Coccidia is killing my flock one by one- tried everything

[Jarsheart]

Quote:
I am using Layena, with occasional treats such as scratch, bread, carrot peelings, oat groats, sunflower seed...I can't think...I put "vitamin electrolyte plus" in the water yesterday, I had discovered some bloody poop and was not sure which chicken it came from. All of the chickens were eating and acting normally yesterday. My poor little boy...

 

[Qi Chicken]

I had to up the dose of Corid. I'm so sorry I can't remember now but I think it was approximately almost double the recommended dose on the bottle of liquid Corid. On the recommended dose I had several that were not recovering. Good luck to you. I'm sorry about your chickens. You have probably already answered but are you sure there is not something else going on?

 

[pips&peeps]

Have you actually sent a bird to a State Lab for Necropsy? Alot of birds can get mareks and cocci or e-coli as secondary infections. Most vets are not capable of diagnosing mareks.....

 

[Pine Grove]

Quote:
I am using Layena, with occasional treats such as scratch, bread, carrot peelings, oat groats, sunflower seed...I can't think...I put "vitamin electrolyte plus" in the water yesterday, I had discovered some bloody poop and was not sure which chicken it came from. All of the chickens were eating and acting normally yesterday. My poor little boy...

If they are eating and acting fine, they're not dying from cocci thats for sure

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

Have you seen the "poo page?"
http://chat.allotment.org.uk/index.php?topic=17568.0

I believe you when you say your birds are dying - but what you think is blood in the poo might be shed intestinal lining.

 

[speckledhen]

I doubt they're dying from cocci. Birds develop immunity as they get older and unless your pen is a filthy mess and they have poop galore in their waterers and feeders, I don't think this is coccidiosis. You need a necropsy of one of the dead birds, IMO. Vets are not always good with avian species. I just can't see this being cocci. Though adult birds can get it, usually, by the time they're over 12 weeks old or so, they have developed immunity to the oocycsts that are in their soil. I guess anything is possible, but you need a necropsy done. Your state vet may do it for free or a nominal fee (not your regular vet, who will probably charge big bucks for it)

 

[Jarsheart]

pips&peeps :

Have you actually sent a bird to a State Lab for Necropsy? Alot of birds can get mareks and cocci or e-coli as secondary infections. Most vets are not capable of diagnosing mareks.....

My vet did the necropsy on the first chicken that died, my rooster. She sent tissues to the state lab. Results-they found nothing. I sent my two hens that died to the state in October, the vet said they were poultry experts, and that it would be the better way to go. THOSE REPORTS ARE STILL PENDING !! They are short staffed, and their work is backed up. So far they have found coccidia and crypto. The exotic stuff is what is pending (Newcastle, etc). A stool sample from yesterday's bird, that was his last defecation showed overwhelming coccidia present. My mother took my sick hen to a different vet a week ago, who found the same thing, he said it was "overflowing" with coccidia. The hen also *does* have e coli, the culture came back yesterday before I found my baby in distress. It is like their immune system has gone to hell. I just don't understand this.​

 

[Jarsheart]

Quote:
I agree, I feel like something else is going on, but so far nothing else has been found. One of the hens that died showed no symptoms, just dropped dead. The rooster had symptoms 3 days before I took him to the vet. Another hen was sick off and on for 3 months before she got very bad and died 5 days later. Yesterdays baby was in distress for less than 3 hours when he died.

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

I am sure you have probably gone all over internet and know all this, but here is a nice page with general diseases that strike chickens. There are diagnosis charts at the bottom:
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/ps044

 

[Jarsheart]

There is only one other thing I can think of-back in August my rooster got avian pox, the dry form. So did one of my babies. The baby had one pock, and I took several to the vet that day, to get them vaccinated. The vet used the same "prong" on all of them, and one of the hens in that batch was sick, but we did not know what was wrong with her. So far, all of the chickens that have died have been from that coop. The rooster did not get the vacccination, since he was pretty far along in his illness at that point. I wonder if the sick hen had coccidia in her blood, and the rest got it that way, which would make it very difficult to fight off.