Coccidiosis? Help!

[preacher1]

I think that I may have some birds with coccidiosis. I have 8 hens around 18 weeks old, 4 hens around 14 weeks old and 4 hens (had 6, chicken hawk got 1 and found 1 dead) around 8 weeks old. I found one of the young hens (8 week old) dead Sunday evening, nothing looked wrong with the exterior of the bird it was just laying in hen house dead. Monday morning when checking on the hens I noticed droppings with blood. I called the farm supply and they recommended sulmet. I started them on the sulmet in the drinking water on Monday (2tbsp per gallon) and continued through Tuesday. Tuesday I did not see any bloody dropping but this morning I noticed some more bloody droppings. I'm now giving them 1 tbsp per gallon for an additional 4 days according the directions. Anyone had any experience with this? How long should it take the bloody droppings clear up after medication? Is it possible that this killed the one I found dead? If they get better will this affect the eggs or meat? Any advise or suggetsions will be greatly appreciated.

They are drinking about 1 gallon or less of water per day, does this sound like enough water for this amount of birds or should they be drinking more. I didn't know if this sickness would affect their drinking. I had not monitored how much they were drining before I noticed the sickness.

Thanks

 

[robin416]

Birds can also have bloody droppings with parasites.

Did all of the birds originate on your property? If they did then cocci may not be the problem. Can you gather a couple of samples from different birds and take to the vet to have it checked?

A couple of my birds ended up with capillaria last year, on the second day of my spotting a "wrong" appearing dropping and also the first day of treatment there was bloody droppings from one bird.

Also, I'm not sure if Sulmet is frowned on because of the liver issues or because its not as effective as corrid for clearing up an over load of cocci.

 

[silkiechicken]

Hmm... Hope you find your answer. I had a bout of cocci and used Amprolium. 2 days at full strength 2 days at half strength. All the bloody poo went away in 2 days for my flock. Don't have experience with sulmet so can't say how long it takes. Hope they get better.

 

[preacher1]

Quote:
Robin416, the birds all came from farm supplies. They were between day old to a couple of weeks old when I got them. This is the first time that we have had chickens. The hen house is new as well as the run. The only thing that I can think of is the feed. I started my first birds out on medicated starter grower. I did not get the medicated feed last time, is it possible that the youger birds got this problem because they did not get the medicated feed long enough?

What kind of parasites? Can the vet tell from the droppings if I take a sample?

 

[silkiechicken]

The vet can do a fecal float to determine the true ailment of the birds and can make sure what you have is cocci or not. It can't test for everything but is a good start. Too short of time on medicated feed, or all the sudden exposure to the ground, or the ground after rain, can cause a huge influx of cocci occytes.

 

[Chickfever]

May not have anything to do with it, but are you feeding them anything but chick feed? I had 3 chicks that I bought from the flea market almost two weeks ago. After being here 3 days, I found blood in their poo. I say had because I found my little wyandotte barely able to breathe the other night....one of the other chicks was sitting on his/her head

. He/She passed within minutes of me finding him/her

. Anyway, I got the Sulmet from our local farm store....didn't use it, was told it wasn't that safe to use so I waited. Ended up looking at my feed and it is medicated. When the chicks were here a couple more days, I found more bloody poo. I thought about the similarities....it happened when I fed them bread. These 3 chicks haven't set foot outside since I got them, they are in my house so I know it isn't something they caught from my yard.

As for the one that you found dead, I honestly don't have a clue. We lost 3 of our original chickens....one leghorn had trouble laying eggs (always blood soaked) and died a few weeks after we got here. Another we assume the dog killed because she was trying to eat her bread. And the other was sickly acting and we found a possum disposing of her one evening.

I hope the rest of your flock is okay.

Editted to add that it very well could have been cocci that took out my little baby, but I only noticed the bloody poo twice and that was when I gave them bread to eat.