Poorly Cockerel :(

Cocky-2012

Hatching
6 Years
Sep 3, 2013
2
0
7
Hi,

I have a tame Cockerel who is roughly a year old. In the past couple of weeks he has been breathing with his mouth open and head moving forward (in time with breathing). At first I put this down to him being hot but I have been watching him and noticed he is doing it all the time practically.

Is there anything you suggest I do?? I think it may be gape worm but i'm not 100% sure...


If any of you chicken lovers can help it would be much appreciated. He is very much like my child :)


Thanks :)
 
It may be because of the heat. Some chickens will pant all the time once the temperature reaches 70 or so, while other rarely pant.

I do not think that Gapeworm is all that likely, as it is rather rare. Still, you could worm him with a dewormer like Safeguard for goats. The dosage for Safeguard is a pea sized amount for each chicken. You can give it with a piece of bread or another type of food to get your chickens to eat it.

A respiratory disease is a possibility. However, I'd expect more birds to show symptoms by now, and he would probably be showing more symptoms (sneezing, coughing, gurgling, etc). If the worming doesn't work, or if the symptoms spread, treat with Tylan50.

Hope this helps!
 
Hi thanks for your quick reply... He does cough sometimes when he eats... Another chicken does it... So you think it's respiratory?

Thanks again
 
My chickens sometimes cough or "sneeze" a little when they eat too quickly or eat too dry of food. However, it is usually an isolated ocurrence. If more than one bird is doing it, and the food isn't too dusty, I'd lean towards it being a respiratory disease.
 
If chickens are sneezing or coughing, it is just like with humans, eating food will trigger more sneezing or coughing. You will see more symptomswhile eating, and sometimes at night they will increase also.
 

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