Humans gasp but did you know that chicks can gasp too?
This may look quite odd, so you’d understandably want to know why this is happening.
This article looks into why your chick is gasping for air and what to do.
Table of Contents
What to do if a chick is gasping for air:
Your chick may be gasping for air for a variety of reasons. Figuring out why the bird is gasping can help you decide on your next steps.
Here is why your chick may be gasping for air and what to do:
Let the bird adjust its crop:
If your chick looks like it is gasping for air, because it is adjusting its crop, then you can let the bird be.
Chickens, especially young chicks, may eat too much food too quickly, and this may cause their crops to fill up.
This can be uncomfortable for the baby bird and the bird can try to relieve this discomfort by adjusting the crop.
You can’t, and shouldn’t, do anything if you see this, this is normal and a bird who is doing this is fine.
Check for choking:
Another reason why your chick may be gasping for air may be that the bird is choking.
In this scenario, it is advised that you leave the bird alone and let the bird try to resolve the blockage on its own.
Birds have survived choking on pieces of food for centuries and have managed to remove the food themselves, so, let the bird try to do this.
If the bird can’t remove the blockage by itself then you can simply remove the food using tweezers or your fingers, or, you can perform the Heimlich maneuver on your bird.
Check for gapeworm:
Your chick may be gasping because it is infected with a parasite called gapeworm.
These worms infect your bird, live in the bird’s trachea, and cause a partial, or complete, block of airflow which causes your bird to gasp for air.
If you think that your bird has this condition take a swab of the bird’s trachea.
If thin, red worms come out then the bird has this condition.
Treatment for this condition includes giving the bird Aviverm or Flubenol.
These medications contain the chemical levamisole which will kill the worms.
Treat your whole flock and treat them twice.
The first treatment will kill the adult worms in the bird’s body.
The second treatment will kill off any new worms that hatched out of the eggs that the adult worms hatched in the bird’s body.
A 7-14 day waiting period between the two treatments is usually recommended.
Vet visit for aspergillosis:
Unfortunately, if your chick has aspergillosis then there isn’t anything you can do for the bird.
Birds who inhale fungus and spores will develop this condition. It is more common in young birds than in adult chickens.
Other signs of this condition in your bird, apart from gasping for air, include coughing, difficulty breathing, tail bobbing, listlessness, fluffed feathers, weight loss, and lethargy.
Taking your bird to the vet to get a diagnosis is recommended.
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: Why Does My Chick Look Like It’s Gasping For Air?, 2 Day Old Chick Gasping, Chick Gasping And Chirping, Chick Gasping After Drinking, Baby Chick Vomiting, Baby Chick Leaning To One Side, How To Force Feed A Baby Chick, Signs Of Intestinal Blockage In Chickens, Chicken Keeps Opening Mouth Like Gagging