House Hen Panting but not hot

[bluebird-azurite]

Howdy,
Today I noticed my young hen, who sleeps in the house (I am aware this is odd), has been open mouth breathing at times. She is about 4 or 5 months old and from a mixed flock so no idea whay her breed is.
I live in Texas so it can get quite hot, the problem is she is panting inside the house with AC. I had a house hen prior to her who passed away shortly after I noticed her open mouth breathing. I still do not know what happened to her, she was fine one minute and dead the next, and I'm worried what happened to my first hen is happening to the second one. There is a good chance I am just being paranoid, but I would rather be paranoid then henless.
Does anyone know what could be going on?

 

[Debbie292d]

It isn't that odd to have a house chicken really. Lots here have one.

It could quite possibly be something in your home you don't even realize that is causing a respiratory issue.

You probably already knew to not use Teflon or to check your light bulbs to be sure they aren't the Teflon kind.

Self-cleaning ovens can give off fumes that could be toxic. Other things sometimes overlooked are laundry detergent, drier sheets, air fresheners, perfumes, cleaning products that they breathed in fumes from. Cedar also can cause issues if you have any cedar wood in your home.

I would walk around checking to see where your hen could be pecking at something too.

 

[azygous]

No, we cannot tell you why your other hen died.

When a chicken breathes with an open beak, it most often indicates they are stressed. The stress can be from overheating, but it can also be from feeling threatened. It can be from not feeling well. A respiratory illness is a possibility, but there probably would be other symptoms such as bubbly eyes and runny nares and rattling breath sounds.