Chick sneezing and headshaking

[Griffox]

My 2 1/2 week old chick has started sneezing and head shaking in the last few days. She has been alone since she hatched except for this weekend when I put three newly hatched chicks in with her. They were together no longer than 24 hours when I noticed her sneezing, so I separated them immediately. I do not think the other chicks got her sick and they are still healthy 36 hours later.

I started giving her poly-vi-sol and she's had electrolytes and sulmet in her water since day 1. She is eating/drinking normally and has normal feces. She has no nasal discharge or eye goop. She is bright and alert.

She has been in a plastic brooder in the house, with paper towels. I haven't used shavings with her because she just doesn't make much of a mess. There's nothing in there that would be dusty. I wash her water container with hot, soapy water every day.

The sneezing/headshaking is frequent but not constant. I just want to make sure that if this is the beginning of an illness that I get it under control before she gets really sick and it's too late for treatment to help.

I have aureomycin and tylan, but am not sure if this is bacterial or possibly aspergillosis. Where's the best place to start? Aureomycin in the water?

 

[tfpets]

I'm not certain what to say, except I hope she improves for you!
She doesnt sound symptomatic enough to me to want to be giving her any antibiotics yet, and then again, they are so fragile at that age? What to do?

Tina

 

[Griffox]

Thanks, Tina. That's what I keep going back and forth on. Is she really even sick? Usually by the time they are gasping for air and lethargic, it's too late, though. I've lost a couple chicks that way and it's so hard to watch them slowly suffocate.

I went ahead and added the antibiotics to her water, but I still don't know if I'm doing the right thing.

 

[Renee]

I feel your anxiety.

I guess you might as well give her the antibiotics for a week, then maybe you could feed her some plain yogurt to improve the chances she will not get a fungal infection. It's so hard to figure these things out! If we were all scientists we could get little petri dishes and microscopes and figure out if we are dealing with a bacteria, a virus, or a fungus.