I have a 1 year old Blue Lace Wyandotte who has been perfectly healthy until yesterday morning.
Yesterday I noticed that she was repeatedly stretching her neck and opening her beak. She kind of wheezes or squeals quietly when she opens her beak. It looks like silent crowing, but please keep reading before you diagnose her with gapeworms!
She is not shaking her head. I peered down her throat and her trachea looked normal as much as I can tell - no redness, no visible obstructions, just smooth, pale walled trachea. I first thought she was straining to get an egg out, but I felt her rear end (from the outside) and didn't feel lumps or anything unusual there. Her rear end is a little pasty with white droppings, but her vent appears normal and the droppings don't smell any worse than normal chicken feces.
While checking her out yesterday afternoon, I noticed that her crop felt swollen and squishy (about the size of a racketball maybe, only slightly larger than it would normally be in mid-afternoon). I checked my other 3 birds and their crops were about the same size, but distinctly firmer, definitely not squishy.
After a little more research here, I held her upside down and gently massaged her crop yesterday evening. She vomited clear liquid. It didn't smell particularly strongly - just smelled like any other vomit. Her breath does not smell otherwise.
This morning she was doing about the same. Her crop was not bloated - down to the size of a pecan but was still squishy. I held her upside down again and massaged her crop gently again. A little clear liquid came up, again, about the same smell.
The only unusual thing in her behavior or diet recently was that two days ago, all four hens got out of their run and took a stroll through our tomato patch for about an hour. They have not gotten into the tomatoes before. There's nothing in the garden that's not in their run with the exception of the plants themselves - both are mulched with wheat straw, no pesticides or herbicides in the garden, and no strings or things like that. They did not appear to be eating the tomatoes, plants nor fruit.
The four hens live in an open-air coop that is 50 sq. ft. inside, with about a foot of wheat straw bedding, and spend a couple of hours a day in a loosely fenced run that is about 200 sq. ft. (or more when they slip out, which is pretty often).
I'd like to get her healthy again. I'm not thrilled about the idea of going to a vet for livestock, but if anyone can recommend one in Raleigh, NC, I might go for that.
Should I treat for impacted crop? Or go for deworming just in case it's gapeworms? Other advice or diagnosis?
Thanks!!
Yesterday I noticed that she was repeatedly stretching her neck and opening her beak. She kind of wheezes or squeals quietly when she opens her beak. It looks like silent crowing, but please keep reading before you diagnose her with gapeworms!
She is not shaking her head. I peered down her throat and her trachea looked normal as much as I can tell - no redness, no visible obstructions, just smooth, pale walled trachea. I first thought she was straining to get an egg out, but I felt her rear end (from the outside) and didn't feel lumps or anything unusual there. Her rear end is a little pasty with white droppings, but her vent appears normal and the droppings don't smell any worse than normal chicken feces.
While checking her out yesterday afternoon, I noticed that her crop felt swollen and squishy (about the size of a racketball maybe, only slightly larger than it would normally be in mid-afternoon). I checked my other 3 birds and their crops were about the same size, but distinctly firmer, definitely not squishy.
After a little more research here, I held her upside down and gently massaged her crop yesterday evening. She vomited clear liquid. It didn't smell particularly strongly - just smelled like any other vomit. Her breath does not smell otherwise.
This morning she was doing about the same. Her crop was not bloated - down to the size of a pecan but was still squishy. I held her upside down again and massaged her crop gently again. A little clear liquid came up, again, about the same smell.
The only unusual thing in her behavior or diet recently was that two days ago, all four hens got out of their run and took a stroll through our tomato patch for about an hour. They have not gotten into the tomatoes before. There's nothing in the garden that's not in their run with the exception of the plants themselves - both are mulched with wheat straw, no pesticides or herbicides in the garden, and no strings or things like that. They did not appear to be eating the tomatoes, plants nor fruit.
The four hens live in an open-air coop that is 50 sq. ft. inside, with about a foot of wheat straw bedding, and spend a couple of hours a day in a loosely fenced run that is about 200 sq. ft. (or more when they slip out, which is pretty often).
I'd like to get her healthy again. I'm not thrilled about the idea of going to a vet for livestock, but if anyone can recommend one in Raleigh, NC, I might go for that.
Should I treat for impacted crop? Or go for deworming just in case it's gapeworms? Other advice or diagnosis?
Thanks!!
