This is my third post about my chicks sneezing. It never seems to end. My chicks started sneezing at about 1 week old, and ever since they haven't stopped. For the first 3 weeks I used very dusty pine shavings, but got rid of them and replaced them with larger shavings as soon as the other stuff was out. I deduced that they were sneezing from the dust, since some days it would get worse and then others better. I moved them into their outside coop right before they turned 3 weeks old, and for the first couple days the sneezing went down quite a bit, I thought it was the less dusty bedding. Before there were no symptoms other than the sneezing.They all eat/drink, play, and are very active.
I have noticed they are sneezing a lot more today. I checked all their noses and a few seem to have very slightly runny noses. One seemed to have a very quiet clicking noise in the back of its beak. The liquid coming from their noses doesn't look like mucous, its clear and doesn't smell bad. So my questions are:
1: How long can it take for a respiratory illness to start showing symptoms in chicks? And if they have been sneezing for weeks without runny noses, could it still be a respiratory illness?
2: Will extremely dusty areas with low ventilation not only cause sneezing but runny noses too?
3: If it is a respiratory illness, how do I treat it?
4: I've heard that once chicks have respiratory illnesses there's not much hope and they will probably all die. Is this true?
5: I got these chicks from a hatchery. Is this my fault that they are sick, or the hatchery's?
6: If they do have a respiratory illness, does that mean they will infect the adult birds in my flock?
I'm really scared for my birds, and not knowing what is wrong with them really makes me anxious. I hope I'm just being extra paranoid, but I can't take any chances. I've tried extremely hard and I've been very careful with raising these chicks. I don't want all this time and money to be a waste. Please help!!
I have noticed they are sneezing a lot more today. I checked all their noses and a few seem to have very slightly runny noses. One seemed to have a very quiet clicking noise in the back of its beak. The liquid coming from their noses doesn't look like mucous, its clear and doesn't smell bad. So my questions are:
1: How long can it take for a respiratory illness to start showing symptoms in chicks? And if they have been sneezing for weeks without runny noses, could it still be a respiratory illness?
2: Will extremely dusty areas with low ventilation not only cause sneezing but runny noses too?
3: If it is a respiratory illness, how do I treat it?
4: I've heard that once chicks have respiratory illnesses there's not much hope and they will probably all die. Is this true?
5: I got these chicks from a hatchery. Is this my fault that they are sick, or the hatchery's?
6: If they do have a respiratory illness, does that mean they will infect the adult birds in my flock?
I'm really scared for my birds, and not knowing what is wrong with them really makes me anxious. I hope I'm just being extra paranoid, but I can't take any chances. I've tried extremely hard and I've been very careful with raising these chicks. I don't want all this time and money to be a waste. Please help!!