When to worry, when to leave it be?

[DawnKD]

Hi all, I'm on my 3rd or 4th set of brooding little chicks - and I've had this issue once with my first set back in 2015 and lost one a few days after noticing labored breathing and raspy chest sounds.

Trying to figure out if this is 'normal' or if I may be overly paranoid and Mother Hen'ing (HA) too much.

Here's the situation this time:
One of my three 1-week-old chicks (a black copper marans) looks like it's breathing harder than the rest. Kinda moving its whole body to breathe ... all the way back to the tail. When she sleeps, she spreads out her wings a bit more and looks almost dead-ish, except for the big movements of breathing. She's running around with the rest of them, crop is full, feathering out well, and she's the chunkiest of all three.

They are inside lower level of my house (so 60+ degrees ambient temp), cardboard box with heat lamp at ~90 degrees, still on paper towels, everyone is eating regular chick crumble and drinking water with ACV, access to chick grit.

I'm swabbing her nose with VetRx ... am I being overly worried? Should I be doing anything else?

TIA!

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Lower the heat a bit. It could be too warm. How big is your brooder? Can they escape the heat? Good air exchange is also important, as well as a clean dry brooder. Too warm, too much moisture or ammonia will cause respiratory issues.

 

[Rob Tof]

I agree she sound hot she should have a place to get out of the 90 deg heat. I used a bigwood box and had the light on one side but when hot they go to the other.