Lethargic gasping chick

PippinChicken

Songster
Oct 28, 2017
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Hi all, I need some help with a ~1 month old pullet. I've honestly raised hundreds of chicks and have never seen this so I'm stumped. She is gasping to inhale but has no other respiratory symptoms (no breathing sounds, no eye bubbles, etc.). I noticed her do it a few times yesterday and thought maybe she'd swallowed something wrong. But today she's doing it it with every breath and is lethargic.
 
Hi all, I need some help with a ~1 month old pullet. I've honestly raised hundreds of chicks and have never seen this so I'm stumped. She is gasping to inhale but has no other respiratory symptoms (no breathing sounds, no eye bubbles, etc.). I noticed her do it a few times yesterday and thought maybe she'd swallowed something wrong. But today she's doing it it with every breath and is lethargic.
Can you get a video of her? Upload video to youtube and provide a link.

Anything inside the beak - canker, mucous, lesions?
 
Have you checked the crop? An impacted crop can produce those symptoms. The cure is oil.
Crop was empty when I discovered her like this. She ate some scrambled eggs today (although less than one whole egg for the entire day) so I'll check if her crop has emptied again in the morning. I have her separated so she can have some peace without her siblings running circles around her.
 
That's a sick chick. There's no way I can tell you want's wrong with her, though.

Possibilities are that she has a genetic issue that is now coming to a head or that she may have gotten into something toxic or she's suffering from shock for some reason.

Without any clues as to what she may have been exposed to, there's no way to figure out how to treat her. It doesn't look respiratory, though. It appears more organic, meaning something is not working right inside her.

You can try sugar water with electrolytes and boiled egg to try to give her strength and treat for shock. You never know what will work until you try it.
 
That's a sick chick. There's no way I can tell you want's wrong with her, though.

Possibilities are that she has a genetic issue that is now coming to a head or that she may have gotten into something toxic or she's suffering from shock for some reason.

Without any clues as to what she may have been exposed to, there's no way to figure out how to treat her. It doesn't look respiratory, though. It appears more organic, meaning something is not working right inside her.

You can try sugar water with electrolytes and boiled egg to try to give her strength and treat for shock. You never know what will work until you try it.
Thank you for the input! She is one of the few chicks that I haven't bred myself so without having a flock full of her relatives to be familiar with their health, I guess something genetic is certainly possible. I do have one sister of hers and five additional unrelated chicks from the same breeder. They've been in the same brooder together the whole time and everyone else seems totally normal. After spending the day searching online the only guesses I had were aspergillosis or something similar. Not something I've ever experienced before and not sure how likely it is with everyone else doing well, but I cleaned the brooders out just in case. She's separated so she can get some peace without her siblings running circles around her. If she was doing this through the night then I can only imagine she'd be exhausted, doesn't seem possible to do while sleeping. She's been eating and drinking but not as much as I'd like. Unless someone else here can solve the mystery, I'll just keep giving her TLC and see what happens.
 
I agree she's sick.

What's her poop like?
Any chance food was moldy?

You could try a couple of things to see if it makes a difference. Treat for Coccidiosis and give an antibiotic as well. Corid and Tylan or Amoxicillin. It's a gamble when you don't know what's going on - but something to consider trying.
 

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