My Speckled Sussex is acting funny-please help

[Lynette]

My speckled sussex was born April 7, so she is an older chick. I noticed this morning that she wasn't acting like herself. Now I noticed that she feels hot when I put my hand on her back and the others don't feel that way. And she is making like gagging motions with her head. She has her feathers kind of puffed up too. She also acts tired. Any ideas at all what is wrong or how I can help her? I don't want her to die on me.

 

[gritsar]

I'm thinking gapeworms, but I'm not sure.

I'm contacting a mod. to ask that your thread be moved to the emergencies section, where help is likely to find you quicker.

Good luck

 

[Lynette]

Are they contagious?
How would she gotten them and how do you get rid of them?

 

[gritsar]

Quote:
Not "contagious", but infectious - meaning that if one has managed to get them other chickens living in the same enviroment can.

Valbazen (albendazole) which is a cattle/sheep broad spectrum wormer used "off label" will kill off gapeworms.

You give 1/2 cc by mouth, undiluted for a standard sized chicken; 1/4 cc for a bantam. Draw up the valbazen in a needle-less syringe, pull open the beak (tug on the wattles, the beak will open) and slowly squirt it in; giving her time to swallow. Repeat in two weeks.

You must throw the eggs from that hen away for two weeks each time, so a total of a month.

You can do a search here on BYC, keyword gapeworms, for more info.

ETA: Scratch the part about throwing her eggs away. I just read the birds age and chances are she isn't laying yet. I'm sleepy today.

Also, given her age I would go with the lower dose - 1/4 cc, but be sure and read up on gapeworms first to be sure that's what you are dealing with.

 

[rhs7111]

Please do a search on this board (BYC) to make sure she actually has gapeworm before you treat her.