When mine had some thin, watery nasal discharge, they transferred it to their wings/back during sleep, too. I didn't clean it off...didn't want to wet them/chill them. I did use some VetRx drops in that area. I don't think VetRx is any type of serious 'cure all', but I think it could help with clearing the nose/lungs of mucus like vicks does... so, since they were tucking their heads there, I put a few drops in that area for a day or two. After the the watery discharge stopped, their wings cleaned up...surely from pruning. No washing needed.
I first used Aureomycin in the water for nearly 2 weeks... didn't see 100% improvement. Some improvement, yes...but as soon as I stopped, it rebounded in less than two days. Then I tried Sulmet, and after three days, so no change at all. Next was the Tylan 50 injectable given orally. That's what did the trick here.
What you're using might take care of it, too... just depends on what it is and what med it's sensitive to. If you don't see significant improvement in 3 days treatment (with no rebounding when you stop), discontinue that med and go to something else if desired.
I don't think it'd hurt to change to another med if that's what you decide to do. I didn't exactly wait between meds... when I went from a water mixed one, I just cleaned the water, put fresh out, in the mid-morning, and that evening, I pulled them off the roosts to medicate with the Tylan after they'd settled in for the night. Had no ill effects from doing so.
I think you can get a version of Tylan that is mixed in the water, but I just went with the Tylan 50 given orally.
I don't know if you've ever given anything orally before, but if not... use a small syringe (needle removed) and when you insert it into their mouth, make sure you go way back into their throat... even *down* it a little. The hole to their lungs, as I understand it, is right at their tongue and you need to get the meds past that so they don't inhale it. If you get it in their far enough, it's easy to give, no one chokes and inhales it. The trickiest part for me was just getting it IN their mouth...once in and deeper in their throat, they don't really struggle anymore and it's easily given.
Like I said, you can inject it, too... but I read so many conflicting posts about injecting it. Some said in the breast muscle ONLY, some said ONLY subcutaneously as it damages muscle when injected. In cows and pigs (as it's sold for) you are supposed to inject it intramuscular...but any tissue damage to the muscle would be small compared to the size of the animal. In a chicken, any damage would be more severe, considering the size. Then I read about giving it orally, and decided to try that FIRST to see if it worked. (it has) I was going to next try subcutaneously in the back of the neck if orally didn't work.
