Help! Diarrhea and acting odd

[Kelli Michele]

I have an 8 month old Barred Rock hen that has had diarrhea for about 2 days now. She seems to be drinking but is eating only a little. I have 2 other Barred Rock hens and they seem fine. Peep (the "sick" one) doesn't look thin and has all her color, but she has been acting a little off, nothing major just kind of standing around and pecking the ground a little bit. This is my first year for chickens and I'm not really sure if she'll just clear up or there is something I should be doing. Its getting cold and rainy, so I'm not sure if that's part of the problem either. I'm unsure because she isn't acting SICK just a little off, which is why I'm worried. I do let them free range during the day, so maybe she ate something because the others are acting normal. I don't know if I'm overreacting (which I tend to do with my animals) or if I should be really worried.

 

[Eggcessive]

I just wanted to clear up a couple of things posted above (not trying to be a smarty pants or to offend anyone, but just to be accurate.) Coccidiosis is specific to each animal, chicken cocci is not infectious to humans, and dogs, cats, ducks, turkeys and chickens all get a separate kind of eimeria strain. That said, coccidiosis could be a problem with the wet conditions if she is standing around puffed up, having diarrhea, and not eating. Blood in droppings is only present in some of the 9 strains that chickens have. Corid or amprollium is the best treatment in the water for 5 days, and harmless if the chicken does not have cocci. Worming would be something I would also recommend, with Valbazen 1/2 ml orally, then repeat in 10 days. As Kristine21 said, check her for lice and mites. Permethrin dust will treat mites and lice along with cleaning out coop.

 

[kristine21]

sorry to hear about your hen, I would check for flees ticks or lice, I help my hens by adding diatomaceous earth (better to get it from pool supply, as they carry it in bulk) to their dust baths or applie it under their feathers once in a while. they also have medicated powder that can be added to their dust bath spot or apply by hand on them. also check and see if the symptoms could indicate
Coccidiosis. my hens are just recovering from that. its a bacteria that can be passed on to humans, that results in humans having diarrhea. the medicine is available in powder or liquid. good luck with her

 

[casportpony]

Can I give my chicken safeguard and corid at the same time? Maybe one in the morning and one in the evening? She has had runny poop for longer than 8 days and she still is alive so I am starting to lean away from cocci. I started the corid by mouth 3 days ago and poop is still runny. I tried safeguard a few weeks ago but I don't think I gave her enough and I was also giving her supplements and probiotic yogurt at the same time. I was only giving her .5ml of the safeguard she was 5lbs, now just under 4lbs.

If she were my hen and I wanted to rule out worms I would give her 0.9ml for five days. Some will say not to give Corid and Safeguard, but I do and have seen no side effects doing so, nor have I read of any drug interactions between them.

Can you post a picture of the poop?

-Kathy

 

[casportpony]

Quote: I'm gonna guess her ideal adult weight should be 5-6 pounds, so definitely keep an eye on her. Once they lose 1/3 to 1/2 their weight it's very hard to nurse them back to health.

-Kathy

 

[Cluckies]

I brought Mother in the house and gave her an epsom salt bath, she is resting now. she is eating and drinking. I tried to get her to eat some tums as I don't have liquid calcium, she took a couple of nibbles at the smashed up tums, she is resting in the cage inside the house for now. The vet did a fecal and checked for worms and such yesterday, nothing there. I didn't bring her in to the vet today, i'll wait and see how it goes, x-rays and surgery sound pretty expensive, which I wouldn't really mind if the vet knew if that was the case, but she doesn't seem to know anything for sure, I wish we had an actual avian vet around here or chicken vet.

 

[chickincrazy]

It's possible she got into some sort of poison. If she did, there's really nothing you can do. Sorry I couldn't help you. I will pray for your sweet chicken.

 

[Kelli Michele]

I'm not really sure how she would have gotten into any of that. There's none in my yard that I know of, we always make sure everything is safe for them and "chicken proof". Unless there is some plant or something that could be toxic that I don't know about. Also, when their free ranging we always go check on them consistently.

 

[Kelli Michele]

I'll look into that, thank you. I don't think its Coccidiosis, her poop is normal colored but watery, Isn't a symptom blood in her stool?

 

[kristine21]

Coccidiosis can be easily transmitted from other bird droppings or cats, dogs etc...the bacteria in the animals poo could have been transmitted and contaminated the food or water supply or just on the ground. Its easily treated and within first 24h the chickens recover. I treated all the hens at the same time even though only one was ill.