# Squeaky chicken



## Kimquat

Hi guys ~ My faverolle - Clementine - makes a lot of squeaky/hiccup-type sounds. She also has the filthiest butt of any chicken I've ever seen. I'm going to bathe her today and hopefully she's just a messy bird, but the sounds she's making are quite odd. She's acting fine, otherwise, I'm just wondering if something could be wrong with her. Any ideas?


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## Energyvet

Is it GI or Respiratory? Can't figure out what's making noise.


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## Kimquat

It's respiratory. She sounds like she's sneezing, but it's a squeak. Her eyes are clear, no discharge, nothing. I've never heard any of my chickens do this before.


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## Energyvet

Might be cardiac. May be pretty serious. Could also be a congenital problem like a fistula or a septal defect.


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## Kimquat

I know of an avian vet, but no one that specializes in chickens. Are those easily diagnosed, in your opinion?


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## Energyvet

It's just so much easier when you have it in front of you in your hands. You learn to touch, feel, listen and you get so much information that way. Over the phone or the Internet is pretty difficult even with experience. I'd go to a rehab person or preferably a vet.


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## Kimquat

I'll take her in, then - thanks for the advice. I wish we had a good, local livestock vet.


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## cap8

Did you find out what the noise was?


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## Nm156

Squeaks, hiccups and open mouths = Gapeworms


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## dawg53

Nm156 said:


> Squeaks, hiccups and open mouths = Gapeworms


Not gapeworms since the bird is acting fine as mentioned. It wouldve helped if Kimquat had mentioned if the bird was eating and drinking normally or not. 
Otherwise I'd suspect something stuck in crop or gizzard. Maybe capillary worms but not sure.


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## Nm156

That pic of the open mouth makes me think that.As a matter of fact that is how i found the Chicken Forum, searching Gapeworm without going to BYC.I did the Dawg53 method of Safeguard on bread.Two days later no more hiccups or open mouths.The lesson i learned was that when you dig the earth up to plant trees in the run don't give the worms to the chickens.


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## chickenqueen

My rescued red hen started squeaking last week when the temps were in the 90's and the humidity was high,summer finally arrived in Ohio.She started it on day 3 and I contributed it to the heat.She squeaked for a few days and is still squeaking but yesterday she was clucking again a little.Everybody was panting so mouths were open but it was because of the heat.Still monitoring her but I think she's ok.


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## dawg53

chickenqueen said:


> My rescued red hen started squeaking last week when the temps were in the 90's and the humidity was high,summer finally arrived in Ohio.She started it on day 3 and I contributed it to the heat.She squeaked for a few days and is still squeaking but yesterday she was clucking again a little.Everybody was panting so mouths were open but it was because of the heat.Still monitoring her but I think she's ok.


Come to think of it, I had only one EE in my flock when I lived in Georgia. When it was real hot she would squeak while panting. She was the only chicken that ever squeaked. The rest of my birds spread their wings open away from their body with open mouth breathing.


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## dawg53

Nm156 said:


> That pic of the open mouth makes me think that.As a matter of fact that is how i found the Chicken Forum, searching Gapeworm without going to BYC.I did the Dawg53 method of Safeguard on bread.Two days later no more hiccups or open mouths.The lesson i learned was that when you dig the earth up to plant trees in the run don't give the worms to the chickens.


Maybe capillary worms Nm156, but not gapeworms. It's rare that chickens get gapeworms. If they DO get them, it would require high doses of Safeguard over a weeks period of time, sometimes longer IF they survive that long in the first place. Birds with gapeworm wont eat nor drink, they stretch their necks up in the air trying to breathe and they make a 'honking' sound. Birds shake their heads and necks and scratch their heads and necks to try and loosen the worms to no avail. 
Suffocation occurs, then death. 
Also gapeworm eggs would have been excreted into and onto the soil via feces and eaten by earthworms or picked up by your other birds directly. You would continually be dealing with infected gaping birds.
Personally, I would not want to deal with gapeworms. They are virtually impossible to eliminate. Birds cant live with them neither, death eventually occurs.


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## seminole wind

I had 2 faverolles that always needed a sanitary haircut. One would pant so fast in the heat that there was no way for her to drink. I would put her in a dish pan of luke warm water and hold her in there for a few minutes. When she got out the panting was gone. I had a silkie do that to me too. 

I freeze soda bottles or blocks of ice in food containers and put in water. And if I'm out there, I let the hose run on the ground and most stand in the puddle and cool off. My nests have a fan blowing on them. My pens are in mostly all day shade. Problem with Florida is that like NY in July, it gets hot and does not cool off at night enough. Day after day. And about 4 months worth. But to me it's worth the almost 8 months of perfect weather.


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## dawg53

I've given cooked spaghetti to my chickens without chopping it up (no sauce/meat.) My birds gobbled it up like the walking stomachs they are...they gaped for several days afterwards. THAT was the last time they got spaghetti.

Karen I've got fans blowing in both pens and inside their coops at night. I shut the fans off in the pens as soon as they go to roost. All waterers are in the shade. It's not even August yet...gonna be a hot summer. We're expecting afternoon storms the rest of the week and weekend though. I KNOW it'll rain later this afternoon...I washed my truck earlier this morning lol.


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## Nm156

Thanks Dawg .


