Chicken gasping while trying to sleep?

OhDangBro

Chirping
Oct 26, 2020
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Hey everyone,

I need some advice regarding my chicken. She's been doing this weird panting and gasping for air thing and it only started tonight. She's about a year old, and the only thing different today was that I gave them some hard corn kernels before bed and they free-ranged a lot. All the other chickens are fine, but this one seems to be struggling.

I took her down from the roost and she didn't gasp anymore. She drank a lot of water and even ate some food. She's been laying eggs every day. I'm starting to wonder if this could be gape worm.

Has anyone else experienced this before? Does anyone have any advice on what I can do to help her? I would greatly appreciate any input or advice. Thank you!

Video below of her doing it:
 
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Have you checked her crop to see if it's hard or distended? If so, try feeding her some drops of olive oil, like a tablespoon or so and gently massage her crop.

Safeguard works on gapeworms with a 5-7 day treatment and wouldn't hurt, but I'd check her crop first.

I'm no expert, so I'm hoping someone else will chime in here, but I didn't see another response so I'm giving you the best info I know to give. ; -)
 
Have you checked her crop to see if it's hard or distended? If so, try feeding her some drops of olive oil, like a tablespoon or so and gently massage her crop.

Safeguard works on gapeworms with a 5-7 day treatment and wouldn't hurt, but I'd check her crop first.

I'm no expert, so I'm hoping someone else will chime in here, but I didn't see another response so I'm giving you the best info I know to give. ; -)
Hey! Thanks for the reply. So I’m not really sure about any of this but I felt her crop and it feels full but not hard? I massaged it for a little but she got cranky and wanted to go back to the roost. When she was on the floor she walked around and drank and ate like normal. No panting at all.
 
Cranky when having her crop "massaged" is normal and GOOD! ; -)

Walking around and drinking and eating is great .... no panting is Awesome!

Check her again in the early a.m. and repeat if you can. Then be watchful and keep us posted, okay!
 
Cranky when having her crop "massaged" is normal and GOOD! ; -)

Walking around and drinking and eating is great .... no panting is Awesome!

Check her again in the early a.m. and repeat if you can. Then be watchful and keep us posted, okay!
Yeah the only problem is once she’s back up on the roost the same behavior begins. She was also on the floor of where the roost is and the panting continued. (The roost are in a section I call the lofts which is about 5 feet off the ground and has a floor with two roosts. Then they have an actual floor on the ground)
 
Hmmm. Is the ventilation good? All of the other chickens in the same coop seem to be fine?

I can't imagine why her being in or on the floor of the roost would make a difference if its not an air quality issue, especially if your other chickens aren't showing signs of stress.

Where was she when she was drinking and eating and breathing okay awhile ago? Maybe I'm missing something in understanding what changed.

Can you isolate her for the time being to another pen, maybe a large dog crate inside with you if need be?
 
Yeah the only problem is once she’s back up on the roost the same behavior begins. She was also on the floor of where the roost is and the panting continued. (The roost are in a section I call the lofts which is about 5 feet off the ground and has a floor with two roosts. Then they have an actual floor on the ground)
Is there a chance that she has been exposed to something recently that may be causing an allergic reaction ... something specific to that area of the coop?
 
I'm not sure if you're still online, but I did look up use of Benadryl for chickens in case it may be allergy related and found a post here on BYC from another member. Note: I'm not suggesting that you give her Benadryl, I don't know that allergies have anything to do with her breathing troubles, but in case I've gone to bed when you answer back I'm going to give you the link so you can have it handy and have a reference on dosages from someone who has more experience with this than I do. Again, I don't know that is the issue, I'm just trying to think of possible causes and what might be treatments.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...for-poultry-under-construction.74175/bookmark
 
Oh haha, this is normal. Dont worry about it, its usually just them trying to cool off. All chickens do it when they are hot. They stretch their necks to get airflow. You could put a small fan in there if you are worried about it though.
 
Oh haha, this is normal. Dont worry about it, its usually just them trying to cool off. All chickens do it when they are hot. They stretch their necks to get airflow. You could put a small fan in there if you are worried about it though.
So it was happening all night for about 5 hours. The temp started at 65 but went down to 45 and she continued to do it
 

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