Chickens can’t talk to us humans but if you know how to interpret your bird’s body language then chickens don’t have to. How your chicken acts can tell you a lot about the bird.
This article explores why your chicken is acting like something is stuck in its throat
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Chicken acting like something stuck in its throat:
The health of your chicken is of the utmost importance, if your bird’s health starts to decline the bird may eventually die of its condition.
A chicken acting like something is stuck in its throat doesn’t always mean that the bird is sick, but it sometimes can, here are reasons why this happens:
There is something stuck in its throat:
Chickens can’t access their throats, unlike humans, birds can’t use their hands to reach in and remove something stuck in their throats.
If your bird is opening its mouth, gaping, is drinking more water than usual, or scratching its neck with its foot, then the bird may have something stuck in its throat.
What to do:
Check the inside of your bird’s throat to see if there is indeed something stuck in her throat.
Catch the bird without spooking her and wrap her in a towel to keep her calm and keep her wings from flapping around. Carefully open her beak with two fingers and look into the bird’s throat.
If the bird does have something stuck in her throat olive oil can be used to dislodge the item. Give her some olive oil using a dropper or a teaspoon, do this carefully so as to not aspirate the bird.
Let the olive oil run down her throat and then gently massage her throat in a downward motion to get the item down.
Avoid trying to make the bird vomit, (turning the bird upside down to try to get the bird to throw up the contents of its throat).
There is a high risk that you’ll wind up causing the bird to aspirate the contents of its crop causing it to choke to death if you try to force her to vomit.
Trying the more conservative approach, giving the bird olive oil and then massaging the bird’s crop, will be the better solution
Gapeworm:
A gapeworm infection could also be why your chicken is acting as though there is something stuck in its throat.
Gapeworms are tiny red worms that can infect a variety of birds including ducks, turkeys, waterfowl, game pheasant, and chickens.
Sick birds will cough up gapeworms, and gapeworm eggs, into the environment, contaminating the environment. Healthy chickens, in the same environment, will ingest these worms and become infected with gapeworm.
Once the worms or eggs are ingested they will travel to and attach to the bird’s trachea where they will feed on the bird’s blood. These worms will also produce more eggs while in the bird’s throat.
The bird will try to get the gapeworms out of its throat by gasping and acting like something is stuck in its throat.
Other signs of a chicken stuffing from gapeworm include coughing, weakness, grunting, head shaking, a loss of appetite, emaciation, and weakness.
Some birds will become infected with this parasite but not show signs of being infected.
What to do:
Treating the bird with a worming product will be your best bet to getting rid of the gapeworm in your chicken.
Worming products like Flubenol and Aviverm can be used to treat your bird. You can get these products online, at vet clinics, and at pet stores.
You’d have to treat birds twice to get rid of the infection.
The first treatment will kill the worms that initially infected the bird. The second treatment will kill the worms that hatched from eggs produced by the initial worms, as well as treat the additional worms that infected the bird after the first treatment.
You’d need to treat the whole flock if you think that one, or some, of your birds, have gapeworm. This is because not all birds who have gapeworm will show signs of having this infection.
If you enjoyed this article then you may also be interested in other chicken related articles. Here are some articles that you may be interested in: Chicken Sounds Hoarse, Sick Chicken Not Eating Or Drinking, Chicken Acting Disoriented, Runt Chick Not Growing, Rooster Keeps Falling Over