I think My Serama rooster has piece of crawfish stuck in his esophogus. labored breathing

[HeyHo]

Good luck, following this thread and sending supportive thoughts your way!

 

[Suzi18]

I'm hoping for a full recovery for your little guy

 

[marque]

Are there any loose looking plugs of mucous that you may be able to pull out of his beak to help him out?
Getting a helper and some photos would be good.

You can try syringing the medication into him, but you will want to take a good look to make sure there is nothing that is going to block the syringe.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...er-construction-check-back-for-updates.73335/

yes

Good luck, following this thread and sending supportive thoughts your way!

thankyou!

 

[marque]

Good luck, following this thread and sending supportive thoughts your way!

thankyou!

 

[Wyorp Rock]

View attachment 1602980 View attachment 1602980

om goodness! My poor little man...I finally got a good pic. Normally when he roosts with the other Seramas, they roost high but he wasnt strong enuff to get up there when I put the chickens up so I put him up in a box. He was breathing with his mouth open and all puffed up and his comb was dark. I juat went out to get this pic and he was calmer, beak shut, and comb a little redder. "Maybe", the med??? There is no more mucous in his mouth, just all that ugly yellow stuff

I would definitely try to get the medication into him. Looks like it could be Canker.
Do you have Metronidazole ordered?

I think @FlyingNunFarm had this in one of her birds, she may be able to give you some tips. I'm not sure, but you may have to remove some of those plaques, but that can be tricky, especially if they bleed a lot.

 

[marque]

I would try to see a vet ASAP since his crop is dark, and he obviously is not getting enough oxygen to his heart and organs. They could look for something stuck in his trachea or esophagus. Have you ever had any chickens with canker before? That is a disease that causes gunk to form inside the beak and airway, and smells rotten. I would take a flashlight and a popsicle stick to look around the inside of his beak and throat for any yellow to grayish tissue. Here is some reading about it:
http://www.poultrydvm.com/condition/canker

i believe you were right...cancker....it was just a bit difficult getting a good picture.

 

[marque]

I would definitely try to get the medication into him. Looks like it could be Canker.
Do you have Metronidazole ordered?

I think @FlyingNunFarm had this in one of her birds, she may be able to give you some tips. I'm not sure, but you may have to remove some of those plaques, but that can be tricky, especially if they bleed a lot.

Actually yes, I ordered it last night on the advice of a very helpful BYC friend, but I decided this am that surely I can find it somewhere so I hit the roads and after several stops, I found it at Petsmart as API General Cure. I gave Gandolf his first dose as soon as I got home. 230ish. He looked terrible for a while and very pi**ed about the nasty taste. Tomorrow will be his second dose

 

[Eggcessive]

Sorry I have been out this afternoon till now. I am glad that you found some metronidazole to start treatment, but sorry that he didn’t like the taste. It is hard to disgnose those yellow plaques (caseous deposits) in the beak, but canker, wet fowl pox, coryza, and ILT all can cause them in the airway. I have not treated any of those myself, but canker and coryza supposedly stink. I would probably mix the metronidazole in as little amount of water or yogurt as possible and syringe it into him. The following article is how to dose a bird orally with a syringe:
https://unitedpeafowlassociation.org/articles/oral-medication-dosing-of-peafowl/

 

[azygous]

Poor little guy. No wonder he's so uncomfortable and has trouble breathing. That gunk probably goes down into his crop, but if he's lucky, it's not farther down his digestive system.

Can you take a whiff of his breath? Canker and Coryza will stink like road kill. If it's thrush (Candida), it will smell more like yeast or a little like sauerkraut. This is important for the right diagnosis as they would be treated differently.

 

[FlyingNunFarm]

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/what-kind-of-worm.1253974/#post-20120605

That is my thread on Missy. She had some sort of yellow gunk in her throat.
I did remove it using long tweezers that have grooved grip ends. It's not an easy thing to do but I think it saved her life. I also had long wooden stick cotton swabs on hand. I found them helpful if there was a small piece of yuck. When the cotton is dry it will pick up little bits of things. To hold her mouth open with one hand I would get my pointer finger in her mouth sideways and let her get the fight out. Then add my middle finger to open her beak. (I can try and take a picture of that if the description is confusing.)
If his nose is blocked you could try and use a toothpick to gently push things forward towards the end of his beak. It is still a sharp object so you must be very careful but it's one of the few things small enough to fit in their nares.
I also use acidified copper sulfate in the water.
She has made a full recovery and no one else ever showed signs of the same thing.
I really hope the best for Gandolf. Keep us all posted!