do you medicate every sneeze and sniffle?

[onthespot]

I hear on here about isolating and treating every bird that looks a little off, and was wondering if you treat ANY sneeze or just the ones that look a little off... I heard one of my chicks sneeze a few times last night. Two nights before the room got cold, and of COURSE that was the night the light burned out. It is not sneezing today, but it might just be incubating the bugs... who knows? better safe than sorry. Right now it is well enough that I can't tell which one it was to isolate it. Hopefully that is a good sign.

 

[swtangel321]

I dont think they should be treated unless you know there are sick !! just no reason for it, plus a sneeze could mean a lot of things... Thats just what I think. I also think a lot of things are less than what we think !!

Plus if you treat and they end up not being sick the anti's wont work if they REALLY become sice !!

 

[gritsar]

If I treated every time I heard a sneeze I'd go broke buying antibiotics! I have one chicken that sneezes (and hiccups!) sometimes when she eats because she gobbles her food.
Nonetheless, whenever I hear it I do check for running eyes or fluid around the nostrils (do they have another name for them in chickens?). No drainage and acting fine, I chalk it up to dust or being a piggie.

 

[silkiechicken]

I've never treated for a sniffle. I avoid using antibiotics. Problem with treating for every sniffle is that if you don't know what you are treating, you're just shortening the useful lifespan of antibiotics. Furthermore, the resistant bacteria selected for in the birds during treatment, can pass that resistance gene to the bacteria living on yourself, so when you need the antibiotics for something serious, they might not work.

Many if not most the things causing sniffles in birds are viral anyways, so nothing you can do besides let it run it's course or cull the bird so you remove the weak link in your flock. A weak link can harbor disease which you don't want.