Looking after a sick chick.
I thought I would add a recent experience of looking after a sick chick.
This is a young bird that has been raised by a hen outdoors, around 4 weeks old but still a fortnight away from being fully feathered and able to survive away from heat. The first symptom was the biggest sneeze i have ever heard from a chicken, adult included. It is not uncommon to hear a chicken sneeze, they will all do it from time to time, a bit like humans but if it sounds different or is the chicken keeps sneezing then there probably is a problem.
The weak point in any chicken is the respiratory sysytem and this problem is compounded in the young. I took this bird to our vet and within a few hours she was being treated.
The first thing to do when treating a sick chicken is to isolate the bird in a warm and comfortable enviroment. It is important to seek advice from a vet as you need to know whether the infection is
(i) serious
(ii) a threat to the rest of the flock
It is always better in the long run to know exactly what you are dealing with.
In this case the chick is suffering from Infectious Coryza, an acute respiratory disease of chickens characterized by nasal discharge, sneezing, and swelling of the face under the eyes. It is distributed worldwide and is caught by bird to bird transmission and as it is prevalent in wild birds this is the most likely cause of the disease. In this case it is relatively mild and has been caught very early.
The disease itself is similar to a very bad cold with sinus complcations in humans and causes swelling of the face and sinuses and difficulty breathing. The normal course of the disease in chickens is around 10 days and the mortality rate is quite low in otherwise healthy birds. There is no public health risk with infectious coryza.
We brought the chick indoors for treatment to provide a more stable environment and it is pictured here stood on an old towel and clearly feeling a bit sorry for itself.
