once in a while sneezing are all normal
Hi there! Thanks so much for taking the time to respond and hope you all didnāt suffer too much damage from Debbyā¦we used to live in Fort Myers and thought moving into the Jacksonville area would be better for storm dodgingā¦Sorry for delays from me, we also were at the center of Debby, I still don't have power, so am only checking in when I'm up on generator.
Glad you all made it through ok.
I had one chick that had a heart problem, I assume genetic. She was similar at the beginning with the heavier breathing. She was always just a little slower than the others, but ate, drank, poops were normal. She grew, but slower, and feathered out normally. She never ran at all, only slowly walked around. The thing that was most noticeable with her was that when I held her I could feel her heart beat quite strongly with my hand through her chest. Quite abnormally. There was never any bluing or darkening of her comb to indicate low oxygen, nor did she have ascites. I lost her at 20 weeks, suddenly. I did a home necropsy and found an extremely enlarged heart. It was the size of my fist and quite spongy, it literally filled her entire ribcage, I don't know how she could even breathe. I was frankly shocked that she'd managed to survive as long as she did, when I saw the heart. She was a purchased chick, all others in that batch were fine, so I assume it was something congenital. It may be that you don't know for sure until you lose her, it's so darn hard to know sometimes. I have seen furosemide recommended as a diuretic in some places for heart failure. No idea what the dosing would be. If ascites is present I have used Lily of the Desert liver detox formula (all herbal) which has been helpful in some of my birds for a time. It won't cure, but made some of them more comfortable for periods.
https://www.amazon.com/Lily-Desert-...fd60e2624c663130beaa03c4d4c424cf&gad_source=1
Dosing I used is here, in post #7: https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/ascities-in-hen.1147459/#post-18242313
When she had distress the other day, she literally sounded āwetā, like pulmonary edema. Iād hate to play with loop diuretics living in this sauna when dehydration is so high riskā¦Iāll look at their feed/grit and make sure itās not high in sodium. Other than that, not really much else to do other than love her and keep her happy
Due to me working nights sometimes, my girls don't get a consistent feed schedule.Thanks for this feedback. Did some more reading and am going down the "allergen" pathway...perhaps it's the fine pine shavings? Never had an issue before w chicks and this, but I read that sensitivities exist, so I ordered a hemp that is made for chick brooders {low dust, no dyes, etc}. Will be sure to add chick grit...and
Hopefully your birds are treated for Coccidiosis. I learned the hard way last spring what Coccidiosis will do to a flock that was even treated when they were chicks (3 years previous).
Water activates the Coccidiosis in saturated soil.
