If your chicken has suddenly become sick you may not notice too quickly, these animals try to conceal any signs of weakness as best they can, this is how they survive in the wild.
If you notice your bird vomiting you’d be right to worry and think that the bird is sick, this article looks into why this happens.
If your bird is vomiting water, and you’re sure it’s water, then the bird may simply have had too much water to drink. However, the clear fluid that the bird vomits may be something else entirely
Table of Contents
Chicken vomiting water:
How chickens vomit:
Chickens don’t vomit like humans do, when humans vomit, the muscles in our digestive system, our neck, abdomen, diaphragm, all contract to force food or drink out of our bodies.
When a chicken vomits, fluid moves up its throat and comes out of its beak in a non-violent way. This is why they vomit water:
They have had too much to drink:
If it’s a particularly hot day outside, and your bird is overheating, then the bird may drink excessive amounts of water as a way to try to cool off. This water will settle in the bird’s crop after it has had enough to drink.
The bird’s crop will be full, visible, and harder after the drinking. If you pick the bird up, and accidentally squish or put too much pressure on its crop, then you can cause the bird to force the water out of the crop, up its throat, and out of its mouth.
This may look like the bird is vomiting water
The bird’s crop will drain the water eventually and as long as this draining happens, your bird will be ok and you won’t have to worry about something going wrong.
If your bird continues to vomit water, and its crop doesn’t go down, then there is something wrong with your bird. If this is the case, take your bird to a vet, an avian vet if you can, and have them examine and diagnose the bird.
The water hasn’t gone down:
When birds drink water, they dip their beaks into the water and then throw their head back to allow gravity to pull the water down. They can’t gulp water as humans can.
Sometimes, all the water doesn’t get down their throat when they throw their heads back, if this happens, some of the water will pour out of the birds beak and this will look like the bird is vomiting water
If this is what’s going on then you don’t have to worry
Other issues:
If you realize that the clear fluid that your bird is vomiting is not water, but is some other clear fluid, then the bird may have ascites or a respiratory infection. Read more to figure out what’s going on with your bird.
If the bird has nasal discharge, runny eyes, wheezing, has problems breathing, or has swollen sinuses, along with the vomiting, then your bird may have a respiratory disease. If this is that case you do need to worry and the bird needs to be seen by a vet
What does chicken vomit look like:
Chicken vomit can come in many forms depending on what is wrong with the bird.
Clear vomit can mean that the bird has ascites or a respiratory infection, if the vomit is white, then this can mean that the bird has sour crop, read more here.
Nonetheless, if your bird is releasing any fluids from its beak, that is not water, then there is something wrong and you’d need to get the bird to the vet
If you can, take your bird to an avian vet. Avian vets have more experience and are more informed about birds than other types of vets.
This type of vet will be able to notice problems with birds that the general vet will not, or they will see problems faster than the general vet will see them.
If you can, take the bird to this type of vet and the vet will diagnose the bird and offer treatment.
Conclusion:
In conclusion, even though chickens can’t vomit as humans do, they will vomit in their own way by releasing water from their beaks.
If your bird has had too much water to drink, and you squash its crop, then it will release this water and this may look like vomiting.
Also, some of the water that your bird drinks may not completely go down its throat when the bird throws its head back, this can cause the water to be stuck in the mouth then flow out.
If you think that the bird is throwing up something other than water, then you’d need to take the bird to a vet, a certified avian vet if you can.
If you enjoyed this article then you may also be interested in other bird related articles. Here are some articles that you may be interested in: Egg Peritonitis Natural Treatment, Can You Use Sand For Chicken Grit?, Chicken Grit Option: Sand, Limestone Grit For Chickens