A heavy heart

[fuzzycleo82]

Hi everyone, hope someone can help. 

 

Ive spent the last week nearly all day, every day looking at everything chicken related on the internet! including these great forums.

 

I have two chickens and one of them a week ago started breathing with her beak open, she was eating, driniking and pooing ok then. 

I took her to the vet, he wasnt an expert but it was the closest we could find. 

 

He said that it looked liked she has a respiratory problem coming and he prescribed tylan to put in the water and to treat both chickens. 

I started it the next day but i realised that she wasnt drinking the water or eating that day, just pecking at stuff.

So i started to syringe her some of the solution, however shes a flighty bird and i was unsure of how much was actually getting in as she would flick her head and honestly i was scared to just squirt it down her throat in case it drowned her. 

Ive tried so many different types of treats or anythig to tempt them to eat. She would peck at a pumpkin and would eat some spinach but that was it.

 

 

I then started to syringe feed her some mash i made up with some of her pellets but again it was probably more flicking than going in. 

I continued the solution for 5 days as per the vet and last night we took her back. She hadnt got worse still gasping but no other signs like runny nose or eyes but it wasnt fair that i was pulling her about and syringe feeding her and i really thought the vet would say it would be best to put her to sleep. I did cry many times including the thought of the other chicken being on her own and what i would have to decide with her to do for her best interest. It been a horrible week, i sure you all understand how upsetting it can be but some people 'just think they are chickens'

 

 

Anyway sorry for the long ramble already. The new vet we saw seemed more clued up on chickens and said it might be gapeworm. After all my research i thought that might be an option as my other chicken has been stretching her neck and looking like shes dry retching if that makes sense but ive also seen online that its possible chickens do this to stretch their crop? but she shakes her head a lot so i thought it might be gape worm. This chicken is eating and drinking fine. 

 

I had ordered some flubenvet online anywaybefore we went for the second vet appointment and it arrived this morning. 

 

I knew putting it in the food or water wouldnt work on my sick chicken as shes not eating herself. I saw on this website (omlet) that people have used grapes so this monirng ive put the powder in grapes for each chicken. The well chicken who normally gobbles up grapes refused them, typical! but it looks like now ive left her shes eaten them on her own. 

 

The sick chicken though wouldnt eat them so i had to open her beak and put them down her throat myself. 

 

My questions are, does anyone with experience think it sounds like gapeworm?

 

Also am i doing the right thing by putting the powder in the grapes? should i put it in the water and syringe the sick chicken? if so how much?

 

I read on here it was 1g per chicken over 7 days so that would be roughly 0.15g per day per chicken, does that sound about right?

Ive got a good scale that can measure that and that was what i gave each chicken this morning in the grapes. 

 

Ive also read this morning though, that gapworm needs a double dose is that right? should i be doubling the dose as perhaps my sick chicken has got gapeworm bad.

 

also how long do you think it will take for me to see an improvement?

 

thank you if you have got this far reading, any help is appreciated. 

 

thanks

[Luvachicken]

I don't know how to treat gapeworm, other than with Flubenevt, but have had chickens that sound similar to your one's symptoms, which turned out to be respiratory.

For your poorly girl I would gently wrap her in a towel so she feels secure, and gently syringe some of the medicine at the side of her beak. This way, they tend to lick it off - yes, some still gets flicked everywhere, but the majority slips in and they swallow it. Do they still even have any medicine left if they have had it for 5 days already ?

 Perhaps you could have the poorly one indoors in a broody cage so you can keep an eye on what she is really eating and drinking..

I hope she starts to pick up soon.