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## casportpony

dawg53 said:


> Maybe capillary worms Nm156, but not gapeworms. It's rare that chickens get gapeworms. If they DO get them, it would require high doses of Safeguard over a weeks period of time, sometimes longer IF they survive that long in the first place. Birds with gapeworm wont eat nor drink, they stretch their necks up in the air trying to breathe and they make a 'honking' sound. Birds shake their heads and necks and scratch their heads and necks to try and loosen the worms to no avail.
> Suffocation occurs, then death.
> Also gapeworm eggs would have been excreted into and onto the soil via feces and eaten by earthworms or picked up by your other birds directly. You would continually be dealing with infected gaping birds.
> Personally, I would not want to deal with gapeworms. They are virtually impossible to eliminate. Birds cant live with them neither, death eventually occurs.


I treated one with Safeguard at 0.23 ml per pound for 5 days and she was fine by day three.


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## dawg53

casportpony said:


> I treated one with Safeguard at 0.23 ml per pound for 5 days and she was fine by day three.


One bird is not the only infected bird that gets gapeworm. One bird gets them, others get them as well. Safeguard doses must be higher and for longer period of time. Trust me.


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## casportpony

dawg53 said:


> One bird is not the only infected bird that gets gapeworm. One bird gets them, others get them as well. Safeguard doses must be higher and for longer period of time. Trust me.


I don't know what to tell you, except that you once commented on someones video and said that the chicken in the video had gapeworms, and my hen was identical to that hen. 

As for dosing, I give more fenbendazole than most people, and I do for no less than five days (50 mg/kg or 0.23 ml per pound, which is about 1.5 ml for a healthy RIR).

Studies and literature I have seen say to treat gapeworms in birds with fenbendazole for several days, so if you have more to share on dosing
I would like to know more about it.



> Efficacy of fenbendazole against helminth parasites of poultry in Uganda.
> Ssenyonga GS.
> Abstract
> Fenbendazole 4% (Panacur, Hoechst) administered in feed was used to treat chickens infected with Ascaridia galli, Heterakis gallinarum and Railletina spp. It was also used to treat Syngamus trachea in broiler birds. There was a marked drop in helminth egg counts in the faeces on the second day of treatment and the faeces became negative by the seventh day after the last treatment. Post-mortem examination 15 to 21 days later showed that the drug was 100% effective against Ascaridia galli and Heterakis gallinarum at 10 mg/kg. However, for complete removal of Railletina spp. 15 mg/kg was required. *Similarly 20 mg/kg fenbendazole was effective against Syngamus trachea. It was concluded that fenbendazole is suitable for the treatment of the important intestinal and tracheal worms of poultry, a dose of 15 to 20 mg/kg for 3 consecutive days being recommended for use under field conditions.*


Source - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/6750887










And for albendazole:


> *Comparative anthelmintic efficacy of mebendazole thiabendazole and albendazole against syngamus trachea infection in chicken
> Devada K.; Sathianesan V., 1989: Comparative anthelmintic efficacy of mebendazole thiabendazole and albendazole against syngamus trachea infection in chicken. Kerala Journal Of Veterinary Science. 20(1): 59-64*
> 
> Three anthelmintics viz., mebendazole, (Gulfic) thiabendazole (MSD) and albendazole (SKF) were tried against Syngamus trachea infection in chicken under experimental conditions. Mebendazole dosed at a rate of 40 mg per kg body weight was found to be most effective with 96.22 per cent reduction of eggs in the droppings, 88.1 per cent of disappearance of worms in the trachea and 95.52 per cent of weight gain of the treated birds. This was closely followed by albendazole administered at 15 mg per kg body weight, which had an efficacy of 95.14 per cent 76.19 per cent and 95.02 per cent in the respective three parameters. Thiabendazole given at a dose rate of 500 mg per kg body weight showed anefficacy of 89.27, 45.24 per cent and 94.18 perc cent based on the egg counts, worm counts and gain in body weight of the medicated chicks respectively. Thiabendazole was found to be the least effective when compared to the other drugs tried.
> Source - http://eurekamag.com/research/007/133/007133599.php
> 
> *Efficacy of albendazole against Syngamus trachea in experimentally infected turkeys
> Istvan, Varga; Gyorgy, Banhidi; Zoltan, Szell; Csaba, Balint, 1998: Efficacy of albendazole against Syngamus trachea in experimentally infected turkeys.Magyar Allatorvosok Lapja. 120(6): 336-338, E*
> 
> Efficacy of albendazole of Syngamus trachea tested in groups of 8 to 9 turkeys experimentally infected with 500 larvae each at the age of 8 days. From day 17 after infection, the animals were orally dosed with albendazole at 10, 5 or 2 mg/kg b.w. over 3 to 5 successive days. The efficacy was evaluated by daily inspection of symptoms, daily faecal egg counts and worm counts at post mortem on day 24 after infection. The efficacy in the treated groups amounted to 100%, 100% and 94%, respectively. Remnants of wormpairs - mainly disintegrating males - were found in several animals of medicated groups as against all alive wormpairs in the control turkeys. The study shows high efficacy of albendazole at reduced dose rate against patent gapeworm disease in turkey.
> 
> Source - http://eurekamag.com/research/003/122/003122652.php


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