HELP! SICK CHICK!

[PixieChick19]

My two week old chick just all of a sudden started running a fever and breathing heavy and rapidly. It also has a little bit of pasty-butt and it has a coarse sounding chirp along with frequent sneezes. It almost seems like a chicken form of a cold. What can I do to help my little guy get better? It seems really strange that something like this is coming along after two weeks of perfect health. Some more information him; he is the only one who hatched out of four eggs and has a mirror in his pen to keep him company. I am not currently putting electrolytes in his water but I am getting some right after i post this. I raised two other chicks in the same pen before I moved them outside with the big birds, and I cleaned the pen thoroughly before putting him in it. If there is any more information that might help, just please let me know!

 

[Cayuga momma]

What's the pen set up?
What kind of shavings are you using?
These symptoms could be the result of alot of things, but the easiest one to rule out would be ammonia in the pen.

 

[PixieChick19]

the pen setup is in a plastic 2x3ft box with pine shavings from tractor supply. the lighting in the pen is provided by a reading lamp with a 20 watt bulb(it needs to be small so that nothing can catch fire).

 

[rebrascora]

I would imagine the sneezing could be just dust or ammonia. Plastic boxes are not great because they do not allow for much air flow and the heat can build up in them, particularly when the ambient temp of the room is already warm. A crate with mesh sides is better and a mama heating pad or heat plate is preferable to a lamp. Pasty butt is often associated with overheating. You will need to soak his butt in warm water (a coffee mug works well) and use a moist cotton bud (Q tip) to gently loosen and remove the caked poop both on the outside and probably a little inside the vent too. It may take several soaks to get it all softened up and removed and him pooping normally again. He will die if he cannot poop so it is crucial to get that white chalky stuff which is urates, soaked off and him able to pass normal poop too. Keep his butt skin lubricated in between each soak with a salve or antiseptic cream which will help to prevent further build up as well as keep the skin from getting sore.

Can you post a photo of the brooder? You want only 1 small area in a corner to be about 85 degrees and the food and water to be in the coolest part of the brooder. It is very important to have a difference in temperature across the brooder so that the chick can cool down as well as warm up. If the water is warm and the brooder is warm, the chick has no means of cooling down. At this time of year, assuming you are in the middle of summer, it is safer for the chick to be slightly too cool as too hot.