11 days old: heavy breathing, air gasping ?! in chick with broken toes.

[Chirpiethechick]

Hey there, first time posting but already have read a lot and found extremely helpful info here, thank you guys.

So the issue is that my 11 days old Sussex chick started yesterday breathing heavily and sneezing every now and then (1-3 times per 15minutes aprox), wiping her beak thoroughly and scratching her face.
Today she sneezes a lot less but continuous the breath heavily. She also gets tired from moving and and prefers to mainly seat, and spreads her wings a bit and lets them hang like she's tired. Today she started "yawning" (4 times on a row) after I took her out of the brooder and she moved a bit. She's yawned before but this action in this context of exhaustion and heavy breathing, done repeatedly worries me, I suspect air gasping.
I am a a doctor so I tried to listen to her lungs but find it hard to discern normality from pathology since I've never listened to a chick before. Heartbeat was >150 bpm and respiratory rate <30 bpm. I didn't identify any obvious abnormal noise. She has no secretion on beak, eyes are lively alert and clean, chirping tone is as usual, eats and drinks well (with my hand-help/encouragement and maybe a little bit more help the last two days),
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Background story on the chick however is long. She got her left foot stuck on the side of the incubator somehow after hatching and wounded her toes badly, only the back one is healthy. I splayed her. Toes are black, have dried out but remain attached. Wound is clean, soaked on yodine/water solution daily and triple antibiotic applied x2/day, feed her vitamins on water and cinnamon and oregano on food. I got tons of info on how to manage this here for which I'm very grateful, I think eventually the toes will fall and she'll get a little stump.
She hatched with 3 other chicks, in the incubator, at the farm (we have dogs, pigs and 7 other chickens, very healthy and young) has not been in direct contact with other animals than my domestic city cats since I brought her home a day after hatching to give a chance.
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So... She limps and is also smaller than the other chicks! And I thought this may be why she's out of breath but now after the air gasping idk that to think.
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I feed her vitamin water, homemade seeds-cereals-egg cookie crumbles, boiled egg with oatmeal, chopped seeds and cereals and bits of minced meat. She prefers egg and oats mainly. Yesterday I put a bit of honey on her egg-oats mix after seeing in the afternoon she was starting to be out of breath.
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Poops are good, some random pasty butt incidents under control.
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Bedding is paper towel, changed daily.
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Lamp as heating, temperature is correct. Ventilation adequate, environment is a city flat since I brought her to my home 30m from the farm.
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I did use diatomaceous earth with a cotton swab to fluff her up one time 4-5 days ago and she sneezed a couple times from the powder. Conflicting info in general about its security I flund after using it, but negative consequences post one time use, seems a bit of a stretch?
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Any advice? Am I overreacting ? Is there a problem really? Should I start antibiotics? In that case, which one?
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Videos of her sitting and breathing heavily, no video of gasping though, will try to get one. Also photos of foot injury.
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Yes, I had to get her mirror + friend because she would chirp every time I left the room on day 3 .

 

[Wyorp Rock]

I feed her vitamin water, homemade seeds-cereals-egg cookie crumbles, boiled egg with oatmeal, chopped seeds and cereals and bits of minced meat. She prefers egg and oats mainly. Yesterday I put a bit of honey on her egg-oats mix after seeing in the afternoon she was starting to be out of breath.

I did use diatomaceous earth with a cotton swab to fluff her up one time 4-5 days ago and she sneezed a couple times from the powder. Conflicting info in general about its security I flund after using it, but negative consequences post one time use, seems a bit of a stretch?

Welcome To BYC

Where are you located in the world?

Do you have Chick Starter available to you? If not, then are you providing chick grit (Crushed Granite) so she's able to process the seeds, cereal, etc.?

Hard to tell much about the breathing, looks fairly normal from what I can see.
How warm is it in the brooder. I see you mention "temperature is correct" but I don't see what that's supposed to be(?). Behavior is a great indication as to whether temperature is correct.

