Can a chicken swallow its own tongue? Help??? -PICTURES ADDED-

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It does sound like she has some infection and/or cankers on it but I'm still guessing that something is pulling it to the back of her mouth and it's becoming infected and coated. Repeat the same procedure of trying to pull the tongue out as far as possible (pull out and downward) - the tongue should naturally extend out past the tip of the beak but it sounds like there's definitely something wrong here so don't force the issue. Just pull it out as far as possible. Then.....using a q-tip dipped in the strongest mouthwash you have, swab and wipe the back of the tongue and anything else that is coated and smelly. You may have to keep it up for a long time till you get it all cleaned off. Hopefully you'll be able to better see what is going on back there but it does sound like she swallowed something. In any event, the tongue is blocking the windpipe (the tunnel shaped hole at back of tongue) and must be cleaned off and gotten out of the way or she will die.
 
To those who are recommending swabbing with mouthwash... would you have to use a mouthwash with alcohol in it? I know my DH has to use regular Listerine or a similar mouthwash with 26% alcohol in it for periodontal disease. Would the no-alcohol mouthwashes have the same effect?
 
I've been reading your thread for education's sake, and i don't have any experience with this, but it occurs to me that if something is wrapped around her tongue, like a string that you can't see, a crochet hook might be a very useful tool. Even if you can't see what's there, you could slip a narrow crochet hook down past her tongue and see if you can catch whatever's pulling her tongue back.

I really hope she's o.k.

Really rooting for you,

Beth
 
As you took a poop sample to the vet, can you take the chicken to the vet? Vets have nifty lighted tools that let them look into small dark places. Dental mirrors, laryngoscopes, ect...Getting a really good look at the base of this bird's tongue and the opening into it's trachea may give you the answer.



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When I was treating a whole group of Welsummer Roos (who came down with wet fowl pox and had cankers all in their mouths) I had read a thread that suggested the strongest, old-fashioned mouthwash and yes the old Listerine would work great. You don't want to use the sweet, flavored watered down versions. You need to kill every last germ possible. My roos all pulled through just great but not a one of them enjoyed getting their mouth swabbed out daily. But it did kill the cankers and allow me to get them off their tongue, throat and roof of mouth. By the way a "canker" is a yellow mass/growth looking thing. It can be pulled up if necessary but a q-tip dipped in mouthwash can be used to gently rub one off. Just be careful that the q-tip is not dripping with mouthwash and doesn't drip down the windpipe and if removing a hunk of canker not to drop it down the windpipe. I would dip the q-tip, then dab it on a towel, then swab.
 
This morning, I took Gladys to someone (Pam) who knows far more than I do about chickens, and we had a good look in her mouth. Today, there was a lot more smell, mucous and some pus that I hadn't seen before, but we were getting a better look than I had before. Pam palpated the throat to the crop and said to her it looks like there was infection of some sort before the tongue issue started (good call, Miss Jenny). She said the tongue held back like that was a sort of protective mechanism to keep fluid from going down the trachea??? She said something like that. This was day 5 (counting from when I realized something was wrong with her) and she was declining pretty quickly, so we elected to put her down.
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Of course, this was the hen who would greet me first whenever I went to the coop
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I guess we won't know what Gladys's issue was unless another bird gets sick. Then we will likely elect to have the state do testing to see what we're dealing with. I just hope this wasn't something contagious. The fecal came back negative, by the way. My vet (for my dogs) was willing to do a fecal, but won't "see" chickens, and as far as I know, no one around here does. I'm about an hour from Lincoln, so I may do some checking there because it sure would be nice to know there was someone sort of local that I could go to. I'm really watching the others now to see if I can detect the slightest odd behavior. They sure are good at hiding illness - I understand that more now.

Thanks to all of you for your suggestions (Ruth, your detailed directions were very helpful and PunkinPeep, I'm going to keep a crochet hook in my medical kit from now on! AHappychick, I can relate to the hair issues - that happened to my son when he was a baby too). Having the support of this list is a real blessing.
 

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