Young barred rock neck and breathing issue

[BirdyBirds]

Hello! I’ve been raising chickens for my whole life and I have been handling their medical stuff for a long time, I’ve seen a lot, and I have good instincts but I am at a loss here.

Chick is around a month old. She is normal sized. When she gets even a little bit stressed she starts open mouthed breathing, when I first noticed it I thought she needed some water, and I cleaned the water dish. Today same thing, but we were outside so it was a new watered and I dipped her beak in since it seemed like she didn’t realize there was water there. But she choked on the water.

After that I examined her which stressed her out, and she began weezing, I could also hear some gurgling. But what is most strange is her neck. It feels very wrong. I’ve been keeping a close eye on her since and she took a nap and she has stopped weezing since, when she is asleep her beak is closed and she appears normal other than the neck, she’s pooping normal, and this morning her behavior was normal (she flew and was perching on the fence around the brooder, and was interested in the plants when we went outside) but now she is lethargic and she is every so often doing the sneezing hiccuping thing that some hens do when they drink water too fast. It also appears that she can’t swallow food, and she isn’t making an effort to eat or getting very interested anymore.

The thing with her neck is such a unique symptom, I can’t find anything about it. Its not wry neck.


in this picture my thumb is across her neck, my finger tip is right where I can feel this like complex of some sort? It’s hard and it feels like some tubes connect there it felt like, then between the start of my knuckle and he end of my nail is something that feels like a cord or a tube or something. If you go and feel a healthy chicks neck it doesn’t feel anything like that, you can’t feel these bits of anatomy, or at least not as easily and not like that, it’s all tucked up around the spine.


This is me trying to gently straighten her neck- it won’t straighten
Trying to straighten a little less gently using an additional point, it’s really stiff and it feels like the spine could go longer but the skin at the front of the neck is taught.


Here is just a good picture of her neck- it’s thick, it’s not bent it’s thick but in a weird way, it’s not correct

And here are just some other pictures,





Let me know if you have any ideas- I’ll definitely update tomorrow, and if there are other pictures or info that might help let me know

 

[RadEggs]

She might have developed weirdly in the egg. I would try to help her learn how to eat and drink, but if she can't, you might have to put her down. I'm sorry.
Also, I think the tube is normal. I feel it on my chickens necks. Maybe this one is extra thick, though?

 

[BirdyBirds]

She might have developed weirdly in the egg. I would try to help her learn how to eat and drink, but if she can't, you might have to put her down. I'm sorry.
Also, I think the tube is normal. I feel it on my chickens necks. Maybe this one is extra thick, though?

I know the tube is normal it’s just placed weirdly, on the other chicks it’s tucked up against the actual neck, hers I can move it around with my finger a bit. I’m hoping it’s just a weird development abnormality she will get over, but if it is that it could be she’s grown into it to a point her anatomy can’t support her and that’s what’s happening. I hope not. I’m trying to think if it’s possible she got injured somehow… idk. hopefully she will be better tommorow and eat and drink again- I’m hoping someone has some idea of what I could potentially do to help, if she is perked up tomorrow I’ll feel better. There will be more I can do if she’s less lethargic tmrw, but if she still is I have a couple ideas, but it will depend on her ability to not choke. She’s such a sweetheart (all the rocks are lol) I’m hoping for the best!

 

[BirdyBirds]

Alright she’s acting more normal today, not as energetic as she had been but not as lethargic as yesterday, she also was able to drink and eat on her own without choking, seems like a wait and see sort of thing. As she gets bigger it will get better or worse I think. She’s hanging out with the others, she ate some grass, tried to eat an ant, but is still very sleepy, neck is still abnormal, and she struggled to eat but was able to.

I offered her some mash but she didn’t want it, she took a couple bites and went right back to the grain.

Let me know if anyone has ideas but seems to me like a development abnormality that just caught up to her. i think she just got really stressed out yesterday, the babies were ready to me moved to their bigger space outside so she was probably getting jumped on and not getting a proper sleep. They are outside now and she slept well. Just going to keep an eye on her and stress down.