Half of my chicks are twitching their heads!

[SJchickens]

So here's the deal. It started with my silkie, then my polish, and now half of my chicks are twitching their heads. It is an occasional twitch, and they will sometimes have fits. Sometimes they even twitch in unison. No other symptoms. They are eating, drinking. Running around. Poop is normal. Though they occasionally sneeze. See below.

I checked for mites, found nothing. Is it possible I'm not seeing them? Also, once in a while, my chickens will sneeze. This started at the beginning of the pollen season, which is REALLY bad this year, so we assumed that the pollen was making them sneeze occasionally. Are they connected?

I have narrowed it down to two possibilities:

Mites.

Respiratory Infection.

How should I proceed? Thank you.

 

[jrwilson]

I am kind of new here but my 3 yr old hens were doing this the other day as well. It was not terrible and I didn't see any mites but I know we have frequent sparrows and wrens visit our coop eating the feed. They can bring mites. I dusted all our hens good with sevin paying close attention to the vent area and under the wings. Then we dusted the coop really well with Y-Tex

GardStar

Garden & Poultry Dust. They haven't shaken their heads anymore that I have seen. Not sure what to tell you about the respiratory. I lost one before with respiratory issues. She was pretty much gone by the time I got to her. Good luck!

 

[SJchickens]

I am kind of new here but my 3 yr old hens were doing this the other day as well. It was not terrible and I didn't see any mites but I know we have frequent sparrows and wrens visit our coop eating the feed. They can bring mites. I dusted all our hens good with sevin paying close attention to the vent area and under the wings. Then we dusted the coop really well with Y-Tex

GardStar

Garden & Poultry Dust. They haven't shaken their heads anymore that I have seen. Not sure what to tell you about the respiratory. I lost one before with respiratory issues. She was pretty much gone by the time I got to her. Good luck!

Thank you! I'll try dusting for mites. I still think the respiratory thing is caused by pollen and separate from the twitching because they have been doing this for weeks with no changes. I would think if it was a respiratory problem they would've gotten worse, better, or died by now.

 

[SJchickens]

Bump for other opinions. Noticed one of my wyandottes doing it today.