Seeing your chicken gasping for air can be downright terrifying! As a chicken keeper for many years I’ve experienced that moment of panic when one of my birds starts struggling to breathe. It’s scary and confusing but don’t worry – I’ll help you figure out what’s happening and how to help your feathered friend.
Common Causes of Respiratory Distress in Chickens
When your chicken is gasping for air or stretching its neck several conditions could be responsible. Let’s break down the most common culprits
1. Gapeworm
While many chicken owners immediately suspect gapeworm when their chicken gasps for air, it’s actually less common than other respiratory issues. However, it’s still a possibility worth considering
What is gapeworm? Gapeworm is a type of roundworm (parasite) that attaches to your chicken’s trachea (windpipe). As the name suggests, these nasty parasites cause chickens to “gape” or stretch their necks as they struggle to breathe.
Signs of gapeworm include:
- Gasping for air
- Stretching of the neck
- Coughing or gurgling sounds
- Head shaking
- A rattling sound when breathing (put your ear close to their open beak)
- Sometimes a swollen, enlarged, or squishy crop
How do chickens get gapeworm? Chickens typically contract gapeworm by eating infected earthworms, slugs, or other hosts carrying the parasite.
2. Bacterial Infections
Various bacterial infections can cause respiratory distress in chickens. One of the most common is Mycoplasmosis, which causes chronic respiratory issues.
Signs of bacterial infection:
- Sneezing
- Nasal discharge
- Small clear bubbles at the corners of the eyes (classic sign of Mycoplasma)
- Gasping
- Lethargy
3. Ammonia and Poultry Dust
Dirty coops and dusty environments are big trouble for chicken respiratory systems! Chickens have very sensitive throats, and even small amounts of dust can cause breathing problems.
Sources of respiratory irritants:
- Dusty bedding
- Ammonia from droppings
- Feathers and dander
- Nearby cattle poop creating ammonia gas
4. Viral Infections
Infectious bronchitis is one of the most dangerous respiratory viruses affecting chickens. It’s highly contagious and can be deadly, especially for younger birds.
Signs of infectious bronchitis:
- Gasping for air with beak open
- Lethargy
- Misshapen or soft eggshells
- High mortality rate if left untreated
5. Fungal Infections
Aspergillosis is a fungal infection from Aspergillus spores, often found in moldy bedding or feed. Symptoms include severe respiratory distress and lethargy.
How to Help Your Gasping Chicken
Now that we’ve identified the possible causes, let’s talk about how to help your chicken who’s struggling to breathe:
Step 1: Isolate the Sick Chicken
The first thing you should do is separate the affected chicken from your flock. This serves two important purposes:
- It prevents potential spread of disease
- It makes it easier to observe and treat the chicken
I recommend bringing them indoors and placing them in a dog crate in a quiet area. Cover part of the crate with a blanket to prevent drafts, but ensure they still have some light.
Step 2: Determine the Cause
While a vet can provide the most accurate diagnosis, there are some things you can look for:
For gapeworm:
- Examine your chicken’s throat for visible worms
- Listen for rattling sounds when they breathe
For dirty environment:
- Check your coop for excessive dust or strong ammonia smell
- Assess the general cleanliness of their living space
Step 3: Treatment Options
Depending on what’s causing your chicken to gasp, here are treatments to consider:
For Gapeworm:
- Use a deworming treatment designed for poultry
- Natural options include Verm-x (contains garlic, peppermint, cinnamon, fennel)
- Conventional dewormers like flubendazole or ivermectin (vet prescribed)
For Bacterial Infections:
- Antibiotics like tetracycline, tylosin, or tylan (requires vet prescription in the UK)
- Supportive care while medication takes effect
For Dusty/Dirty Environment:
- Clean the coop immediately
- Replace bedding with dust-free alternatives
- Provide fresh, cold water
- Move chicken to cleaner air
For Viral Infections:
- Prevention through vaccination is best
- Supportive care during illness
- Keep bird comfortable and hydrated
For Fungal Infections:
- Clean out coop completely
- Disinfect and use sterilized bedding
- Antifungal medications (vet prescribed)
Step 4: Provide Supportive Care
While treating the underlying cause, support your chicken with:
- Nutritious, easy-to-digest food (scrambled egg or mashed cat/dog food in emergencies)
- Fresh, clean water (possibly with apple cider vinegar added)
- Quiet, stress-free environment
- Warmth if they seem cold
Prevention is Better Than Cure
I’ve learned over the years that keeping my chickens healthy is much easier than treating them when sick. Here’s what I do to prevent respiratory issues:
Regular Coop Maintenance
- Clean the coop weekly
- Replace bedding before it gets dusty or moldy
- Ensure proper ventilation without drafts
Natural Immune Boosters
- Add a little apple cider vinegar to water (1 tablespoon per gallon)
- Include crushed garlic in feed occasionally
- Add herbs like oregano, thyme, and sage to their diet
Parasite Prevention
- Regular deworming schedule
- Diatomaceous earth in dust baths
- Keep wild birds away from your flock when possible
Vaccination
- Vaccinate against common respiratory viruses
- Follow your vet’s recommendations for your area
When to Call a Vet
While minor respiratory issues can sometimes be managed at home, certain situations require professional help:
- Multiple birds showing symptoms
- Symptoms worsen despite home treatment
- Blood in mucus or droppings
- Severe lethargy or not eating/drinking
- Any unusual or severe symptoms
I know vets can be expensive for chickens, and sometimes it’s not practical to spend hundreds on a bird that cost you $15. But if you value your flock, having a relationship with a poultry vet is worth it. At minimum, call for advice if you’re unsure.
