[Tigerwren]

Hi all,
I am after some urgent advice please.  Hen two and a half, not laying, not eating, stretching neck and rolling eyes.  I can hear what sounds like air coming out of her mouth when she stretches her neck (quite loud but not rasping).  She means a lot to us and is my son's chicken in particular.  I don't know what to do.  I tried meal worms and she is still not keen...  No vets around to help
Thanks for any suggestions

[ANHBUC]

There is a list of poultry friendly vets HERE and a vet search facility which gives an option for Poultry on HERE

There is information on impacted crop and sour crop on HERE

The only other thing I can think it could be is a bad worm infestation or even gape worm.  Have your hens been wormed recently with flubenvet?   

[Tigerwren]

Hi ANHBUC,
Thank you for your post.  I did wonder about gapeworm and have wormed them all but as she isn't eating, I am not sure what to do about that.. I did put a paste of feed and used a syringe with that.  Should I put some wormer in that do you think?

[ANHBUC]

If she is not eating I think she really needs to see a vet if you can not see an obvious cause that can be treated.  I took one of my hens to the vets last week and the cost of a steroid injection, some baytril and the consultation was just over £27. 

You also need to be careful with a syringe that it does not go on their lungs and they are actually swallowing the contents.

There is some information on gape worm HERE and HERE 

[Tigerwren]

Hi ANHBUC,
I had forgotten to mention that she had been given antibiotics but she did eventually die of a heart attack in the end which was very sad.  Thanks for your help and advice.

[ANHBUC]

That is sad Tigerwren, you did what you could to help her.