Bacteria or Protozoa or something else?

[lovemy6hens]

Clear, liquidy poop with white chunks. Lethargic but drinking. Slowly getting worse since yesterday and none of the others seem sick. Feathers not puffed up. Protozoa, bacteria, or something else?

Barred rock hen, age unknown. She is at least 2 years old. Molting slowly over the past month (new feathers growing in without bare patches first), with the exception of her head feathers. She has always looked like she's balding but now even more so.

I will post photos as soon as she provides me with the opportunity.

 

[Firekin1]

Have you felt her crop? Is it empty or does it feel hard and full or squishy like a balloon?

 

[lovemy6hens]

It feels like a deflated balloon. I can feel right through it. She is drinking right now.

 

[lovemy6hens]

Smells terrible, lots of liquid absorbed by the pine shavings.

 

[lovemy6hens]

It looks like a shell-less egg is now hanging out of her vent. I started a new thread here: https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/1093482/help-looks-like-prolapse#post_16799451

 

[lovemy6hens]

The shell-less egg dropped off and now her poop looks like this:

What can I do for her? Will she be okay?

 

[lovemy6hens]

I started her on sulfamethoxazole / trimethoprim as a desperate measure because it was Sunday. If she could live through the 2 hour drive to the emergency room, I thought surely she could hang on until morning and maybe the antibiotic we had on hand was the right kind to give her. If she was going to die yesterday, vet visit or not, the antibiotic certainly wouldn't matter.

She was much better by evening. She is still very weak from not eating. I'm so glad she wanted to drink the past couple of days.

Can the antibiotic I gave her take care of protozoa? I didn't think that was possible, but it ends in "zole" like metronidazole.

Does gram positive/negative matter for the effectiveness of sulfamethoxazole / trimethoprim?