5 week old chick shaking head and gasping(?)

[Jade-d]

I have a 5 week old Zombie chick who is normally very active, eating and drinking well, and pooping normally. BUT when she sleeps, she tends to shake her head and occasionally her tail. It also sounds like she may have a stuffy nose she's breathing past but no nasal discharge. She'll occasionally breathe fast while sleeping but not often. What worries me most is what, to me, looks like gasping (i.e. stretching her neck out straight and opening her mouth without making noise). She shakes her head a lot but will got long gaps of nap time without doing so.
I felt her crop and it's mostly empty. It feels like she might have a larger piece of grit or corn in there but not much else.

I'm worried because when this batch of chicks were 1 - 2 weeks old (2nd week of Jan), the smallest of the chicks died. Afterwards I had 4 chicks shaking their heads, sneezing, gasping, and they had diarrhea. All of the chicks were treated with Lincomycin-Spectinomycin. The symptomatic chicks for 5 days and the asymptomatic chicks for 3 days, after which they were all acting normal. They hot a new clean brooder tub, clean pine chips, and well washed food and water dispensers.

I really hope I'm over thinking all of this and it's nothing but the closest avian vet is over an hour away. Our local vet prescribed the previous antibiotics to help the little one that died and then the same for the rest of my chicks.
Everyone is still eating and drinking normally, including the one I'm worried about. They have probiotic and electrolyte support in their water. I don't know what to do, especially since Lincomycin-Spectinomycin is mainly for very young chicks and I don't think they need corid.

Has anyone dealt with this before? How worried should I be?

 

[Debbie292d]

Because they had this once, and are getting it again weeks later, have you checked around for something environmental that could be causing it? This really isn't making any sense that they were this sick to begin with, cured, and now one's got the same thing again.

When I say environmental, anything around that they could be ingesting or breathing. The bedding, air freshener, something in the water, fresh paint or stain, farmers spraying fields, etc.

I'd give vitamins to help support them in fighting whatever it is. For instance, Poultry Cell or Nutri-Drench in their water every other day.

I looked up your prescribed antibiotic as I wasn't familiar with it and it says good for chicks up to 7 days old. That doesn't sound very helpful for yours being 5 weeks. Can your vet prescribe something else? If that's not feasible, there are antibiotics available online a few places.