Overheated hen

[sandyp]

My Sussex hen overheated today. At least, that is what I think happened considering that she hasn’t displayed any suspicious behaviors beforehand. I found her under the coop with a blue crown and gasping for breath. Her airways were not obstructed and the episode only lasted for a couple of minutes. Since then I have brought her to a cooler area , wet her waddle, and am giving her an electrolyte solution. She is having episodes every 10 minutes or so but is not turning blue anymore. She walks around and eats in between her episodes.

Has anyone experienced this before? Is there anything else that I should be doing?
Thanks!

 

[Eggcessive]

I would also place her legs in a flat cool pan of water to cool just her legs. Is she overweight or does she have any swelling of her lower belly between her legs? Does she hold her wings away from her body when she pants or gasps? Try to get her drinking some water with electrolytes or give something like gatorade or pedialyte. Age and if she has been laying eggs would be good to know.

 

[sandyp]

I would also place her legs in a flat cool pan of water to cool just her legs. Is she overweight or does she have any swelling of her lower belly between her legs? Does she hold her wings away from her body when she pants or gasps? Try to get her drinking some water with electrolytes or give something like gatorade or pedialyte. Age and if she has been laying eggs would be good to know.

She is around 6 months old. She laid her first egg this morning actually. It was large and strong. And prior to this afternoon she was behaving normally. Today was very warm and she is a Sussex so she has a lot of feathers. During her panting episodes she fluffed out her feathers. I wet her feet, comb, and waddle while I lifted up her feathers so that air could reach her armpits. It seemed to help but she is still having smaller but frightening episodes with difficulty breathing. It lasts a couple of minutes and then she walks around like she’s fine. I had her seperated on a cool patio today. This evening I found her at the gate trying to get home to the coop for sleep so I put her back. I figured that at least she’d be less stressed out if she were home and I am leaning towards heat-stroke over other diseases. I bought her locally and assumed that she could handle the region’s summers (I am in Southern Spain). Her companions, leghorns, seem fine but their combs were slightly pale this evening.
Thank you for your response.

 

[hayley3]

I fill a plastic tote halfway with water...let it sit 30 mins so it's not so cold and then place them feet first in that pushing them gently down to a sitting position. I lift their wings to let water underneath which is a very warm place for a chicken. I make sure the water covers their back and let them sit 30 seconds or so and then take them back out. It works wonders for panting chickens. But you have to watch them sometimes they go lay in the sun to dry off.
I've also used a toddler pool also, which is super tiny.