Chick with RI - To treat? And how?

[Skink]

Set up and Chick: Standard white cochin chick Pepper is a single child housed in two brooders depending on the time of day: she spends her evenings in a 40 gallon breeder tank, and my working hours in an entirely mesh enclosure with similar floorspace.

• Heat: Both are heated with a red light on a dimmer for temp control
• Substrate: Pine shavings in both
• Feed and Water: Water w/Save-A-Chick probiotics. Medicated chick starter + ultrakibble for chicks following the show chicken ratio. Unrestricted access. Sometimes gets freeze dried mealworms.
• Ventilation: Air flow is good, especially in the day time brooder.
• Cleanliness: I'm perhaps a bit over paranoid about checking on my waterer to keep things clean and dry after she managed to knock it down and drain the whole thing in minutes when she was just a week old, so it tends to get changed several times daily. Both food and water are changed and disinfected in the evening with vinegar.
• Growth: She has been growing well and has an immense amount of feathers in! She looks like a gangly chick head on a chicken body, at this point. 3 weeks, going on 4, and not a high stress individual.
• Handling: I open her day time brooder from the side and let her choose when and how she wants to interact, as well as not restraining her from heat, water or food access. All handling is at her will only, I never force handle or chase. If I feel I haven't seen her eat or drink in long enough, I call her to her water and feeder until she at least indulges my worries with a sip and bite. Pepper is actually rarely out of my sight. I work from home, so she is under constant supervision.
• Previous medical history: No problems prior to this, and no treatments given other than electrolytes on the day she arrived. Not sure if it matters, but she was vaccinated at one day old for Marek's.

Symptoms:
In the last two days, I've been worried she might be experiencing some respiratory unrest.

• Day 1: I heard a whistle in her nose for not even a solid 5 minutes yesterday and have not heard it since. Held up to my ear, all I heard was her guts churning. She had wet sneezes yesterday, but they were brief, and it was a very, very watery discharge (not cake-y boogers.) I thought perhaps something was in her nose, as she was acting normally otherwise!
• Day 2: She still is acting normally, in fact. She eats and drinks regularly, and her poops look normal. However, now when she talks I can hear an additional little pop at the end, and there have been some more wet sneezes. She seems to be wiping her beak a lot.. nothing sticking, sometimes there are sneezes. I did, at one point, see bubbles in one nostril.
• Overall: Bright eyes, no coughing, no heaving, no lethargy. Eating and drinking, crop feels ok. She's quiet, nothing apart from the usual vocalizations if any. However, the fact there is anything wrong at all can't be ignored. Occasional sneezing, watery discharge from nose. If it wasn't for the popping in her tone, I'd say it reminds me more of my pollen allergies on mild days (no eye gunking/irritation.)

What should I do? I'm a first time chicken keeper, so I don't have any experience here. It's obvious she has a little something going on, and I don't want her to feel unwell. However, she's already on medicated chick feed, and I don't want to go throwing stronger antibiotics at her if it would be unwise for her. What treatment should I pursue? Here is what I have been considering based on what I have read, but I would like more direct input from those with experience since most I've read about make it sound like the animal in question was on death's door before they could make a move:

• Should I exchange the pine shavings for puppy pads to eliminate dust? It would help with keeping the environment clean with greater ease I assume? I would use sand, but the only stuff available to me right now is rather filthy and has larger pebbles in it.
• Can probiotics and electrolytes be used at the same time in water? I always see people suggest electrolytes for any sort of stress, but I already have probiotics in her water regularly so her medicated chick starter (all that was available to me locally) doesn't demolish her gut fauna. If someone knows that using both in the water won't have a bad effect for sure (please no guesswork or assumptions eek) I'd love to know.
• Antibiotics? Should I order in some non-medicated feed and put her on stronger antibiotics from the feed store (and would it be worth paying for expedited shipping so it doesn't arrive a week from now?) Should I leave her feed alone and start antibiotics on top of that? What kind? Or would this be better for me to simply support with electrolytes, low stress and a clean environment rather than tossing meds at?
• Any other suggestions? Let me know your experience or if there's something I'm not thinking of, like if I should withhold treats, or maybe give something different (watermelon for sugar + water maybe?) etc. I'm eager to hear suggestions. I don't like my baby being under the weather!

I hope that information is thorough enough to give those of you with experience what you need, if I am missing anything, please do let me know! I apologize for my long winded nature, I'm more used to trouble shooting with reptiles where the smallest detail can make or break the understanding of a problem and what treatment to pursue, and since I'm green as heck with poultry I suppose it can't hurt to be thorough. Thank you so much for sticking through! Just in case:

Brief version: My tiny chicken seems to have a wee bit of a sneezywheeze and I want to fix her up before she actually gets scary.

 

[Skink]

It has been a couple days, and she seems to be 100% A-Ok. I didn't actually change anything, having gotten no responses and not knowing what would have been a meaningful action myself. Having kept her clean, warm and watered was all it took, I suppose!

 

[BantamLover21]

I'm glad she's gotten better! I'm sorry that no-one helped you. Here are just a few answers to some of your questions:

• Should I exchange the pine shavings for puppy pads to eliminate dust? It would help with keeping the environment clean with greater ease I assume? I would use sand, but the only stuff available to me right now is rather filthy and has larger pebbles in it.

No, I think pine shavings are fine. I've used them with all of my chicks, and never had any problems with dust or difficulty cleaning.

• Can probiotics and electrolytes be used at the same time in water? I always see people suggest electrolytes for any sort of stress, but I already have probiotics in her water regularly so her medicated chick starter (all that was available to me locally) doesn't demolish her gut fauna. If someone knows that using both in the water won't have a bad effect for sure (please no guesswork or assumptions eek) I'd love to know.

Yes, they can be used at the same time. I do it all the time. Electrolytes can be really helpful for stressed out birds that need energy.

• Antibiotics? Should I order in some non-medicated feed and put her on stronger antibiotics from the feed store (and would it be worth paying for expedited shipping so it doesn't arrive a week from now?) Should I leave her feed alone and start antibiotics on top of that? What kind? Or would this be better for me to simply support with electrolytes, low stress and a clean environment rather than tossing meds at?

Since she's recovered, I suppose I won't answer your question about using antibiotics. But I do want to clarify what "medicated feed" means. In most cases, medicated feed doesn't contain antibiotics; instead, it has a coccidiostat like Corid to prevent coccidiosis. The cocciostat works be depriving coccida of certain b-vitamins, and won't help cure real bacterial or viral diseases.I have heard of some medicated feeds that have antibiotics in them, but those are rarely used and are not very common. You also mentioned something about giving probiotics to prevent beneficial bacteria in her gut from being killed of by the medicated feed: don't worry about that. Giving probiotics is a great idea, but even if you didn't, the medicated feed only targets the coccidia, not other bacteria.