Sneezing, some nasal discharge, what now?

[hollymh]

Hi all, small flock of 12 with three sneezing minimal nasal discharge, I have added vitamins to the water and provided them with scrambled eggs, we had a cold snap a few days ago. The girls are 10mos, 1yr and then I have 10 chicks at 12wks. The chicks are the ones sneezing. I put a heat lamp in for added warmth since they have what seems to be colds. Is there anything else I can do aside of antibiotics, they are all acting normal, eating and drinking well. I will start antibiotics if they don't improve within the week but wanted to check here to see if I can help them get over it without meds. Thanks!

 

[ChickenCanoe]

My first question is how much fresh air do they have? How big are the openings per bird?

Heat may be necessary if they are sick but for birds that age they need fresh air more than heat.

 

[Eggcessive]

Do you have any dusty conditions or ammonia odor in the sneezing coop? If they have a respiratory disease, they may require a little extra heat if it is cold, but don't overdo it. Some diseases like infectious bronchitis and milder cases of mycoplasma gallisepticum (MG or CRD) can have symptoms like these, but hopefully it is just dust. If new symptoms like facial or eye swelling, thick nasal secretions, or eye bubbles and drainage occur, you may need antibiotics. Here is a list of diseases--read about the 2 diseases above for info: http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/ps044

 

[hollymh]

Thanks, they have a lot of fresh air I made sure to provide good ventilation when building. i put down new shavings and straw once a week and spot clean throughout the week. They free range during the day from 7-6, we had a bad rain storm earlier this week and the little dummies didn't go into the coop and all got soaked so im wondering if they got sick because of that and the sudden weather change, it went from 70 to 40 in the span of 12-hrs.

 

[hollymh]

No ammonia as far as I can smell, the coop is roughly 11ftx6x6, the ventilation is 10in around the entire coop with galvanized wire then the door is open all day and there is an additional mesh door on the opposite end.