8 week old pullet with bloodshot watery eyes HELP!!!

[Chickenaddict]

I have never seen anything like this but then again i have never had sick chickens before so im kind of lost trying to diagnose her. I hatched her out of eggs i won on eggbid using a broody hen for the first 4 weeks then putting them in with other chicks i ordered from Ideal. The Ideal chicks had a rough start and i had 2 DOA and another few passed within 2 weeks, i figured they were weak and didn't notice any type of symptoms from the rest. I put them in with the seramas when they were about 4 weeks old with no problems. I am hoping to sell most of these seramas but if they have something that makes them carriers for life that would mean they have to be culled and all the money i have invested in this little project will go out the window grrrr!!! Does anyone have a clue as to what this could be and if its fixable? Thanks in advance

1) What type of bird , age and weight.- Serama pullet 8 weeks old

2) What is the behavior, exactly. -Lethargic, itching eyes and head no congestion, little blood in the stool but not every time

3) Is there any bleeding, injury, broken bones or other sign of trauma. -Nothing besides the bit of blood in her droppings

4) What happened, if anything that you know of, that may have caused the situation.- Not sure all have been healthy until yesturday when i noticed this pullets eyes

5) What has the bird been eating and drinking, if at all.- Non medicated chick starter, scrambled eggs, bread, scratch grains, grit and fresh water

6) How does the poop look? Normal? Bloody? Runny? etc. solid but with a bit of blood in it but not every dropping has blood

7) What has been the treatment you have administered so far? Nothing but i do have sulmet on hand if needed as well as V&E and duramycin

8 ) What is your intent as far as treatment? For example, do you want to treat completely yourself, or do you need help in stabilizing the bird til you can get to a vet?- I would like to treat her myself

9) If you have a picture of the wound or condition, please post it. It may help.

10) Describe the housing/bedding in use- Pine shavings with DE mixed in. I change all the bedding on a weekly basis and scrub/disinfect waterers/feeders weekly. They get fresh water and feed daily. twice a day on the water because they kick the shavings in there.

She is with 21 other chicks ranging from 6 weeks old to 8 weeks old, none of the others are displaying any symptoms. I have not seperated her being the others have been exposed to her already. i am assuming if i have to treat her i may as well treat them all?

 

[Jenski]

Looks like your young one has coccidiosis. If you have adults in with young ones, the young ones can come down with it. Do you keep Amprolium on hand?

You might want to check with one of the forum experts re. dosage for a young bird.

 

[Chickenaddict]

I don't have any adults in with the little ones anymore. None of my adult birds have ever been sick

so there is no way they could have gotten this from the adults. The only 2 things it could have been was the chicks i ordered from Ideal or the hatching eggs i bought. Guess i have to treat the whole flock of babies. No amprolium on hand I may be able to get it at fleet farm otherwise i'd have to order it online. This stinks!!! Really stinks!!! So much for these beautiful babies i now can't share with anyone

 

[Jenski]

The adults won't necessarily get sick from coccidia; they will have built an immunity to the cocci in the ground where they live. (Coccidia are soil-borne protozoa, and they are EVERYWHERE. There are hundreds, maybe thousands, of varieties.) Youngsters haven't had the chance to develop this immunity, so they can get sick from the cocci. The bloody stuff is actually bits of intestine that are sloughed off from the illness.

It will not stop you in the least from sharing them. Coccidiosis is probably the most common chicken ailment, and it's not a virus or bacteria. It's not so much that it is contagious; cocci are everywhere in the soil, and there are strains that affect nearly every type of animal on the planet. Coccidiosis is (very simply) an overabundance of coccidia in the intestinal tract, which causes illness. The trick is to get the chickens to adulthood without them getting sick enough from cocci to dehydrate and die. A healthy adult chicken has the proper acid and bacteria balance in the gut to prevent most intestinal illness; most coccidiosis in adult chickens is caused by the introduction of new birds (new cocci strains) or other illness that weakens a bird's immune system.

Now, you might do a quick thread search on coccidiosis. In the old days folks would feed birds buttermilk or something similar to help protect the gut; these days we would call that "probiotics." I do not have statistical data on the effectiveness of this, but many folks here have used it.

Amprolium (Amprol, Corid) is simply a thiamine blocker that "starves" the cocci of vitamins, and by day 3 of having this in their water you should be good to go. I generally administer for at least 5 days just to be sure.

Please keep us posted, and let us know if you have further questions. More experienced folks may have more to add or correct. Good luck!

 

[tiki244]

Liquid Sulmet is good, the directions are on the bottle. I used something I got from Farm and Fleet called sulmethadioxizine (sp?) in a powder form for about $10. I mixed 1 tsp per gallon (no more) for 6-7 days, while at the same time cutting back their protein intake and feeding them lots of grit to "scrub" their intestines. I fed them mostly cracked wheat bread and cracked corn during the initial treatment and a few weeks thereafter. Be careful with sulmethadioxizine, for it is toxic, so follow the mixture and days given precisely. After the sulmetha... was given for 6 days I followed up with a probiotic "Probios" or a $2 powder mixture of vitamins and probiotics made by Merricks (Farm and Fleet) for a ten day period, adding it to the water along with some whole organic milk, and a bit of yoghurt in their feed. I still gave them lots of grit mixed with the food and cracked corn and bread for up to about a month afterward. I gradually cut the probiotic to 2 days a week and the milk mixed with water to plain water after a month. It took them two months to completely recover and gain their weight back.


Also, keeping them on a wire bottomed cage helps for little ones. It seems to be easier for them to get it in the winter.

 

[Chickenaddict]

Sorry it took so long to reply but my computer was on the fritz for the past week. I treated them with sulmet. The first 2 days was 2 TBSP per gallon of water and the next 4 days was half strength like the bottle said to do. I gave them plain yogurt daily but no probiotics. One of the serama pullets never got any better. 4 other chicks still have the red eyes but the rest seemed to be uneffected by the whole thing and never showed any symptoms but i treated them all any way seeing as they were exposed. Do you think i should cull the one who is not getting better? Or just wait it out. I guess i have been extremely lucky when it comes to illnesses in the flock. This was a first for me and to be honest scared the #$%@ out of me. Thank you both for the much needed advise