Your chicken’s health is of the utmost importance, if your chicken’s health is maintained then your bird will have a higher chance of living a long and healthy life.
Knowing this, if your chicken seems sick, if your chicken is throwing up water, you’d be right to be concerned. This article looks into why this may be happening.
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Why is my chicken throwing up water?
A chicken throwing up water is not normal, in fact, a chicken throwing anything up is not normal. These birds can’t throw up the same way that humans can, it is highly odd for a bird to do this.
Here are possible reasons why this may be happening:
Worms:
Parasites love infecting chickens, if your bird is throwing up water then the bird may have been infected with worms, gapeworm in particular. One symptom of a gapeworm infection in chickens is the bird throwing up water.
This large, red, roundworm infects your bird and settles in the bird’s gullet (esophagus).
Your chicken will throw up water if you pick the bird up and put too much pressure on the bird’s gullet. Putting too much pressure on the bird’s gullet will make the bird throw up, especially if the bird had just had water
Symptoms:
In addition to the bird throwing up water, other symptoms of gapeworm in chickens include:
- Gaping
- Gasping
- Coughing
- Panting
- Open mouth breathing
What to do:
You’d need to treat your bird with medications that get rid of gapeworm.
Medications that work against this parasite include Aviverm and Flubenol. You can usually find these medicines at pet stores, online, or at vet clinics.
You need to address this issue as quickly as you can. This is because your bird’s gapeworm can attach to the bird’s trachea not only causing the bird to throw up, but also causing the bird to have difficulty breathing which can lead to the bird suffocating
Ascites:
Ascites, commonly called water belly, can affect a variety of animals, chickens included.
Ascites in chickens develops when a chicken suffers from heart failure or hypertension. This heart failure or hypertension causes the bird’s liver to stop working and leak fluid into the bird’s abdominal cavity.
This fluid accumulates and needs somewhere to go so it eventually comes out of the bird’s mouth making it seem like the bird is throwing up water
Symptoms:
In addition to the bird throwing up water, other signs of water belly in chickens include:
- Lethargy
- Lack of appetite
- Purple or blue wattles and comb
- Missing feathers on the abdomen
- Waddling when walking
- Red skin on the bird’s abdomen
- Labored breathing
What to do:
Unfortunately, there is no one cure that can rid your chicken of its ascites but you can treat the bird.
Water belly can be treated by draining the liquid out of your bird’s belly. This can be done at a vet, which is recommended, but it can also be done at home.
Note: If you do decide to drain the bird’s water belly at home you need to be very cautious and make sure that you do this with very sterile tools and in a sterile environment.
Excess water:
If your bird is vomiting water then your bird may simply be vomiting water.
Chickens don’t drink the same way that humans do, these birds take in water by dipping their beaks into some water and swinging their heads back to get the water down their throats.
If your bird drinks too much water, and gravity doesn’t take all the water down the bird’s throat, then some water may stay stuck in the bird’s mouth and may come out when the bird’s head is the right way up
If the bird just drank a lot of water, and you pick the bird up roughly, or accidentally squish the bird’s crop as you’re picking the bird up, then you can force water out of the bird’s body and the bird can throw it up.
Symptoms:
There will be no other symptoms if this is what is wrong with your bird.
If you notice other symptoms, aside from the bird throwing up water, then there is something else wrong with your bird and you should take your bird to the vet
What to do:
If this is what’s going on with your bird then you have nothing to worry about and nothing needs to be done.
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: Hen Jumping On Other Hens Back, Chickens Fighting To The Death, Why Is My Chicken Throwing Up Brown Liquid?, Chicken Crouching When Walking, Hen Fighting Rooster