I agree, it looks like the foot will auto amputate. I'd continue caring for that like you're doing.

 

[Chirpiethechick]

Thank you for your answer. I am in Spain, vets that treat farm animals and birds are rare, and form my experience tend to give up on treating a little to easy... I had an issues with new born piglets (fever, neurological symptoms) and no vet wanted to come see them to the farm, I treated them myself... so I'm trying to do my best for her.
The brooder temp in around 34-35°c and yes, I put grit for her in the corner on a little bowl and she eats some everyday. Also her crop empties adequately at night.
I hope you're right and it's all normal.

Today she has a hard time walking due to her foot, maybe that's just it, she's fatigued due to effort. I gave a little bit of aspirin for the pain today. She sneezed only once in 30m and 'yawned' twice after she ate whilst snuggling against me, I guess it's really just yawning. Still breaths the same and sits hanging her wings down a bit. Eats and drinks eagerly.
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Another question, is it advisable to get another chick similar in size so they can be together? Would that help her heal? She sleeps against the teddy animal all the time and wants to snuggle against my body anytime she gets the chance.

 

[Chirpiethechick]

She breaths faster and keeps her mouth open for a couple second, panting, when she gets very fast breathing for some reason whilst just sitting down with wings hanging to the sides after trying to eat. I started doxycycline today.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Is her crop emptying?

 

[Chirpiethechick]

Yes, her crop is emptying.
She's probably dying at the moment. Panting non stop whilst resting, barely moving, fast and non arrhythmic breath. It's very sad.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

I'm sorry to hear that

 

[Chirpiethechick]

Sorry for the ultra late update, it's been hard to have a life and take care of such a needy little fluff. So I did give her antibiotics and she stopped the sneezing but, the lack of breath and panting attack that night was due to heat, even though the temperature was around 33 Celsius. I put her away, next to a fan and she cooled down and improved.
The toes eventually fell off leaving exposed the skin, mostly healed under. I had trouble changing the bandaid on the wound without removing new skin but managed and now there's only a tiny spot uncovered.
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However now her foot is almost cured i realize she still walk the same weird ineffective way, dragging her bad left foot backwards, or holding it up witha little trembling. There seem to be a tense band of muscle or tendon pulling it back so when she tries to move it forward it hurts and pushes back. There seems to be a problem at the knee or hip joint. It can be reduced though. When I extend her legs backwards completely and then bend it slowly and push it in against the body then extend the leg, the thigh is at the same level as the other and extends perfectly, also bends without problem. It just doesn't stay there.
After me trying to figure out what's wrong I noticed she can already for a few seconds walk with the leg closer to it's right place but eventually it falls back all the way again.
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So I figured I should try a chick chair for a few days. I'm not sure whether to splint the leg in straight position also or maybe to tape the foot and little stump to the floor whilst on the sling so she has less mobility.
Any advice ?

 

[SmiYa0126]

@Wyorp Rock @azygous

 

[azygous]

I've dealt with a new chick with a foot injury, and the symptoms you describe are from pain. It's good you've been feeding it specially because pain can cause a baby chick not to want to eat.

When your chick is becoming lethargic, give it some warm sugar water to boost its glucose. It will respond to that quickly.

It's of my opinion the chick suffered temporarily from respiratory irritation from the dust from the DE. DE is very caustic to baby chicks' sensitive respiratory tracts. The antibiotic is a good idea in case bacteria took advantage of the respiratory inflammation.

The tendon issue needs to be addressed in earnest now as the window for correcting it will close by the time the chick is another week older. Here is an article describing care and treatment. https://www.chickenheavenonearth.co...u-can-do-to-help-chicken-heaven-on-earth.html Vitamin B complex could help with the leg issue.

By all means bring in another chick for companionship. Baby chicks do much better recovering when they have the security and comfort of another chick.