Possible gapeworm? Middle of molting and have chicks

[MessyJo]

I had a hen die last night. She had no symptoms until yesterday, she was wheezing with mouth open and head shaking. Clear eyes, no discharge nothing. I kept an eye on her and she was out with the flock and I was looking stuff up. When my husband came home we decided to see if we could see anything in her throat. Picking her up to look stressed her out so much her comb turned purple. I couldn't get a good look without making her more upset so we just let her go and hope she recovered. I bought fenbendazole to be delivered today, but she died overnight.

There is one other hen who has had a paler than usual comb, no other symptoms, eats and hangs out like usual. I thought maybe it was because of molting, but with the other hen dying I'm now thinking maybe it's gapeworm.

Hen is being sent off today for necropsy, but I'm thinking of treating the flock for gapeworm just in case.

The problem is, most of them are molting and I have 6 weeks old chicks.

The medicine coming is the goat form, so I can treat the one hen with the pale comb, but she's starting molting. Can chicks have the water soluble fenbendazole? Thoughts?

 

[coach723]

If you want to avoid any possible feather issues with molt then I would recommend you worm with albendazole instead. You can get that online as Valbazen. It's a very good wormer, dosing is actually a little easier, and it does not have the feather warning with it. You can save the Safeguard and use it in the future when molt isn't an issue.
Gapeworm is less common as far as parasites go, but I certainly can't say if that's what is going on. Did they give you any idea on a timeline for at least initial findings on the necropsy? It could also be something respiratory, or something completely different, sometimes it's very hard to know til necropsy.

 

[MessyJo]

Update: the necropsy came back as cancer and egg yolk peritonitis as the main cause of death. There were worm eggs in her feces too so we're going ahead and deworming the flock because they take forever to finish molting (some started two months ago and some are just starting).

 

[coach723]

I'm very sorry, but glad you know what it was, and that it won't affect your other birds. Sadly cancers are not uncommon in laying hens. Sometimes their symptoms give you some suspicion that's what's going on, and sometimes they just suddenly die with not much warning. I had one who had seemed fine, went drastically downhill for 3 days and then died. Necropsy showed she was just full of cancer. They hide symptoms so incredibly well.
I would go ahead and worm as well, at least that IS something you can take care of.
Very sorry for your loss.