Hello,
I’m new to the world of chickens. Long story short, an injured chick showed up on my lawn and she’s now a (hopefully temporary) house chicken. I’ve never owned a chicken before so I don’t know what’s typical behavior, but a couple things she started doing caught my attention and I don’t know if I should be worried or not.
Last night at around 9pm, she suddenly got really scared/nervous. She was trying desperately to hide in my arms and kept yelling. She’s a nervous little chicken as it is but she seemed extra frightened. I noticed she kept shaking her head and watery discharge was coming out and she kept wiping her face off. Then she had her mouth gaped open a little but I wasn’t sure if she was just panting from squawking and being scared or if she was having trouble breathing. I put her to bed and she was fine in the morning and all day today. And then tonight at around the same time (9pm) she started doing the same thing. Freaking out, shaking her head, watery discharge, and she had her mouth open. I also noticed she felt really hot. But it’s super hot here today and I don’t have AC (she has access to plenty of fresh water). Another thing I noticed that she’s done since I found her is this gagging motion. She kind of stretches her neck up and gags. It usually happens when she’s cleaning her feathers so I just assumed she got a feather stuck in her throat and it’s normal chicken behavior. But now that I’m googling her symptoms I keep seeing stuff about gapeworm and now I’m worried she could have that. Or could it just be a respiratory infection? I just don’t understand why it only seems to affect her at night. She’s completely fine during the day besides a little panting due to the heat. She’s on two different antibiotics from her surgery so I’m hoping they help. Should I be concerned?
Thanks in advance.
I’m new to the world of chickens. Long story short, an injured chick showed up on my lawn and she’s now a (hopefully temporary) house chicken. I’ve never owned a chicken before so I don’t know what’s typical behavior, but a couple things she started doing caught my attention and I don’t know if I should be worried or not.
Last night at around 9pm, she suddenly got really scared/nervous. She was trying desperately to hide in my arms and kept yelling. She’s a nervous little chicken as it is but she seemed extra frightened. I noticed she kept shaking her head and watery discharge was coming out and she kept wiping her face off. Then she had her mouth gaped open a little but I wasn’t sure if she was just panting from squawking and being scared or if she was having trouble breathing. I put her to bed and she was fine in the morning and all day today. And then tonight at around the same time (9pm) she started doing the same thing. Freaking out, shaking her head, watery discharge, and she had her mouth open. I also noticed she felt really hot. But it’s super hot here today and I don’t have AC (she has access to plenty of fresh water). Another thing I noticed that she’s done since I found her is this gagging motion. She kind of stretches her neck up and gags. It usually happens when she’s cleaning her feathers so I just assumed she got a feather stuck in her throat and it’s normal chicken behavior. But now that I’m googling her symptoms I keep seeing stuff about gapeworm and now I’m worried she could have that. Or could it just be a respiratory infection? I just don’t understand why it only seems to affect her at night. She’s completely fine during the day besides a little panting due to the heat. She’s on two different antibiotics from her surgery so I’m hoping they help. Should I be concerned?
Thanks in advance.
That’s what I thought at first. I may be overthinking. Should I put her away before it gets dark? I try to keep her out as long as possible since she’s by herself right now.
