3 of my 4 chickens have diarrhea, not sure what to do

[Eggcessive]

The photos worked this time. It won't hurt to treat them for possible coccidiosis with Corid, which treats all of the many strains. It is not an antibiotic, and pretty safe. Another treatment is Sulmet or Sulfadimethoxine (Dimethox) which treat the worst strains of cocci, along with some other intestinal and respiratory diseases. It's kind of a two-for. All are usually available at most farm stores in cattle meds. Corid dosage is 2 tsp of the liquid, or 1 1/2 tsp of the powder per gallon of water for 5-7 days. Let us know if you need dosage on the others.

 

[enola]

Have you ever wormed your hens?

Hens will eat the oyster shells if they need them. It is not a good idea to mix oyster shells in with any food/feed you are feeding them.

Neither oyster shells or laying formula will cause a hen to start laying. Lenght of daylight hours stimulates laying.

 

[CalicoPrairie]

Thanks Enola, I'll correct that. So glad I brought this up so I could learn what I'm doing wrong. And nope, I've never wormed them ever.

Thanks Eggcessive! I picked up some of the sulfadimethoxine and some wazine for any worms, but I'm in the process of seeing if I can borrow a microscope to do a fecal on my birds. I'd hate to medicate just in case, but I guess I've been doing that with the milk kefir and other stuff. I'll be stopping all that, just giving them feed, shells, and clean water in the mean time while I'm waiting to do the fecal, and hopefully that will improve their condition a bit, but we'll see. I'm happy to be armed with some meds if I need them for sure.

 

[Eggcessive]

SafeGuard Liquid Goat Wormer or Valbazen are much better dewormers. If you can take the Wazine back, I would since it only gets round worms. Valbazen is the easiest to use, and of course more expensive since it has 1000 doses or 500 ml. Dosage of Valbazen is 1/2 ml orally for each chicken, and repeat in 10 days. For SafeGuard it is 1/4 ml per pound of weight for 5 days in a row--that can get the more rare worms. Round worms are the most common worms. Since you're doing a fecal float, you may be able to see cocci also. I think it takes a bit of practice to know what you are doing. I've not done it before, and my husband no longer has any microscopes around.

 

[CalicoPrairie]

SafeGuard Liquid Goat Wormer or Valbazen are much better dewormers. If you can take the Wazine back, I would since it only gets round worms. Valbazen is the easiest to use, and of course more expensive since it has 1000 doses or 500 ml. Dosage of Valbazen is 1/2 ml orally for each chicken, and repeat in 10 days. For SafeGuard it is 1/4 ml per pound of weight for 5 days in a row--that can get the more rare worms. Round worms are the most common worms. Since you're doing a fecal float, you may be able to see cocci also. I think it takes a bit of practice to know what you are doing. I've not done it before, and my husband no longer has any microscopes around.

Ok perfect, I will look for those. I can definitely take the Wazine back, no problem there. I think I saw Safeguard there, so I can exchange for that. Thanks!

 

[CalicoPrairie]

SafeGuard Liquid Goat Wormer...

Also, can I use the goat wormer for my chickens?

 

[Eggcessive]

Also, can I use the goat wormer for my chickens?

Yes, those are used by many on chickens.