baby polish breathing through mouth????

[sgt chick]

I have a 3 week baby polish and a 2 week rhode island red, and ever since we got them a week ago she has has the sniffles. She is active and eats and drinks well, and has bright eyes. She doesn't have anything in her nose orin her throat that I can see. When she sleeps she seems to take deeper breathes then the rir, and she breathes through her mouth often. I myself can't breathe through my nose due to allergies, and I'm just wondering if we are birds of a feather? Please if anyone knows if this is allegeries of something more

 

[Jensownzoo]

Has she increased significantly in size since you got her a week ago or is she about the same size?

 

[sgt chick]

sorry i haven't replyed. she has gotten muh bigger in the past month. we took her back to the lady we got her from and she gave us a different polish baby, but that one died a few days later from vitamin deficiency. So we went back and she gave us back our origanal polish chick. she said she seemed to be just fine other than just having really tiny nose holes.(she still has the sniffles though) on the other hand one of our bigger chickens (Dorthy (rhode island red)) started sneezing frequenly about 2 weeks ago. she likes to go out in the rain so we thought she had cought something, we had noticed another ckicken (Nibbles (americanna)) sneezing a little too. so thats 3 outa 6 chickens sneeing, i got worried that it may be contagious so i bought some duramyacin and started them on that 4-5 days ago. Nibbles stopped sneezing, but Dorthy continues to sneeze, it doesn't seem to be as bad as it was. there is no dischage from her nose but she does do this thing where she'll open her mouth wide like she's tring to pop her ears (my baby rhode island red does the same thing too sometimes) what des this mean? should i try a different med or leave it be?
back to the baby poish... i know i have to cut her hair because she keeps getting strands in her eye, but just the other day she kept scratching her head around her eye and then rubbing her head on her wing. i noticed the one side of her face was red and slightly swollen (the side she kept scratching) I've checked her eyes they look clear i don't see anything in them, I cut the hair by her eyes so she doesn't get any feathers in there. she seems to be fine now, her eyes look a little red and she is acting normal but when she gets to scratching thats when it swells up and sarts watering. i'm no expert but it looks like sneezing with itchy watery eyes. i have horrorable allergies so i know about that stuff, and its what happens to me. Can chickens have allergies?

 

[azygous]

First of all, you made a good call to put them all on an antibiotic when you saw signs of respiratory infection. Chances are good you caught it before it went too far and they will probably all recover, albeit not all at the same rate. Be patient and just keep an eye on them before you think about trying anything else.

Back to the Polish. Over the years I've been keeping chickens, I've learned that they will scratch at any body part that is causing them discomfort, whether it be pain or itching. So the Polish is having issues of discomfort in her eye region. I would check her very carefully, looking for swelling, and ingrown feathers. Chickens that have "decorative" feather features, head crests, foot feathers and such, may get an emerging pin feather once in a while that makes a "U" turn and grows back in on itself.

You'll notice swelling around a pin feather first, then you may see the "U"turn. Sometimes all it takes to correct it is to take a tweezers and gently pull on the emerging shaft until it comes back out. If that doesn't work, then you can free it by taking a razor blade or small scalpel and making a tiny cut over the ingrown feather. If you do that, put an antiseptic on it.

If the Polish has swelling around the eyes and face, however, it could be a sinus infection. This is not uncommon, especially if several of the chickens have shown signs of respiratory infection. Getting a steroid eye drop solution from a vet or feed store will solve that problem. I've had cataract surgery so I have a supply of leftover antibiotic drops and steroid drops, so if you can't locate anywhere to buy these, ask your older relatives and friends who've had cataracts removed if they still have any of these drops left over.

Hopefully this additional information will help you figure out what's causing your Polish discomfort.