Young Chick sneezing / Shaking head

[FredB]

I have 20 young chicks, 19 are 14 days old and 1 is 12 days old. I had initially used a bedding of cardboard covered with newspapers covered with paper towels for traction, changed daily. Yesterday I switched to pine shavings. Within two hours the 12 day old chick (Araucana) started sneezing and shaking its head. It is doing this VERY frequently, like at least 4-5 times a minute. I have attached a short video. The video and audio quality are poor (sorry) but you should be able to see the head shake at 3 seconds and again at 10 seconds. The sound is like a muffled chirp.

The chick seems very healthy otherwise - he is eating and drinking and his poop looks normal so far. I checked his nose holes and they look exactly like the other Araucanas, no discharge or anything. He is also quite strong - I put him in a separate box inside the brooder with another chick for company (I thought maybe the pine shavings were too dusty) and he jumped/flew out. Sides were over 12 inches tall, so he has plenty of strength and energy.

Normally I would not worry since he seems fine but this one is the wife's favorite - he will come running to her when she opens the brooder even though all the other chicks run away. I would hate to see anything happen to it. Does anyone recognize these symptoms? I would appreciate any help or suggestions. Thanks!

More info (added as I think of it): I have been feeding them non-medicated chick starter, and water. Thats it.

 

[red horse ranch]

I think it probably just got dust or a small particle in it's sinuses. If you can't see anything in it's nostrils then hopefully the chick will sneeze it out. Not sure what else you would do.

Sure is a cute chick!

 

[FredB]

This has been going on for 5 days now. That seems like too long for her to sneeze it out or for the problem to take care of itself.

I did take the pine shavings out of the brooder for 24 hours, that did not make a difference. Any ideas?

 

[subhanalah]

I had to do a way with the pine bedding g as well. Does she have any discharge coming from her mares? Clear or otherwise?

 

[FredB]

She doesn't have any discharge that I can see, although I don't know what "mares" are. Is it the nostril area?

 

[subhanalah]

I meant nares. My phone tablet didn't recognize it as a word *facepalm*
Yes, the nostrils.

 

[FredB]

Just to follow up on this:

After sneezing for about 3 weeks I gave her poly vi sol (without iron) in her water and in 3 days she kicked the cough completely. I'm not entirely sure of the implications of this but anyway that is what worked.