Chicken Diarrhea

[307151]

I took in 6 chickens into quratiene. Treated them with ivermectin for two weeks, then treated again. Also was putting petroleum jelly onto their legs once a week. One chicken did end up dying. She rarley laid eggs, laid one when we moved her here. She died after 2 weeks of moving her The rest seem fine but one. I treated them for mites and scaley leg mite. One chicken is having dieahea though, I tried giving them apple cidar vinegar in their water, and now potasium permagante. She's also lethergic. She's the only one having this issue so I'm not sure what's going on or what I should do.

Also, Ive never seen worms in their fecal matter. But I do have a microscope so I could test it if need be. But I don't know if I need to test all their poop or just that one chicken? Would I have to watch her until she goes?

 

[boskelli1571]

Wow! Sounds like you have a bunch of sick birds!! Firstly - why potassium permanganate? I haven't found much in the research to recommend its' use. Secondly, to check for worms you can use a mix of several samples and mix them together.
How are the birds doing?? Are they eating/drinking ok, do they look sickly - hunched over, ratty feathers etc. After Ivermectin and pot. perm. I would doubt they still had worms. What % protein feed do you have them on? How old are they?

 

[lazy gardener]

When you say you treated them with ivermectin for 2 weeks, what exactly did you give them, how much, how often? Was it a medication you put on their skin, in the water or some other method of administration?

 

[307151]

It's really only one bird left that is having issues. The rest are fine. I haven't really been watching the sick bird, but she did go outside yesterday with the other birds outside of their quiertine area, all I've seen her really do is slouch and do nothing but kind of rest. But she does follow her flock. The ivermectim I used was a pour on, I put 4-5 drops on the back of each birds the first week I got them, and did it again two weeks later. Their feathers look fine except for one birds that got pretty badly infected with mites, her butt is bald and was red. I'd have to recheck on it again. I've curently been feeding them scraps along with them always having chickens layers feed, but I will have to be switching them to all flock feed since I read roosters can't eat layers feed. I also one time took all their eggs and scrambled them for them since we can't eat the eggs because of the medicine. The birds are 2-3 years old.

 

[boskelli1571]

It's really only one bird left that is having issues. The rest are fine. I haven't really been watching the sick bird, but she did go outside yesterday with the other birds outside of their quiertine area, all I've seen her really do is slouch and do nothing but kind of rest. But she does follow her flock. The ivermectim I used was a pour on, I put 4-5 drops on the back of each birds the first week I got them, and did it again two weeks later. Their feathers look fine except for one birds that got pretty badly infected with mites, her butt is bald and was red. I'd have to recheck on it again. I've curently been feeding them scraps along with them always having chickens layers feed, but I will have to be switching them to all flock feed since I read roosters can't eat layers feed. I also one time took all their eggs and scrambled them for them since we can't eat the eggs because of the medicine. The birds are 2-3 years old.

I would say that since they all appear to be doing better (bar 1), don't further medicate unless you see an absolute need. Too much is as bad as not enough. Keep a close eye on the quiet one - it may be she just needs a bit more time to recover. Are the mites/lice gone now?? If they are production birds, they may be coming close to the end of their egg-laying cycle, although this is variable - some of mine are still laying at 4 years & counting! Keep us posted on the progress please

 

[307151]

I would say that since they all appear to be doing better (bar 1), don't further medicate unless you see an absolute need. Too much is as bad as not enough. Keep a close eye on the quiet one - it may be she just needs a bit more time to recover. Are the mites/lice gone now?? If they are production birds, they may be coming close to the end of their egg-laying cycle, although this is variable - some of mine are still laying at 4 years & counting! Keep us posted on the progress please

Well I know birds lay for a few years, but I can't tell if this chicken is laying or not, they all lay brown eggs, and she's the only sick one. I haven't examined to see if the lice were gone on any of the live birds, one did die that was sick for awhile, I looked at and her body looked healthy. It's just, I'm in a pickle now with this one bird. It's been a month and she is still having diarrhea, and I recently noticed that she is fatigue, she doesn't move around as much as the others and just slouches to herself.

 

[307151]

The bird with the worst diahhrea died today.

 

[sirrobyn0]

I don't have any advice for you with the sick birds, but I'm sorry to hear what you have gone though.

But I would like to share a story though it is off topic a bit so I apologize. Once years ago we had a backyard pig farm. One time we got wiener pigs from this one breeder that were quite sickly. It involved diarrhea and worse, I won't go into detail, the breeder was blaming me for them getting sick. I'd been raising hogs for 20+ years and knew what I was doing. I spend an ungodly amount of time and money on these hogs. A few years latter due to a decline in breeders in the area we had to use her for two other sets of winner pigs with similar results. Except the last round. 1/2 of them ended up dying. I drove 75 miles for medication for these guys, took tons of time off work to try to find out what was wrong, vets ect. After that last round, and with no other breeders in the area, that ended up being my retirement from backyard pigs. I feel for you with what it is like when one of your animals looses the battle.

Rob

 

[boskelli1571]

The bird with the worst diahhrea died today.

Sorry to hear that - how are the others doing?

 

[307151]

Sorry to hear that - how are the others doing?

Here is my new post https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...hickens-and-when-can-i-bring-them-to-my-flock