My Personal Experience
Last summer, I noticed my Buff Orpington, Penny, stretching her neck and gasping. My first thought was gapeworm! I separated her immediately and called my vet. Turns out, it wasn’t gapeworm at all – the coop ventilation had gotten blocked, creating ammonia buildup.
After thoroughly cleaning the coop and improving ventilation, Penny recovered within days. The experience taught me not to jump to conclusions about chicken health issues!
Final Thoughts
Seeing your chicken gasping for air is definitely scary, but don’t panic. Most respiratory issues can be treated if caught early. The key is quick action and accurate diagnosis.
Remember, respiratory distress is a symptom, not a disease itself. Finding and addressing the underlying cause is essential for your chicken’s recovery.
Have you dealt with a gasping chicken before? What was the cause in your case? I’d love to hear your experiences in the comments below!
Happy chicken keeping!
Respiratory Infections in Chickens
There are many different respiratory (breathing) specific diseases to poultry, and not all of them respond to the same medications. It’s easy for a layperson to incorrectly diagnose them, so if you see sick birds in your flock, seek the professional opinion of a veterinarian, preferably an avian vet, or even better; a poultry vet. That being said, it still doesn’t hurt to know the common signs specific to respiratory infections in chickens so you can detect illness earlier rather than later.
Rales, also known as crackles, refer to the sound of poor breathing. There are many different sounds, but rales in chickens are usually quite noticeable if you listen for them. Fluids in the chicken’s respiratory system cause a crackling sound as they breathe. This crackling is the sound of little air bubbles popping as they move air. Rales is a common sign of respiratory infections in chickens.
Gasping usually accompanies rales, but not always. Gasping is a noticeable behavior because chickens typically stretch their neck and crane their head up to straighten their upper airway. Chickens do this while trying to open their trachea so they can breath better. Gasping is a severe symptom and usually indicates an advanced respiratory infection in chickens or a mechanical airway obstruction. Some people refer to gasping as “pump handle breathing” because of the dramatic motion they make.
Nasal and eye discharge are common in birds that are suffering from a respiratory infection. Usually, a clear bubbling fluid can be seen near the corners of the eyes, or an oozing fluid will flow from the nares (nostrils).
Facial swelling is also a common symptom of respiratory infections in chickens. Look for swelling of the face, around the eyes, and sometimes even the wattles can be affected. Swollen heads in a flock of chickens can be a symptom of many different diseases, so take into account the other signs you’re observing to give you a better idea of which disease your bird(s) may have.
Cyanosis is a bluish or purple coloring of the skin. The face, comb, and wattles are vascular (they have a lot of little veins), so the condition of these surfaces give us an excellent gauge of how a chicken is circulating (moving blood) or saturating (absorbing oxygen). If a chicken is not saturating well, these surfaces turn blue.
This sign is not exclusive to respiratory infections in chickens, because a cardiac deficiency can cause the same symptom. Just like facial swelling, you need to consider the combination of symptoms before making any conclusions. A bird displaying this sort of sign is experiencing hypoxia (lack of oxygen to the tissues of the body). Hypoxia in chickens can be expected to cause altered behavior and lethargy.
Swelling and irritation of the tissue around the eye, known as conjunctivitis, is a relatively easy symptom to see (pun intended). Birds affected by advanced conjunctivitis usually can’t see out the affected eye. Sometimes conjunctivitis swelling makes the eye of a bird looked dished, almost as if it had lost an eye. Don’t confuse conjunctivitis with facial swelling, as conjunctivitis on its own only causes the area immediately around the eye to swell, not the entire face.
