxqP9l8OBZf281e6qm6HTOfSYdCevD-SNcIn8Fuw1RT7K-MCrbgnSEOdeuX8Pbk8cZso&sig=AHIEtbQjrfmGRxDw5B_UrnbGKxNg1QMpTQ
just wanted to add you can take a qtip and have someone hold your hen wrapped in a towel, then open her mouth and gently swabb down ito her throat, and if you pull out anything on that tip that looks like a small worm with 2 heads she has gape worms