maryn7
Songster
Alright - here is a weird one.
So my four chicks will be four weeks old this week. They sneeze on occasion - they're on pine flakes, lots of feathers coming in and their crumble has some dust. No worries. I've checked them over - nothing else to suggest a respiratory infection. And I got them at the feed store only a couple hours after they arrived and the feed store sources from Cackle, so I feel confident in their biosecurity.
They're brooding in my laundry room, so their first field trips were on the rug (they save their cecal poops for the rug, obviously). They sneezed a lot more frequently during the field trips initially (cat fur, dust?), but this stops maybe after their third time out.
This past weekend, it was finally warm enough to take them outside (in a mosquito tent set up in advance - open bottom - to protect the precious babies from avian flu). The set of chicks I had two years ago were FURIOUS any time they weren't outside after their first field trip; never even looked back after the first time on grass. I've had this set of chicks out twice now, and they mostly want to sit on me. And, you guessed it, they sneeze constantly! So I'm sitting in a tent, getting chick snot on me, and that was before what I'm guessing is stress diarrhea (also on me). Take them back in to the brooder, the sneezing stops and the poops all go back to normal.
Yesterday, on the safety of the laundry room rug (precious babies), I offer them wet feed for the first time. The chicks quickly determine this is obvious poison. But on their second outing of the day, one of them accidently tries some and, lo and behold, it is delicious. They all dig in.
And immediately start sneezing. Munch, sneeze, munch, sneeze, walk over to me, sneeze on me. Back in the brooder, all good. I can hear them running and peeping happily from here. Not a sneeze to be heard.
What the heck? I'm not even particularly worried about their health, so much as concerned I have raised a group of 1980s movie dorks: soft cowards addicted to nasal spray.
Anyone... seen anything like this?
So my four chicks will be four weeks old this week. They sneeze on occasion - they're on pine flakes, lots of feathers coming in and their crumble has some dust. No worries. I've checked them over - nothing else to suggest a respiratory infection. And I got them at the feed store only a couple hours after they arrived and the feed store sources from Cackle, so I feel confident in their biosecurity.
They're brooding in my laundry room, so their first field trips were on the rug (they save their cecal poops for the rug, obviously). They sneezed a lot more frequently during the field trips initially (cat fur, dust?), but this stops maybe after their third time out.
This past weekend, it was finally warm enough to take them outside (in a mosquito tent set up in advance - open bottom - to protect the precious babies from avian flu). The set of chicks I had two years ago were FURIOUS any time they weren't outside after their first field trip; never even looked back after the first time on grass. I've had this set of chicks out twice now, and they mostly want to sit on me. And, you guessed it, they sneeze constantly! So I'm sitting in a tent, getting chick snot on me, and that was before what I'm guessing is stress diarrhea (also on me). Take them back in to the brooder, the sneezing stops and the poops all go back to normal.
Yesterday, on the safety of the laundry room rug (precious babies), I offer them wet feed for the first time. The chicks quickly determine this is obvious poison. But on their second outing of the day, one of them accidently tries some and, lo and behold, it is delicious. They all dig in.
And immediately start sneezing. Munch, sneeze, munch, sneeze, walk over to me, sneeze on me. Back in the brooder, all good. I can hear them running and peeping happily from here. Not a sneeze to be heard.
What the heck? I'm not even particularly worried about their health, so much as concerned I have raised a group of 1980s movie dorks: soft cowards addicted to nasal spray.
Anyone... seen anything like this?
me me! I have seen this! My chicks are also allergic to new experiences! I just made an account so I could reply to your thread because I am so glad my chicks aren't the only ones. They are about 20 days old and I ordered directly from Cackle Hatchery; 3 Brahma bantams and 3 RIR bantams. No signs of illness when inside in their brooder, on aspen shavings, and I keep it pretty clean. 
). 
I have an overly dramatic duck "Yellow". If I put any form of bandage on her she will act like she is dying. I'm talking practically scream quaking, laying down like her feet aren't working, panting the whole nine yards. The first time it happened I thought I wrapped her foot too tight, but when I checked it I could stick a finger under her wrap no problem. So I decided to do a test, took the first bandage off and loosely wrapped a big loop of vet wrap around her foot. It was so loose that if she would have walked away instead of being dramatic acting like she was on deaths door the piece of wrap would have fallen right off, but nope. She decided to act like this piece of wrap that was barely even hanging on her foot was killing her. If I wouldn't have seen it with my own eyes I wouldn't have believed it. I even brought my husband out to watch my vet wrap experiment with the Yellow Diva just to clarify that I wasn't loosing my mind.
