If a chicken had gapeworm, would the gaping be constant?

[tickens33]

When checking the roost bar camera, I have noticed a couple of my chickens with their mouths open, seemingly all night long. There's one that particularly does it pretty intensely with a stretched neck. But it's only happened twice, and then when I check on them during the day, I've never seen them doing it. After the first time I noticed, I bought fenbendanzole. By that evening, no one was panting anymore, so I didn't try it.

That was a couple weeks ago and then this is the first time I've noticed the behavior again. If they did have gapeworm, would they stop gaping for long periods of time like that?

Maybe the coop just needs more ventilation? It doesn't get hotter than the ambient temperature, and it wasn't *that* hot last night, but maybe it's stuffy in there? I don't remember exactly what our ventilation sq footage is, but when we first built the coop I believe we did 1.5sq ft per chicken, and we have fewer chickens now.

 

[Eggcessive]

You cannot go wrong making more overhead ventilation in your coop. Some heavy hens may become hotter, and usually will hold their wings away from their bodies when panting. I usually point a fan outside of the coop which can draw air through the coop to ventilate in summertime.

Gapeworm is rare, and from what I have read, the chicken cannot eat or drink due to the constant gasping for air. It doesn’t go away. SafeGuard or fenbendazole 10% liquid goat wormer will treat gape, round, capillary and cecal worms at a dosage of 1/4 ml per pound of weight, given orally for 5 consecutive days. Shake the bottle well.

 

[tickens33]

You cannot go wrong making more overhead ventilation in your coop. Some heavy hens may become hotter, and usually will hold their wings away from their bodies when panting. I usually point a fan outside of the coop which can draw air through the coop to ventilate in summertime.

Right now we have a solar powered fan that points *inside* the coop, that's what we used all last summer. But I did read something about pointing it in the other direction to draw air through instead. That's better?

Gapeworm is rare, and from what I have read, the chicken cannot eat or drink due to the constant gasping for air. It doesn’t go away. SafeGuard or fenbendazole 10% liquid goat wormer will treat gape, round, capillary and cecal worms at a dosage of 1/4 ml per pound of weight, given orally for 5 consecutive days. Shake the bottle well.

Thanks for this info, I think it must not be gapeworm then because I only catch them doing it every once in a while.