Obstructed airway? Hen having trouble breathing

[Eggcessive]

In the first video, she sounds like she has stridor, which is a sound they can make when there is something stuck in the airway, such as a piece of food, mucus, swelling, or a stuck foreign body. However in the second video, she seems to be having more respiratory distress. Do you have any antibiotics? Has she been able to drink anything? Can you bring her into a bathroom, and run the water for a bit to create some steam? I hope that she gets to feeling better. Has she been coughing or sneezing, or do you see any nasal drainage or watery eyes? I might get some SafeGuard Liquid Goat Wormer tomorrow, and worm her 1/4 ml per pound for 5 straight days. Also, get some Tylan 50 injectable and some syringes with needles, but give it orally 1/4 ml per pound 3 times daily for 5 days.

 

[Eggcessive]

Just another thought. When you picked her up to inspect her and felt her crop, could you have accidentally squeezed her crop causing her to spit up crop contents and choke on them? Aspirating crop contents might have caused the worsened symptoms. This is very easy to do when handling a chicken with a full crop.

 

[Trish1974]

In the first video, she sounds like she has stridor, which is a sound they can make when there is something stuck in the airway, such as a piece of food, mucus, swelling, or a stuck foreign body. However in the second video, she seems to be having more respiratory distress. Do you have any antibiotics? Has she been able to drink anything? Can you bring her into a bathroom, and run the water for a bit to create some steam? I hope that she gets to feeling better. Has she been coughing or sneezing, or do you see any nasal drainage or watery eyes? I might get some SafeGuard Liquid Goat Wormer tomorrow, and worm her 1/4 ml per pound for 5 straight days. Also, get some Tylan 50 injectable and some syringes with needles, but give it orally 1/4 ml per pound 3 times daily for 5 days.

I have a packet of Agrimycin 343. I did put that in her water when I brought her in but she has not tried to drink. A little bit of sneezing started about an hour ago. Eyes and nostrils are clear. I do have a vaporizer I could put in there.

 

[Trish1974]

Just another thought. When you picked her up to inspect her and felt her crop, could you have accidentally squeezed her crop causing her to spit up crop contents and choke on them? Aspirating crop contents might have caused the worsened symptoms. This is very easy to do when handling a chicken with a full crop.

Yes... That is when she seemed to get worse.

 

[azygous]

She sure sounds like she has an obstructed airway. She's still getting enough air or you'd either see her running around in a panic or she would be turning blue/grey on her comb and face. I had a hen get a cherry tomato stuck in her airway and just as she was ready to keel over after a mad race around the run, I managed to get her and give her a good up and down shake that dislodged the obstruction. I've since learned you can turn a chicken upside down to dislodge an obstruction using gravity and a little gentle shake downward.

You need to get another person to hold her and pry open her beak as wide as it will go. She will resist, but if the helper can get their fingers into the sides of her beak, it will then be easier to get it to open all the way. Then you take a good, well focused photo and post it.

If this is being caused by thick mucous or other respiratory secretions, a vaporizer with peppermint oil in the water can help her breathe better. The best thing to do would be to use Oxine in a vaporizer since that would kill bacteria and fungus if that's what's causing this.

 

[Eggcessive]

The vaporizer might help. Wonder if she started sneezing after possibly choking? I would check her crop again in the morning, to see if it is empty, full, hard, or puffy, but if it is really large and puffy, use caution if you handle it. Agrimycin is oxytetracycline and can be used for respiratory diseases. But she needs to drink it. How much do you use in a gallon of water? Tylan 50 can be given orally or by injection. I hope that she starts feeling better overnight.

 

[Trish1974]

How much do you use in a gallon of water?

I used a 1/2 teaspoon in a gallon of water.

 

[Trish1974]

@azygous I won't have help until tomorrow. Would it be a bad idea to try and turn her upside down without looking down her throat first?

 

[Eggcessive]

You might try mixing 1/4 ml of Agrimycin into a little liquidy feed, yogurt, or egg tonight to see if you could get a dose into her. But don’t force it. Looking back in the first video, just for a second, it did look like her crop might have been a little full. If you have a vet tomorrow who would see her, that would be best. I will check back in the morning.

 

[azygous]

Go ahead and try it. But take special care not to put any pressure on her crop. Just do an invert with a gentle shake downward and let her rest in that position for about ten seconds, then turn her right side up again.

I would still recommend the vaporizer tonight.