MUCUS OR SALIVA AND STRANGE WHEEZING

[Chimby the chick]

Help!
My 3 week old chick is wheezing all of the sudden and has heavy saliva in mouth. It was doing fine but now is sneezing a lot. I did see it scratching it's face a couple of times. I'm a first time chick mommy and don't know much more. What should I do?

 

[Dottie the Chicken]

@Eggcessive @Wyorp Rock @aart @azygous

 

[Chimby the chick]

Update: I gave ut a little olive oil in n case it had something stuck, the wheezing is still happening. It is also pooping a lot (normal consistency, pellet like, starter feed color with white spot). The sneezing it's doing are almost cartoon like ( a - a -chooo). Saliva excess bubbles appear. It sounds literally like asthmatic wheezing.

 

[azygous]

First, pry open the tiny beak and look inside the mouth. Tell us what you see.

Then check each of the other chicks in the same manner. Report what you find.

What are you using for bedding? Some material sold as pet bedding is not suitable for chickens due to volatile oils aggravating respiratory systems, especially baby chicks. Cedar is one of these.

Other things that can cause this reaction are DE and very dusty straw. Some chick feed is also very fine and dusty and will irritate respiratory systems in this way.

Then there are the dreaded respiratory viruses. If this is the cause, very soon, other chicks will show symptoms and this first one may become lethargic and act sick. If the symptoms remain mild and the chicks show no signs of being sick, they will likely recover on their own. If they become sick, they will need to be treated with Tylosin. https://www.jedds.com/shop/tylan-soluble-100-g/

 

[Eggcessive]

Where did the chick come from? Do you have older chickens? Mucus, wheezing, and sneezing sound like a respiratory disease. Some are caused by viruses, such as infectious bronchitis or ILT, some are bacterial such as coryza or mycoplasma a bacteria-like organism, or fungal infections feom mold spores. Mycoplasma can be passed through hatching eggs, and most diseases except fungal infections, are contagious and carried by recovered chickens. Antibiotics can be helpful to treat symptoms of bacterial infections, but the disease may remain in the chicken’s body for life.

 

[Chimby the chick]

My Chimby could't make it. I just saw I think it swallowed a piece of string from a toy it came to me and I couldn't do anything. I feel heart broken. I truly loved it so much.

 

[Chimby the chick]

First, pry open the tiny beak and look inside the mouth. Tell us what you see.

Then check each of the other chicks in the same manner. Report what you find.

What are you using for bedding? Some material sold as pet bedding is not suitable for chickens due to volatile oils aggravating respiratory systems, especially baby chicks. Cedar is one of these.

Other things that can cause this reaction are DE and very dusty straw. Some chick feed is also very fine and dusty and will irritate respiratory systems in this way.

Then there are the dreaded respiratory viruses. If this is the cause, very soon, other chicks will show symptoms and this first one may become lethargic and act sick. If the symptoms remain mild and the chicks show no signs of being sick, they will likely recover on their own. If they become sick, they will need to be treated with Tylosin. https://www.jedds.com/shop/tylan-soluble-100-g/

Thank you, truly thank you so much for your help. I'm so grateful. I couldn't do anything I tried but it started sneezing a lot consecutively and all of the sudden had some kind of attack .

 

[Eggcessive]

Very sorry for your loss. Did the string get caught around the tongue? Strings and hairs can be dangerous around coops and can be swallowed by chickens, since they will peck at anything.

 

[Chimby the chick]

Thank you, truly thank you so much for your help. I'm so grateful. I couldn't do anything I tried but it started sneezing a lot consecutively and all of the sudden had some kind of attack .

For future reference purposes,
Today I tried making a toy for Chimby so it would play, idk if it was a string from the toy or if it was a respiratory problem or something else, all I know is it happened suddenly.

I opened it's beak (this time it was letting me) but I didn't see anything, there wasn't anything dangling from it either).

It was wheezing audibly (literally like the penguin toy from the movie toy story). It would close it's eyes and do as if it was "falling asleep" losing energy. A lot of mucous was coming out of it's beak. It would poop a lot in just a few minutes. It would sneeze at first sporadically and at the end it got very bad and somehow ended up in some kind of epileptic like attack (perhaps lack of oxygen) until it died in seconds


I only had one chick, it was always in my room and in the house and had not been in contact with any other chick since I found it. Last Sunday I let it run outside in my yard for a little bit, we introduced it to out new chihuahua and they had a good calm time (they literally ignored eachother ). Then in Monday it gave us a scare because it was "mouth breathing" but silently. That day it did not eat (it wanted to but could not swallow for some reason). We pray so much, and thanks to BYC we gave it a little bit of water with a few drops of apple cider vinegar and a little garlic powder, then we tried water with some honey for some kind of calories because it was very weak. Finally we gave it some mashed potatoes with olive oil and that worked wonders! It started eating and the next day had more energy than ever (it could fly).
On Tuesday, Wednesday and Today it was fine, running and flying around everywhere.

Like I said, it was always inside.
I have carpet and I would vacum it daily and used baby wipes to clean all it's . I changed it's water and food daily (2-3 times a day). I had a heat lamp lit up for 3 weeks non stop.

I found it 3 weeks ago under the rain all alone, and quickly adopted it.
It was very energetic and sweet. It would normally follow me everywhere and get so happy to see and be with me (it really thought I was it' mom).

 

[Chimby the chick]

Very sorry for your loss. Did the string get caught around the tongue? Strings and hairs can be dangerous around coops and can be swallowed by chickens, since they will peck at anything.

So I never saw the string inside it's mouth. i came to the conclusion now because I saw a video I recorded in the morning of Chimby playing with it's new toy and while I was cleaning my room now, I noticed part of a string was gone (so I assume it must have been that or maybe that made it worse).
Thank you for your kind words. I had never had a pet literally show me such innocent love and tenderness before. Since we are in lockdown it literally was with me 24/7 (even taking online classes ). I'm so grateful for these 3 weeks. Thank you all. I will learn all I can here before any other babies join my family again for now.