please look at my chicken video

[Heatherberry]

I posted last week about my Buff having a upper resp. Long story short I treated her for three days with Tylan from my vet. I did not take her to the vet he just let me get the meds.

I have video now because she has not gotten better an I need to knwo if anyone has seen this behavior. She is eating, ranging, drinking. Poo looks good.

Pleas watch the video and see what you can gather from it.

Thanks

 

[chicks4kids]

I would try a few more days of Tylan after making sure that there is nothing stuck in her throat. It almost looks like something may be lodged in there, in which case you can try dropping some mineral oil in her mouth. But if you find that there is nothing in her throat, then I would do another round of Tylan. It's apparent that something is wrong there.

 

[justbugged]

I had a meat bird that was breathing exactly the same way. It didn't cough the same way as your does, but it was so sad to listen to it breath. It had a really sad wheeze sound. I didn't want to but dose all of the birds with tetracycline, and it took a few days but the bird seemed to get better on it's own. I still don't know what it had. I would like to know too. I am wishing yours a speedy recovery.

 

[MnKnight]

This is te time of year for hook worm as well! bosses chickens came down with hook worm the chicks sounded like they where coughing! ask a vet what they think! hope this helps!

 

[PoultryPedia]

Could it be gapeworm? You might do a 'Search' on that to see if symptoms are the same. I think the chicken gets 1 or more worms in throat area and gapes mouth open trying to breathe???

 

[dawg53]

I was thinking gapeworm also, not sure though. There is a way you can check if she has gapeworm. This will be a 2 person job. Take a Q-tip and very gently stick it 1 inch down it's throat and very gently swab. Then ease the Q-tip out. If you see red in color "Y" shaped worms on it...you'll have your answer.

 

[Heatherberry]

Okay. I have not swabbed. But, I know now that this is Gapeworm . I cannot believe that I have let this go on for a week. I just checked on her and she is hawking every few seconds. I hope she makes it through the night.

I will get something in the morning although I have read conflicting stories on what to use.

Who out there has had this and treated it successfully and with what? If this bird dies I am responsible. I treated her for something completely different and in all my research in this last week I never ran across Gapeworm and my vet never suggested it either.

I'm sick to my stomach that she cannot breath and I have no access to meds.

This all started last Tuesday evening and has slowly gotten worse. Does anyone know how long she might have. I need hope that she will make it through the night.

Thanks

 

[dawg53]

Heatherberry, you can purchase 10% suspension (Safeguard) from TSC. Dosage is 3cc/3ml to 1 gallon of water. Dont ask me to break that down lol. But you can use it for the rest of your chickens. You could use an eyedropper to draw from the 1 gallon water and 'force feed' it down her throat. Another wormer used to kill gapeworm is Ivermectin pour on. Buy the smallest amount of ivermectin pour on that you can find. Put only 2 drops of it on her bare skin on the back of the neck,just above the shoulder. It must go on the bare skin and not the feathers. There's a type of ivermectin that can be given orally but I never used it nor do I know the dosage. Maybe someone else can help you in that regard. Hope this helps. I forgot to mention that you can use only one of these wormers,not both.

 

[PoultryPedia]

Maybe you can help her make it through the night by trying to get some of the worms out of her throat??

I found the following tip posted on another forum:
"I recently read that you can remove gape worms from the throat of a chicken with a feather dipped in a mixture of 4 drops Eucalyptus Oil to 1 cup cold-pressed and filter Castor Oil. I haven't tried it."

Apparently the worms are heaviest in the lungs, but if you can put a Q-tip or something down her throat and are able to at least remove any of the worms there, that might buy her enough time until you can get some dewormer???

Also found in another forum a natural treatment:
Chop up garlic and mix it in something yummy like cooked rice or oatmeal. A couple people who posted said this had been effective for them & should be done every 3 months.

It was suggested that you put the chickens somewhere easy to clean for the day or 2 following treatment for gapeworms and then move the chickens somewhere else and clean the area that would have the worms & eggs that had been expelled by the chickens and leave it unoccupied a long time to also give any surviving worms time to die off.
[Note: I personally am not sure if this is really helpful since it seems worms being excreted during treatment I'd think would be dead, and normal living areas will almost surely have some live worms in them even after you clean them.]

Best wishes.

 

[PoultryPedia]

Wormer dosages I've seen:

Fenbendazole powder ($15 from a large animal vet): 2TB per 40lbs of feed for 7 days and then repeat in 3 weeks

Ivemectin 1% injectible: 1cc per quart of water ,4 cc per gal. this is the only water they get for 2 days

Ivermect injectible (approved by FDA) can also be given orally ¼ cc for large chicken or 7 drops for a bantam

Ivermectin pour-on (pour on skin back of neck)
Sml bird – 4 drops
Med bird – 6 drops
Large bird – 8 drops

Flubenvet dewormer (This was mentioned on UK site as best wormer for gapeworm, but I don't know if it's available in US): Cut a grape in half, dip cut (wet) edge of grape in a TINY amount of Flubenvet, shake off excess, and give to chicken. Do this once a day for seven days (If severe infection, give twice a day).

Also some good info on dosing on thread at: https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=213065&p=4