My Barred Rock hen, Pepper, is recovering from coccidiosis. She finished her course of a sulfa med and is acting pretty normal now and is having solid poops. She's also taking corid for a few days along with her flock mates, just to be sure nobody else comes down with it.
She is a little off her chicken feed, seems to not be eating much of it, though she has a big appetite for treats like mealworms and grapes and grazes on greens a lot in the yard. I am giving her some probiotic powder on the grapes on advice of my vet to help her gut get back to normal.
My question is, is it weird that she's had a few poops that seem to consist almost entirely of sand? They have some sand in their coop, which is covered with wood shavings but they dig around and expose it. She seems to be eating it for some reason. They have access to a big bowl of grit which they don't seem to touch, plus they free range for at least an hour a day, usually longer.
I guess it is good that it is coming all the way through, but I just worry because she has lost weight and really needs to be eating real food, not dirt/sand. Her poop pile under the roost is smaller than the other girls so I know she's not eating as much as she should (or used to before she was sick).
To top it off she's also just started her first molt, which is bound to be extra hard on her since she's already thin.
Anybody dealt with something like this before? I asked my vet if I could give her scambled egg to help her gain weight and she said no, that it might make her fat(?!). Does it take them awhile to get their appetite back after battling cocci?
She is a little off her chicken feed, seems to not be eating much of it, though she has a big appetite for treats like mealworms and grapes and grazes on greens a lot in the yard. I am giving her some probiotic powder on the grapes on advice of my vet to help her gut get back to normal.
My question is, is it weird that she's had a few poops that seem to consist almost entirely of sand? They have some sand in their coop, which is covered with wood shavings but they dig around and expose it. She seems to be eating it for some reason. They have access to a big bowl of grit which they don't seem to touch, plus they free range for at least an hour a day, usually longer.
I guess it is good that it is coming all the way through, but I just worry because she has lost weight and really needs to be eating real food, not dirt/sand. Her poop pile under the roost is smaller than the other girls so I know she's not eating as much as she should (or used to before she was sick).
To top it off she's also just started her first molt, which is bound to be extra hard on her since she's already thin.
Anybody dealt with something like this before? I asked my vet if I could give her scambled egg to help her gain weight and she said no, that it might make her fat(?!). Does it take them awhile to get their appetite back after battling cocci?