[portraitiste]

Hi all,

I'm new to keeping chickens and have a 4 day old Rhode Island Red rooster chick bred by my boyfriend and given to me as a gift. He is with his half brothers and sisters and they are kept in a large box on sawdust, fed medicated food, have a regular source of water and have an "electric hen" to keep them all warm.

However, I've noticed my little boy has been wheezing and sounds like he has fluid in his lungs. He is eating, drinking and acting as normal and is incredibly bright and affectionate at such an early age.

Can anyone tell me what this wheezing could be? Could it be signs of a respiratory infection and if so what shall I do to help him recover?

I can't really afford to separate him as my boyfriend only has one source of heat for all 14 chicks.

Thanks in advance, hoping someone can shed some light onto what may be wrong with my rooster 

[HesterF]

Can't be much help but I wouldn't worry too much at this stage - there's not much you can do one way or the other. It sounds like the set up is perfect (although is it actually sawdust or shavings? sawdust might be too fine and might give breathing problems) and at this age it is important he has other chicks around him otherwise he'll get confused later. What are you planning to do with a single cockerel anyway?

H

[mojocafa]

Sawdust? As the name implies it may be to dusty for the wee lungs

At this early stage newspaper would suffice

[chrismahon]

Sounds like dusty bedding Portraitiste. Ours are on kitchen paper for the first week because it is easy to remove and gives them sufficient grip. Then we use kiln dried sand, which is a pain as it is heavy, but can be sieved to remove poos. Then at 4 weeks dust extracted fine wood shavings. We put them on Aubiose too early once and it cut their feet to pieces!


Chicks can develop pneumonia in the first few days -latent in the egg. That is a possibility at 4 days and there is no cure. The lungs fill with fluid and they 'drown'. But the one we had was very droopy first, not active like yours.


Don't try to separate him. He needs company.

[tizaala]

Sounds like dust problems, sheets of news print are the best as others have said, the Telegraph has it's uses at times like this.

[portraitiste]

Thank you everyone for the help! We are actually using shavings, my bad, my head is all over the place lol! I am hoping he will be ok, I'll get my boyfriend to take out the shavings and just leave them on newspaper. I've actually already mentioned this to him as the chooks keep filling their water with shavings and can't drink unless we empty it every 5 minutes!! But he won't listen to me 

I'm keeping the rooster and going to buy some un-related Rhode Island hens to start breeding from him in the future.

I'm a little confused, however as his brother and sisters have the red on them, but he is all yellow with white wings coming through. Does anyone know if this is correct of a Rhode Island Red? Will he develop the red at a later stage or is he a throwback of some sort haha...

I'll try to attach a photo of him and one of his sisters to show the difference between them...(If I can figure out how to do so, I'm new to this forum haha). If they do show up, my boy is the first photo and his beautiful sister (of whom my boyfriend is keeping as a pet) is in the second.

[portraitiste]

Ahh!! The second hasn't shown up . That is the rooster above and here is his sister sorry if it's a bit blurry!

[Marches Farmer]

If you have only one source of heat but need to isolate one chick you could try putting the singleton in a shoe box with its own small dishes of feed and water, with one end under the broody and the other outside, so the chick can go where it feels comfortable.