Head shaking can be seen in many respiratory infections in chickens. This behavior is an attempt to clear their airway, usually because there is a mucous or other fluid clogging it up. Usually accompanied by coughing and rales, head shaking can also result in blood spatter on the walls of your coop. Blood spatter from birds shaking their head is a hallmark of infectious laryngotracheitis.
Many of these respiratory infections in chickens present in one of two ways; highly pathogenic and low pathogenic, or high-path and low-path for short. Low-path diseases are usually a subacute (recent, but gradual onset), chronic (long-standing symptoms), or even asymptomatic (they show no or very little sign of illness). Even the dreaded and newsworthy avian influenza can infect a flock without showing any apparent signs of disease in its low-path state.
High-path infections are characterized by an acute (sudden) onset of severe symptoms. Acute infections usually hit hard and fast, where one day the flock seems perfectly healthy and the next, sudden major illness is evident. Keeping with my avian influenza example, high-path avian influenza hits hard and starts killing birds within hours, which is why it makes the news.
At one time, it was common practice for flock owners to self-medicate their flocks. Today the sale, and more specifically, the use of commercially available medications for poultry are more controlled. The Veterinary Feed Directive (VFD) from the FDA requires that flock owners seek a prescription from a veterinarian before administering anything beyond your usual coccidiostat (medicated chick starter) or anti-parasite medications. The main reason the VFD came to be is that people have been misusing medications, and causing medically resistant diseases to form. Just like the improper use of antibiotics created the aggressive MRSA (Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) infections we see in humans now, improper medicine use in livestock has created harmful pathogens we can’t treat with our usual medications.
Knowing the Difference Between a Chicken Sneezing and a Dangerous Disease
Respiratory infection in chickens is a serious concern, but many new flock owners tend to jump to conclusions every time a chicken sneezes. Keeping your birds healthy should be something you take seriously but knowing the difference between an errant sneeze and an acute onset of a respiratory infection in chickens will ease the nerves a bit.
Chickens sneeze on occasion, just like us. It’s when they show other sick chicken symptoms in conjunction with persistent sneezing that we need to be concerned. Listlessness, lethargy, diarrhea, noisy breathing, cyanosis, and abnormal behaviors should be cause for concern.
Common Respiratory Diseases of Small Poultry Flocks
FAQ
How do you help a chicken gasping for air?
There are many ways to help a chicken gasping for air. If your chicken is gasping because of a bacterial infection, you should administer the appropriate antibiotics. It is also important to have your chicken vaccinated in order to protect against dangerous respiratory viruses.
Why do chickens gasp for air?
Lastly, if a dirty environment is causing your chicken to gasp for air, you must clean the coup immediately and give the chicken fresh cold water. It important to heal your chick soon, as gasping for air could be a sign that your baby chick is dying. The main reasons chickens gasp for air or cough? Parasites
Why is my Baby Bird gasping for air?
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. Another reason why your chick may be gasping for air may be that the bird is choking.
Why do chickens suffocate?
It’s basically a type of roundworm that attaches itself to a chicken’s trachea. Here it starts to suffocate the chicken. Gapeworm can also travel into the lungs causing further complications. If chickens are living in a dusty environment, or if the ammonia levels are high in the air they’re breathing, chickens can develop respiratory disease.
How do chickens get gapeworm?
Chickens get gapeworms from hosts that are infected with the parasite. The most common way backyard chickens get gapeworm is by eating earthworms, slugs, and other infected hosts. How Do You Treat Gapeworm in Chickens?
How do you know if a chicken has a gapeworm?
The first sign is usually seeing a chicken struggling to breathe or having some obvious difficulty breathing normally. Because the gapeworm is present in their throat, they will often stretch their necks due to the discomfort and gasp for air. They may also be coughing, shaking their head, or making gurgling noises.
What does it mean when a chicken is gasping?
Recognising the Signs of Illness
Early detection is essential. Look out for changes in behaviour, eating habits, and vocalisations. Gasping for air is a clear indicator of respiratory distress. Before this stage, you may see your chicken hunched up, with its tail down and eyes shut, looking under the weather.
What does it mean when a chicken keeps opening its mouth?
What does it mean when a chick looks like it’s gasping for air?
This usually happens when they aspirate water/food 🙁 Not enough oxygen getting to their lungs so it’s gasping. Often leads to pneumonia which they are very unlikely to survive at that age. It just happens sometimes with chicks. They’re not the brightest bulbs, unfortunately.
Why is my bird gasping for air?
Gasping indicates a critically ill parakeet most likely suffering from severe air sacculitis or pneumonia. She need supplemental oxygen and getting started on a systemic antibiotic by an avian vet (www.aav.org). She’ll need to be hospitalized until her gasping stops when she isn’t in an oxygen cage.