My hen died within 24 hours gasping for air, no other symptoms

[Shelley2147]

Hi! My 8 month old hen, Evie, passed away today. She started making a very quiet repetitive noise in her throat, yesterday, mid morning. It continued to a wheezing and mouth open breathing. She had no other symptoms, still eating and drinking and pecking around. We separated her and gave her nutradrench, which is all I had. I scoured the internet to see what it might be and how to treat. This morning she what gasping for air and she passed away just now. I thought maybe gapeworm, so I went to get some dewormer, but she was already gone when I got back. If anybody knows what might have happened to her, I would truly appreciate it. I want to make sure my other babies don’t also have this happen.
Thank you!
Shelley

 

[MandS]

Sorry for your loss and for Evie herself.

I think you may be right about gapeworm, particularly the noise she was making. The other possibilities would be aspiration and subsequent pneumonia. Can happen if they aspirate a smaller amount of water and then pneumonia kicks in. Alternatively, was she very hot? Heat stroke can leave them gasping for air too, however they also tend to be rather inanimate, so I think that is unlikely. Finally, some foreign object getting caught in her wind pipe. Never come across this myself but I have heard of it. I have had a wheezy chicken though and it was almost like a cold/sore throat and it passed after a couple of days, however she made a rasping noise as she breathed which was pretty alarming.

So my guess would be gapeworm based on your description.

Again, sorry for your loss.

 

[Shelley2147]

Sorry for your loss and for Evie herself.

I think you may be right about gapeworm, particularly the noise she was making. The other possibilities would be aspiration and subsequent pneumonia. Can happen if they aspirate a smaller amount of water and then pneumonia kicks in. Alternatively, was she very hot? Heat stroke can leave them gasping for air too, however they also tend to be rather inanimate, so I think that is unlikely. Finally, some foreign object getting caught in her wind pipe. Never come across this myself but I have heard of it. I have had a wheezy chicken though and it was almost like a cold/sore throat and it passed after a couple of days, however she made a rasping noise as she breathed which was pretty alarming.

So my guess would be gapeworm based on your description.

Again, sorry for your loss.

Thank you for all of your info. and your quick reply. I’m so sad that I waited to get the dewormer today, instead of yesterday, but she had a great short life and was very loved!

 

[jkingston]

Thank you for all of your info. and your quick reply. I’m so sad that I waited to get the dewormer today, instead of yesterday, but she had a great short life and was very

Hi Shelley
If you see this... I'm sorry about your bird, seems like the same thing happened to me today. Was curious if you had any issues with your other birds following this. Praying its just a one off and my other girls stay fine. thank you!