**URGENT** 4 week old baby chick sneezing!! Please! Help!! **URGENT**

[cbeth95]

So I just got 4 baby chicks and their mother on Saturday. They all seem to be doing fine except for one. She is sneezing, frequently. And she seems sort of droopy.
I noticed a few sneezes yesterday, but gave her some water. (Thinking it was a clogged beak). But today when I got home the sneezing seems worse, and I'm trying to figure out what to do!!! I don't want to take the baby away from her mom and buddies. Could I take her and another chick? And leave two with the mom? It is fairly chilly out, also.

Can someone give me heavily detailed step-by-step instructions? Please?

All help is appreciated. Thanks.

**Additional Information Will Be Added If I Think Of Something Else**

 

[Sunny Side Up]

This is just my $.02 worth. Did you just get this hen & her chicks from somewhere else? Hopefully they're already in quarantine away from the rest of your flock. I'd go ahead and give them all a powdered antibiotic in their drinking water, something that is labeled for respiratory ailments in poultry. There should be something available at your feed store that you can use, try a teaspoon per gallon of water and see if that helps. Hopefully it will ease the chick's symptoms & keep the hen & the other chicks from getting it. You can also try to ease the sick chick's symptoms by dabbing a bit of Vicks Vap-O-Rub under its wings, maybe on its comb & throat too.

Or you could just separate the sick chick and treat it by itself, and hope the others won't catch it, and hope they'll accept the lone chick when it's feeling better.

 

[BunnyMomma]

Hi,
I have a similar problem as we speak. Early this summer, I had 2 sick 3 day old chicks that went down hill very fast. One of the chicks died despite my efforts to save them. The other chick, I call her Miracle, is now 24 weeks old and beautiful. She is a Mille Fleur. Here are the steps I follow with sick chicks.
1.Mix up a batch of Quick Chick Electrolytes, according to package directions. If you have Gator-ade you can use that in an emergency.
If the chick will drink on it's own, you are in pretty good shape. If not you need to give it the G-a or QC with a dropper just a few drops every 30 minutes. Hopefully it will regain some strength and start eating and drinking fairly soon. I have also given chicks sweetened Iced tea (just a few drops) to help boost their strength. ( Southern Chicks love sweet iced tea!)

2. If you have some antibiotics on hand, mix some into your chicks water with a little sugar. You can get an antibiotic at most feed stores. Follow the directions about how to mix the antibiotics properly. I use Auremycin, that I bought at our local feed store. Your vet can also tell you how to mix it. Mine says to mix 1/4 tsp. to each gallon of water.
3. Be sure to keep the chick warm, about 90. F until it is feeling better and regaining an appetite. I put the sick chick in a separate box.
Sometimes I put a healthy chick in with the sick chick so that he isn't lonely. This also reduces the stress from the separation from the rest of the siblings.
4. Follow these steps along with this little prayer, "Lord be merciful, and hear my prayer. I know that this is just a chicken. You are the creator of all living things and I place his/her life in your healing hands." Please hear my prayer and heal this little bird. Amen

Let me know how things go! I will say a prayer for your birds.
Bunny

 

[cbeth95]

Quote:
Thanks so much, but I don't think the chick is seriously sick. She is doing much better and sounds less congested. But I think I'll put her on some antibiotics if the sneezing doesn't stop all together soon.
She eats, drinks, and runs around with the others, so I'm hoping shes good to go!

Thanks!

 

[Liexicof15]

I would get the antibiotics and treat everyone asap. They've already been exposed so it wouldn't hurt to treat them too. The stress of moving baby from its mother might not be good either. Remember, chickens are prey animals, so it is instinct to not act sick until they are REALLY sick. Good luck.

 

[Muggsmagee]

I never treat my chickens to antibiotics unless they have obvious symptoms requiring it...or as a last ditch effort. Because I associate chicken colds to human colds...we don't use antibiotics on ourselves IF we merely have a cold. Antibiotics don't treat viral infections...only bacterial.

Vitamin water, probiotics (yogurt), quarantine and rest. Dip the beak into the water, if you notice it is not drinking. If what it has is contagious, you can bet the other chicks and momma have it, so it is probably not necessary to separate the one. However, I would separate the group from the rest of the flock, if you have more chickens.

Good luck.

 

[hali12]

My four almost three week old chicks started to sneeze yesterday. One in particular developed a constant sneeze. I put 1/4 teaspoon of Celtic sea salt ( it has many good minerals and electrolytes) in 3/4 cup of water and gave that to all the chicks. The chicks loved it! I had a difficult time getting the chick with the worst sneezing to drink it and I had to resort to giving her drops of it off my finger. I re-adjusted the temperature in their box because I think they needed more warmth. A couple of hours later I brought in some raw apple cider vinegar and added a tiny bit of it to their water. I made sure each chick drank some. I then gave the chicks some Greek yogurt off my finger. If you do this make sure you only use yogurt that is plain and without sugar or additives. I again found it challenging to get my most sneezy chick to eat the yogurt. I mixed it with water and fed it in drops off of my finger. I was sure to only give each chick a small amount of yogurt as I did not want to give them diarrhea.
This morning when I checked on my chicks they were all very healthy looking! No more drooping heads or sneezing!

 

[kristianhope18]

I have 21 Show quality polish I paid a fortune for that are almost 5 weeks old!! I also have on the other side of the same cage 11 different breed 4-6 week old chicks! I noticed the day before yesterday one was sneezing so I isolated him and Cloroxed their water dish and gave everyone duramycin and some drops of vetrx! Anyway the next morning I noticed 3 more chicks were sneezing so I again isolated them! Now this morning I went and checked and 1 of the chicks in the connected cage was sneezing so I moved him in the same tote as one of the sick polish because I've ran out of extra cages and waterers! What do I do? Is everyone gonna catch this??!? What's my best plan of action? I've had chicks get sick before they would drop their wings and have crusted over noses and mouths with no energy and eventually they would die! This doesn't seem like that at all! They are just sneezing no real crust just a runny nose! They all seem to have plenty of energy! In fact the first sick one I isolated flew out of the tote and out the window of the room he was in 0.0 I had to chase him for 10 mins to catch him! What do I do? What could this be? Am I treating them right? And what do I do if they do get better? Can I introduce them back into the flock? Or will they always be contagious? Or what should I do if anymore start sneezing? Just leave them in with the rest of the flock? I have 6 out of 30 isolated right now!

 

[kristianhope18]

Greek yogurt? How do u get them to eat that? I called the vet today and he gave me albon? He said it was a antibiotic for chickens and this will probably work better than the durmycin or anything else I could buy? Anyone ever heard of it? I mixed some and gave it to each one so I guess well see! They told me not to cull any of them! They said to put the sick ones in a coop together and treat the others with this albon in their water and when they get better to move them back in with the flock? What do u guys think about this? Again I'm fairly new to chickens and have no experience with this kinda thing!

 

[QueenBubbles]

My 1 week old chicks were sneezy, too. Kinda wet sneezes but they all acted fine - eating, drinking, pooping. I added a couple drops of Braggs ACV to their water and just monitored them. The sneezing stopped after a couple days. Week 2 and they aren't sneezing anymore.
There were a couple other people that had the same thing going on with theirs on the NorCal thread. One person even sent in a blood sample and it came back negative for MG and all her chickens recovered, even the original one that she didn't treat with anti-biotics because she couldn't treat and get tested.
So, it seems there is an "avian flu" going around the chicken world. Hopefully that is all that is going on.