Hope it's gapeworm!!!

[Reba]

Hi,

My two 9-month old pullets are sick. They're eating, drinking, and moving around fine, there's just something up with their breathing. I first noticed it because they would sneeze and throw their heads to the side at the same time, like they were trying to dislodge something. They also sometimes open and close their beak really rapidly, sort of like they would if they were swallowing granite grit. Their only other change in behaviour is that they are a tiny bit less willing to fly. I listened to their breathing, and they have slight rales (so slight you have to stick their beak into your ear in order to hear it), wheezy breathing, and a bit of clicking. They wheeze and open-mouth breath when they've done something strenuous, like been chased. No discharge (unless a little bit of clear snot when they sneeze counts as discharge; and what does coryza discharge smell like, just in case?) from the eyes or nostrils, no ruffled feathers, no lethargic behaviour. In short, none of the symptoms of respiratory infection. I've seen at least one poo that was green with round stuff in it, and that, combined with the symptoms, makes me hope it's gapeworm. I say hope because they're my pets and I want to keep them, but I also want to get more chickens in the future and don't want to infect them via my now carrier birds. As far as I know, gapeworm is completely curable.
They've had this for a couple months now, since I haven't been able to get out to a feed store to get chicken meds (I don't drive and I live in the city) and I haven't been able to find any vets willing to help me (again, I live in the city).

Thanks for reading this really long post! What do you guys think I should do? Please tell me you think it's gapeworm too!

 

[Reba]

anyone?

 

[TexasVet]

Have you considered ordering poultry meds online? Whatever they've got, it isn't good to let it go unchecked for months. You might want to add some Calf Manna to their food too, just to give them a boost.

Kathy, Bellville TX
www.ChickenTrackin.com

 

[Tony K T]

Try giving them wazine 34%.You can get it at www.cutlersssupply.com.
In N.H.,Tony.

 

[lilcrow]

Worming your birds is a good place to start. Wazine is the right thing to BEGIN with, the dosage is on the bottle, 1 oz to a gallon of water and give that to them as their only water for 24 hrs. Two wks later you need to worm again, at the very least with Wazine, but if they're Gape Worms (unlikely, but you never know) Wazine won't touch them. I follow our bi-annual worming of Waz. with a treatment of Iver-On. It is pour on Ivermectin for cattle. It gets almost everything - internal and external. You'll need a syringe, or pipette so that you can measure out "drops." This should be exact as you don't want to over do it. Ivermectin isn't too toxic, but I don't like to worm to heavily since it is hard on them. Place the drops at the base of the neck between the wings. If this is a full grown bantam about 4 or 5 drops, and on a large fowl I'm not really sure as I've never wormed one. I'd say using the bantam as a gauge, calculate up from there keeping in mind that some LF are bigger than others.
In the future, try not to let strange behavior go on so long, it could cost you your beloved pets, not to mention the discomfort of the individual birds.
Good luck, and I know how distressing it is to have a bird that doesn't feel well. I just purchased a pullet, and think the stress compromised her immune system and she's developed something - maybe upper respiratory - but that doesn't even seem right either. I'm giving her injections of Tylan 50, but now I'm wondering if it should be Baytril. Well, I guess this belongs on it's own thread. Sorry 'bout that.
All that wormer I was telling you about, the pipettes, the 1 oz measure, etc. can be found on the Internet, you never have to leave the house.