Chick with sawdust sensitivity

[tamtolmie]

From my recent batch of chicks (they are a couple of weeks old now), they all seem healthy except for this one that I noticed was acting a little different from the other chicks. It stopped running around as much and it absolutely refuses to sit down on the sawdust, it'll sleep standing up while all the other ones have no problem just sprawling out on the ground. I also noticed she started sneezing and cries a lot, so I took her out of the brooder and put a heated pad under a clean towel and put her inside. She stopped sneezing about an hour later, she also finally sat down and slept most of the day. I put her back in the brooder at night as I didn't want to leave her unattended and she was sneezing and crying again in the morning, so I took her out and put her back in the heated towel, again she stopped sneezing an hour later and is back to sleeping soundly. She eats and drinks just fine and as long as she's not in the brooder she seems happy. I don't know whether this could be just sensitivity to the dust or a respiratory disease. I've had a chick with a respiratory disease in the past and it looked a lot worse than this, but I'm not an expert on the subject so I can't tell.
What are my options? Would changing to a specific type or size of shaving help? Any tips would be appreciated as at this point I can't have her back in the brooder sneezing and crying as she's obviously suffering there or extremely uncomfortable.

 

[yakitori]

I think saw dust can be a little too fine, especially as chicks are in such close proximity to the floor. I would switch it out, or provide roosts away from the brooder floor. if it's super dusty, you can try using a spray bottle to mist it down lightly. or even lay some pine shavings over the top to keep the the dust layer down.

 

[rosemarythyme]

x2, sawdust can be too dusty especially if fine. I would switch it out for a larger flake wood pine or aspen shaving, or wood chips, or several layers of plain paper towels, and hopefully that'll fix the issue.