Open Mouth Breathing

[RebelEgger]

I have a 4-month-old Columbian Rock pullet, Pheobe (who is of course one of my favorites), that has been open-mouth breathing for 1-2 weeks. She does not appear to be in distress, she doesn't typically stretch her neck out to increase air intake. She's walking around looking normal until she takes a breath then opens her mouth and keeps on trucking, business as usual. She will stretch her neck out while breathing and appear distressed only if she's stressed (picked up/examined).

Pheebs, hanging out in my office after her exam and x-ray (she was even given a yummy strawberry by one of her aunties)

She is still eating, drinking, and pooping normally. She is still social with her flock mates and myself.

I work in an animal hospital but we do not treat birds of any kind much beyond a nail trim. I have a technician who has a special interest in birds and has the most knowledge of any of us. She did not hear any crackling in her lungs. We looked in her mouth/down her throat, everything was pink and healthy looking, nothing obvious. Her flock mates all appear 100% normal. She did have some crusties around her nose, which we cleaned, but nothing wet or moist.

Auntie Jessica cleaned her nostrils. Jess is not a chicken/bird person, but she did great and jumped right in there to help. She just kept saying "Please don't bite me". One of my other RVT's was hiding in the other room. She doesn't do birds lol Pheobe was very well-behaved and very tolerant.

We also did a fecal (even though her poops are normal) and there was coccidia present but not in an explosive amount. There was one thing that we thought might be something but could not identify. The large cyst below. I have a video of said cyst where I am focusing up and down on it if anyone wants to see that?

We took a radiograph but honestly, we aren't 100% sure what we are looking at. One of my DVM's (who is away at a conference) happened to see the x-ray come through and looked at it. She feels like her intestines may be being pressed on by something? We are also wondering about her lung pathology - does it appear normal?

Being a perfectly behaved little chicken in the kennel room waiting for mama to finish work for the week.

My rule outs are:
1. Gapeworm
2. Cardiac disease
3. Foreign body ingestion

 

[Rose the Legbar]

@Wyorp Rock and @Eggcessive may be able to help?

 

[RebelEgger]

@Wyorp Rock and @Eggcessive may be able to help?

I'll take all the help I can get! Thanks @Rose the Legbar

Hoping there may be some chicken vets on here willing to give their 2 cents.

 

[Eggcessive]

There are a few retired vets on here, and maybe active vets, but I am not that great on reading X-rays. I see a full crop and a full gizzard with grit. Has she laid an egg recently? I can’t tell if there is an egg or not. There could be excess fluid inside her abdomen, called ascites. Does her lower belly feel fuller than usual? Others may have more opinions.

Gapeworm is rare. But common wormers, Valbazen 1/2 ml orally, or SafeGuard Liquid Goat Wormer 1/4 ml per pound given for 5 consecutive days will treat gapes and other worms.

Check her crop early morning before she has any food or water to make sure that it is emptying normally. Chickens will adjust their crop sometimes when there is food inside. When they do it often, there may be something stuck.

 

[RebelEgger]

There are a few retired vets on here, and maybe active vets, but I am not that great on reading X-rays. I see a full crop and a full gizzard with grit. Has she laid an egg recently? I can’t tell if there is an egg or not. There could be excess fluid inside her abdomen, called ascites. Does her lower belly feel fuller than usual? Others may have more opinions.

Gapeworm is rare. But common wormers, Valbazen 1/2 ml orally, or SafeGuard Liquid Goat Wormer 1/4 ml per pound given for 5 consecutive days will treat gapes and other worms.

Check her crop early morning before she has any food or water to make sure that it is emptying normally. Chickens will adjust their crop sometimes when there is food inside. When they do it often, there may be something stuck.

Yeah I thought the chance of any vets being on here would be slim. (I know once I leave the hospital the last thing I want to do is anything work related)

She has not started laying yet, I do see something on her X-ray that looked suspicious of an egg formation…. Or what could be a tumour. It would be suspicious if it were a cat or dog. Her belly feels normal.

How many does of the dewormer? I would have to find the equivalent of one of those products, we don’t have access to the same things in Canada.

I can check her crop in the am, I haven’t observed her trying to clear her crop excessively.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

4-month-old

open-mouth breathing for 1-2 weeks. She does not appear to be in distress

She's walking around looking normal until she takes a breath then opens her mouth and keeps on trucking, business as usual. She will stretch her neck out while breathing and appear distressed only if she's stressed (picked up/examined).

She is still eating, drinking, and pooping normally. She is still social with her flock mates and myself.

Can you get a video of her breathing? You mention she walks around normal until she takes a breath and opens her mouth, then keeps on trucking. Stretching out the neck to breath?
Is she adjusting her crop?

I'm definitely not a vet nor expert. To may untrained eye, I don't see anything that stands out on the Xray.

@coach723 may want to chime in.

 

[coach723]

I'm not very good at xray's either. Having said that, in most I've looked at the gizzard seems to be positioned farther forward normally. That could be due to the angle the bird was laying, I don't know. If you search for chicken xray images, there are a lot to compare with, usually the gizzard shows up just in front of the legs. Again, it could be a factor of positioning. There is a 'mass' that looks to be behind/above the gizzard, not sure what it is, but I don't think it should be there. I marked it in your photo below. I don't know if it's a egg, but they usually only show up as a faint outline, so likely something else, and it's showing up pretty well. No idea on the lungs, they are usually so faint in images that there would have to be something really remarkable for me to notice it. Xrays are definitely not my forte. If the hospital you work with has contacts with another that sees birds, or have an avian vet around, they may be willing to look at the xray for you. It's certainly worth the ask.

 

[RebelEgger]

Can you get a video of her breathing? You mention she walks around normal until she takes a breath and opens her mouth, then keeps on trucking. Stretching out the neck to breath?
Is she adjusting her crop?

I'm definitely not a vet nor expert. To may untrained eye, I don't see anything that stands out on the Xray.

@coach723 may want to chime in.

I can try and get a video! I haven’t posted a video on BYC in a long time - so I still need to upload it to YouTube first then share the link?

 

[RebelEgger]

I'm not very good at xray's either. Having said that, in most I've looked at the gizzard seems to be positioned farther forward normally. That could be due to the angle the bird was laying, I don't know. If you search for chicken xray images, there are a lot to compare with, usually the gizzard shows up just in front of the legs. Again, it could be a factor of positioning. There is a 'mass' that looks to be behind/above the gizzard, not sure what it is, but I don't think it should be there. I marked it in your photo below. I don't know if it's a egg, but they usually only show up as a faint outline, so likely something else, and it's showing up pretty well. No idea on the lungs, they are usually so faint in images that there would have to be something really remarkable for me to notice it. Xrays are definitely not my forte. If the hospital you work with has contacts with another that sees birds, or have an avian vet around, they may be willing to look at the xray for you. It's certainly worth the ask.
View attachment 3669994

Sadly we are very limited in access to vets with experience in avian medicine. Even in our sister group of hospitals.

I believe I saw a mass on here as well, but in a different spot than what you see.

 

[Eggcessive]

Yes, it is still best to upload a video to YouTube or Vimeo, or similar site, and post a link here. It could be an internally laid egg inside the abdomen. Looking at around 2 o’clock, there could be another egg shaped one visible.