Chick is lethargic and breathing heavily

[JayBird+16]

I have a 4 month old EE.
She is letharigc and breathing heavily, almost like panting, but w/out the open break.
She has been this way since Saturday.
I found her when I got home from work, sitting in the middle of the coop panting. When I picked her up I noticed she was covered with what I think were mites. I dosed her with sevin dust. The mites are now dead. But she still has lots of eggs stuck to the base of the feathers, mostly around her head.
I didn't thimk mites could cause breathing problems.
She does sneeze ocationaly, but not often.
She is not eating normally, but drinking a lot. As a result her poop is very watery w/ some solids in it.
I have seperated her from the flock, she is inside, under a heat lamp, w/ anti-biotics in her water. I am feeding her oatmeal and mushy pellets. The bedding is pine shavings, for her and everyone else.
This is the 3rd chick to get sick this summer. I ended up culling both of the others. All of the chicks are from Agway. They were suppose to be vacinated. I'm not overly familiar w/ chicken illnesses. Does anyone know what this might be? 1 of the other chicks had similar symptoms.

 

[meriruka]

You will probably need to dust her with DE every 10 days until the eggs are gone. She sounds like she is having some respiratory problems, so mixing DE in with the bedding may aggravate her lungs.

Check to make sure the feed is fresh & not moldy or wet. Sometimes you can get a bag from the store that is no good. You may want to inspect the coop for anything they could be eating that they shouldn't.

Hope she recovers for you.

 

[JayBird+16]

The feed is fresh. But she's not eating today.
Did the mites do this to her?
Is it possible for her to recover?
Can I force feed her, if so, what?

 

[Nif]

Wetting your chicken crumbles/pellets sometimes entices them to eat. Vitamins are probably not a bad idea, most around here suggest polyvisol without iron...children's vitamin drops. Some other foods to try are yogurt, scrambled egg, hard boiled egg yolk smashed up...you can thin them down with vitamin water.
Do you have lice or mites? Lice are fast moving light brown in color, a few mm long...mites are much smaller and slower moving, more gray in color. edit...sorry mites are dark in color.
Here's a link for poultry mites/lice info: http://ohioline.osu.edu/vme-fact/0018.html

 

[meriruka]

Mites can suck a chick dry faster than you would think. It really sets them back. If she doesn't perk up after eliminating the mites, there could be another issue, but after you get rid of them, hopefully she'll improve. If you can't get Polyvisol, Petco sells poultry vitamins that you squirt in the waterer, I've used them & it really seems to help.