sneezing chick and cracking sound in chest UPDATE

[lauren6]

i posted this in raising chicks but thought Id stick in here too..

One of my silkie chicks started sneezing on Tuesday, today Thursday she is still sneezing and when I hold her up to my ear I hear a little crackling noise. No others are showing any signs of illness yet.

How should I treat?? wait till I see drainage or start her on something now?

I did grab a package of Duramycin-10 at the feed store yesterday just in case she got worse. its all they had for resp. infections, if its not the right stuff I can try the other feed store..
-Should I start giving it to her now? and how much? cause all those dosages make my head spin lol I have a quart size chick waterer.
-Should I separate her from the other 5 to treat or leave her with them and treat them all?

she seems to be ok otherwise eating and drinking as far as I can tell, its been a busy day so I havent been able to sit and watch as much as I would like..

 

[clkingtx]

Hello,

I am treating my chicks for the crackling sound you described. Mine aren't sneezing, but I could really hear that sound when I held them to my ear. I am giving them the med you mentioned, Duramycin-10, at the 800mg/gallon dosage. It is approximately 2 teaspoons per gallon, so that would be about 1/2 teaspoon per quart. This is the 3rd or 4th day of treatment for my chicks, and they are doing better, the crackling sounds are really faint or gone completely now. Definitely do a search for the medicine dosage on this board before you give it to your chicks, double check my dosage calculations, etc. I hope your chick gets better.

By the way, I first noticed this in one or two chicks in the same brooder. Thankfully I thought to hold some of the others in different brooders up to my ear. Most, if not all, of the chicks were making the same crackling sound, and they were in three separate brooders. So check your chicks to make sure that they aren't having the same issue, but just not sneezing with it.

If you would, let us know how they do.

Carrie

 

[lauren6]

Ill keep you posted

I listened to a few of the others and heard a little crackling so I started them on antibiotics last night just to be safe...

 

[lauren6]

I treated the chicks with Duramycin-10, 1/2 a tsp in their 1 quart chick waterer for 7 days.

All crackling cleared up.

But the one chick that was sneezing is still sneezing some, guess she is allergic to chicken?!?

 

[clkingtx]

I am glad that yours are doing good. Funny about the sneezer! You used the same dosage I did. I gave it to mine for a little over a week, and they seem to be all ok now. Unfortunately, I lost one, I think because of the diarrhea caused by the antibiotic. I tried to give them oatmeal to counteract the diarrhea, but couldn't stay ahead of it with this one chick. I guess it was a little weaker to start with. The diarrhea in the others went away as soon as I stopped the antibiotic.

Thanks for the update!

Carrie

 

[chicmom]

Hello I wanted to add a helpful tip for when the chickens have colds. One of my favorite pullets had a very bad cold in her air sac this winter, so I took her into the basement in a cage, and I put the duramayacin in her water and I ran a vaporizer on her with vicks in it! It worked wonders!

I believe she may have died if I didn't do that. She was all puffed up and barely moving and she sneezed and coughed and her breathing sounded horrid.....I feel I was so lucky! Just wanted to share.

Sharon

 

[clkingtx]

Thanks for that tip, I will keep it in mind if I have any more problems. I am sure it will help a lot of people. VetRX could probably also be used that way, in the vaporizer, right? Anyone ever tried that?

Carrie

 

[shellbell]

I always have vetRx on hand, this stuff is great!! i use it in the vapo but i also warm it up, soak a q-tip and rub it in the little nose holes, enough to where you can tell when they are swallowing it, you will know, because they dont like it