Sneezing at 3-4 weeks.

[Usagi]

I asked this question in my regional thread, but I'll put it here too.
I have 16 beautiful 3-4 week old chickens. I suddenly noticed that some of them started sneezing recently. I'm pretty upset because respiratory illnesses are incurable and the birds will be life long carriers.
The only symptoms (so far) is sneezing wet clear snot on me. Plenty of dust-bathing energetic chicks. I'm kinda at a loss of what to do.

1)Should I give them antibiotics, or not? Which one? According to customer service from an online company that sells it. Tetroxy HCA-280 isn't appropriate for egg laying hens.
I wanted to raise chickens so I could have organic eggs at home. Giving them antibiotics kind throws that off. Even if I do give them antibiotics, if they are lifelong carriers of something, I can't sell the birds, their offspring, or introduce new ones ever.

2) Should I get them tested before proceeding with treatment? I think I read that the state can send someone out to do an onsight test for a reasonable fee. It doesn't seem like there are a lot of respiratory issues that are curable...so I'm kinda expecting the bad news.

3)What's the distance flocks need to be in order to be safe from other chicken's diseases? I ask because we have a neighbor who occasionally has chickens that he lets run all over. He doesn't have any right now because another neighbor ate them all because they kept invading his wife's garden. The chicken owner has a garbage dump for a yard and doesn't take very good care of his animals. Let his dogs inbreed for years while giving the puppies to unsuspecting people. He's only about 1/8 of a mile down the road, so if his chickens are close enough to infect mine, then organic chicken farming just isn't going to work here anyway and the antibiotic dilemma is pretty much over and it's less worth it to start a new flock.

4) Also, regarding mycoplasma, since it's not something you can breed out, and it's basically everywhere, why the effort to cull flocks and separate them. I don't necessarily agree with just letting a species get inherent diseases, but if it's so prevalent (wild birds?) it seems like a bit of a losing battle.

 

[Realtree4]

Mine started sneezing at the same age and I didn't get a whole lot of response. One person did tell me to clean the brooder really well so I did and the sneezing got a WHOLE lot better

Also, I noticed that their starter/grower crumbles are really powdery and after they ate was when they were sneezing. I figured that the dust from the feed was probably making them sneeze as well.

I hope that helps! I want to avoid antibiotics as much as possible.

Edited to add: you said they were dust bathing, if you're using shavings, that has a lot of dust too and it can get all stirred up and they'll breathe it in. Then sneeze to get that dust out of their nostrils

 

[Usagi]

I totally miscounted, but they are actually about 5 weeks old, if I makes any difference.

The bedding is sand mixed with sweet PDZ, probably not getting too dusty. I'm really wondering where they got...whatever. The brooders were just deep cleaned and fresh new sand laid down, so it's probably not that. Sadly. Sounds like an easier fix.

It's possible one of the chicks I bought had something. Unfortunately I got my chicks from two different feed stores, so if there was something that came with them, I wouldn't know which store had the issue. :/

I did take the babies outside to run around in the spring heat, and I'm really hoping they didn't pick it up there.
I am so so sad.

 

[Realtree4]

You can get some Vet RX for them. It's all natural (I think). Put a drop under their wings, on their beaks and feet. Think how we apply Vicks when we get the sniffles....