Opens beak wide and stretchs out neck - deteriorating

[ducktime]

One of our 5 month old hens has displayed a strange behavior. She will open her beak wide and stretch out her neck like she is trying to clear her esophagus. She has done this for over a month or more. She seemed fine in every other way. Her internal mouth and throat looked normal like everyone else. Externally, from the base of her skull going down onto her neck, it appeared slightly more full or humped up. I thought that maybe she has odd anatomy and just kept an eye on her. Recently she has become lethargic and will not eat the feed. When we first noticed that she was off, she was doing the mouth-open thing and really craning her head back with a twist back and forth. Inside her mouth the back of her throat had crumbles sitting there uncleared with excess saliva. The next day she was again very lethargic/weak and had a saliva drop hanging on her beak. Her throat appeared clean, she takes water on her own - no signs of dehydration. I offered her wheat bread soaked in olive oil and she gobbled it up...appetite good. She is keeping her right eye shut a lot but will open it to look at things. It appears slightly different than the other but is NOT running, cloudy, crusty, swollen or has any signs of trauma. She just keeps closing it like it is bothering her. I started offering her crumbles and oatmeal pulverized in the coffee grinder and mixed with hot water to make a paste. I spread it on wheat bread and she eats until she is full and seems to perk-up after a meal. She still opens and stretches but not in association with eating. She had been doing fine until recently...has lost considerable weight.

I'm now starting to worry because some of the other hens are opening their beaks wide and stretching too.

What the heck is going on with her? Any suggestions or ideas would be appreciated.

 

[speckledhen]

Could very well be gapeworm or something that is stuck in her windpipe. Gapeworm is not all that common, however, that extreme gagging and twisting and losing weight could be that. Since she's going downhill, I would take a chance and worm her with Safeguard (I use the paste that is made for horses and just squeeze out a BB sized portion and swipe it into the roof of their mouth to worm) I'm pretty sure that Safeguard/panacur/fenbendazole will get gapeworm, but if you need invermectin, hopefully someone can tell you that. Other than gapeworm, I dont really know. A friend of mine here on BYC had something like that happen and it was something blocking off her air, but wasn't gapeworm. Unfortunately, she ended up putting her down. If you do worm her and it doesn't help, then I just dont know.

 

[ivan3]

We recently lost a 4yo BSL hen that exhibited much the same primary symptom (stretching out neck and open beak breathing), but the necroscopy revealed a tumor that (vet's best guess) had formed on the exterior of the left ovary and was impinging on air sacs. Only other symptoms: gurgling and transparent, yellowish tinged, serosanguinous exudate (had that tested with negative results early on). She was able to eat and drink without too much difficulty.

Injury to the neck can also result in the same sort of breathing (just mentioning this for others reading), along with Gapeworm (definitely worm `em), respiratory illnesses and, as Cynthia mentioned, Obstruction.

However, if you worm them and there is no subsequent improvement, I would be tempted to sacrifice the sickest hen and have a necroscopy performed (if possible have her examined, alive, by a vet). At least subsequent treatment, of those girls that seem to be developing the same symptom, would be on target and result in more survivors.

In the interim you might consider the following adjunctive interventions:

Three drops of POLYVISOL enfamil formulation (liquid childrens A-B-D vitamins) no iron formulation for a week then taper off the next. Electrolytes and apple cider vinegar.

The following is a way to calculate how much a chicken drinks per day (I'd just go with the 60day figure for older hens).

"Pesti and coworkers (1985) estimated the daily water consumption of broilers by multiplying the age of the bird in days by 0.2 ounces.
For example, a 10-day old bird will drink about 2 ounces of water during a 24-hr period while a 60-day old bird will drink 12 ounces (or about 355 ml)."

From: http://www.thepoultrysite.com/articles/97/water-intake-a-good-measure-of-broiler-performance
Not perfect, but will give some guidance if you want to add vitamins to the Pedialyte (electrolytes). You can also mix your own (from Dlhunicorn's info: see her site for more ideas on what this problem might be: http://dlhunicorn.conforums.com/index.cgi )

Electrolyte formula:7g sodium chloride (NaCl, common salt)5g sodium bicarbonate (baking soda)3g potassium chloride (commonly called "Muriate of Potash". Salt substitutes contain mostly potassium chloride)40g glucose (a common source is corn syrup)2 litres water

Also, pick up some unfiltered organic Apple Cider Vinegar (Bragg's and Spectrum are common brands) it should have some `goop' floating in the bottom of the bottle (the `mother'). Shake it up and add two tablespoons per gallon of drinking water. This can help to allay the severity of some respiratory symptoms.

I'll add this link to a paper on the Relationship of Structure and Function of the Avian Respiratory
System to Disease Susceptibility as it is a very good reference using chickens as the example:

http://ps.fass.org/cgi/reprint/77/8/1130.pdf

Best of luck to you and your girls!​

 

[threehorses]

I agree with both Ivan3 and speckledhen on this. I would treat for gapeworm and then try to rule out the causes listed by Ivan3.

Here's information on Ivermectin should you choose to use it:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=185989

It's a long post so I'm not going to post it here. This is the dosage I've been using for about 10 years now.

 

[ducktime]

Thank you for your help! I couldn't find any information matching my hens symptoms anywhere. Your posts have been greatly appreciated.

We have consulted The Chicken Health Handbook and found levamisole to be listed as treatment for gapeworm. I also spoke with a Vet's office that will have a avian specialist in house tomorrow AM. Hopefully we can save our girl. This evening she perked up enough after her hand fed meal to venture out with the flock and go for a spin around the yard.

She hasn't demonstrated any respiratory issues...yet. We won't let it get that far. On to our next post - who know what about levamisole?

Thanks again!

 

[threehorses]

You can also use ivermectin paste. I believe speckledhen has said she uses a bb-sized bit of the horse paste wormer ivermectin (generic is fine) in the beak. One tube of ivermectin (read the active ingredient) is the same as the next, usually all treat about a 1200 lb horse.

If your vet can see her, tell him to please look into her throat to see if he can literally see the gapeworms clinging there. Treating symptomatically won't hurt.

If you have her there anyway, consider getting a "fecal egg count" to see if there is any evidence of worms. (Looking for the worms themselves in the droppings is an unreliable way - so have the fecal egg count done instead).

Levamisole I haven't used as much since I have fenbendazole (safe-guard paste for cattle and horses) and various forms of ivermectin available. I know that it takes care of mostly ascarids in poultry - including some larval forms (and lungworms). It's usually found as a bolus (big capsule) for use with sheep. I couldn't personally tell you the dosage. Maybe we can find one on here somewhere.