Amprolium - safe to use with anaemic hen?

[caralouise1974]

I was just wondering...

I have been advised elsewhere on the messageboard to try using an anti-cocci medicine on my hens as one of them has always had low energy and poor appetite (and I've tried everything else). She's recovering from being broody for a long while right now and is dreadfully thin, so I will try anything to try and get her to eat properly again.

However, it occured to me that because the meds work by inhibiting thiamine uptake, the poorly hen might be in trouble, as she is just recovering from a severe mite attack (sustained whilst brooding) and is still quite anaemic.

Would it be safe to use on her?

 

[suebee]

It's unusual for a full grown hen to have an outbreak of cocci. You see it more in young chicks.
How do you know she has cocci? I would take a poop sample to the vet for confirmation before I treat her.
Especially because you said she's already in a fragile condition.
Now that she's hatched a chick, she'll be off the nest and will eat more. She'll gain her weight back pretty fast.
Maybe you could give her some foods that contain a lot of iron.

 

[horsejody]

Quote:
Yes, I would agree. Good food will be much more useful than meds.

 

[caralouise1974]

I don't know she has cocci, you're absolutely correct. It's just that everything else has pretty much been ruled out.

Henrietta's a BO, ten months old, and has always had a bit of a pathetic appetite and been a fussy eater since I got her at 20 weeks old. She had mycoplasma at 24 weeks old, and funnily enough, when she recovered from that she really perked up her feed intake although was still fussy about which treats she would try to eat. She's been in good health ever since and showed no signs of a relapse, although never been a big eater.

She went broody about late May, and by late June we had given up trying to break her and sorted her out with some fertile eggs. They hatched July 30th. However, within a couple of days of her coming off the nest it became clear something was very wrong with her as she was bleeding from the nostrils, very pale, acting a little dazed, and pitifully thin. It turns out we had mites in the coop and she was at death's door from anaemia. She wasn't eating at all, except grass and clover, and was drinking very little. I sorted out the mite issue by completely scrapping the housing, and using ivermectin on the hens and giving lots of Battles Poultry Drink in their water, which is full of iron. Her overall condition improved a lot, and her colour came back, but she still really didn't want to eat much. She also started to moult, which can't have helped either.

Now, the chick is five weeks old, and she's still only eating very small amounts of treats only - she hasn't touched any prepared layer rations or mixed corn, no matter how I try and present them to her (ie making them into a wet mash, mixing them with cooked oatmeal and yoghurt). (She hasn't shown the chick it's chick crumbs either, so the dear little thing is surviving on foraged food and bugs from our garden and treats. It does seem to be thriving though, frankly!) She is only eating stuff she really really fancies (mealworms, farmed maggots, wild bird seed, scratch, strawberries, sunflower hearts, scrambled egg), and even then, most of the day her crop is almost completely empty. She's not putting on any weight that I can see.

Thing is, she is full of energy, and has her usual mad flapping streaks across our lawn, so she is by no means lethargic. She comes running at full pelt to me when I go out, as if she wants to eat the treats, but usually shows little or no interest once the treats are actually thrown down. It's very odd. She shows the food to the chick and calls it over, but usually doesn't eat much herself.

Her chick is in fact getting lots of care and attention, and both of the adult hens are busy foraging food for it all day long. Unless you pick Henrietta up and feel the bones sticking through her skin and the fact she is as light at a feather, it's impossible to tell there's anything wrong with her. She's busy and active as always.

Aside from worms, which definitely are not the issue here as I have a regular worming program (and as I said earlier, she was only treated with ivermectin five weeks ago) the only thing that the guys around here could attribute her persistently poor appetite to was a very long standing dose of cocci, which she maybe has had all along since I got her.

Is that not likely to be the case? I started the amprolium meds in their water today, so should I now see out the seven day course or stop immediately?

(The water is available to all three of our birds - Henrietta, our other adult hen, and the five week old chick.)

What to do???!?!?! I hope I haven't made an awful mess here