teaandyarn
In the Brooder
It's been a crazy year, and this has finally pushed me into getting here on BYC instead of just stalking the forums without a membership. I need advice/help from people with far more experience with chickens than I have. :/
I'm so sorry for the super-long post this is going to be, but I want to give as much information about what's going on as possible.
It started at the end of January, when we very suddenly and unexpectedly lost our 2-yr old rooster overnight. We had just moved the flock into a new coop and run (this was their second night in it), and when I went to let them out and feed them at 7:30ish the next morning, he was dead on the floor. The necropsy came back that he had an abdominal infection that caused him to hemorrhage and bleed out internally. We kept an eye on the flock (five hens, all about three years of age), and thought all was well, until the beginning of March.
At the beginning of March, one of the hens (Ginger) started acting ill. She was just standing around with fluffed up feathers, hunched over, and wouldn't move. She'd had severe diarrhea overnight, so I took her in and bathed her immediately, then called my chicken vet and was able to get in that afternoon.
They were not able to do a fecal that day, because she hadn't passed anything since I bathed her. She was running a fever, and the vet said it was likely a bacterial infection, so we went home with Baytril and we got to force her it down her mouth twice a day for five days.
She showed rapid improvement - the diarrhea cleared up in just a few days, and she was acting like herself by the end of the treatment. She stayed quarantined inside, though, because we had to wait the 2-week withdrawal period for any eggs she laid, though it turned out she isn't laying at all right now.
However, about a week into the withdrawal period, she started having some diarrhea again. I started giving her plain yogurt to rebuild her good gut bacteria after the round of antibiotics, and the diarrhea improved... for about a week, week and a half, somewhere around there.
She started having diarrhea about two weeks ago, but wasn't acting lethargic/ill until about five days later (April 11), at which point my non-chicken vet did a fecal (she's my best friend, so she was able to do it after hours on the weekend when all this came to culmination), and the verdict was coccidiosis.
No one else in the flock has been acting ill.
Regardless, I treated all five of my hens with Corid (2 tsp/gallon) for seven days (April 12-18). The other hens are still acting normal and happy, Ginger is still having diarrhea. She's lost a lot of weight (she was 5.9 lbs at the beginning of March, and I don't know what her actual weight is now, but I do know she's mostly skin and bones), and her appetite is definitely close to non-existent, but she is drinking and grooming still, and interacts with us when we talk to her.
She's only been off Corid for one day, though, and her diarrhea is starting to have the same smell it did before being medicated. I don't think it's quite as mucosal as it was before, but something is definitely still going on. There has not been any blood in her droppings so far.
So, now that you have all the details, my questions are:
Should I put her on Corid again for another week? Or less? Is it even safe for her to keep her on it for that long?
Could it be something other than coccidiosis, and if so, what, and where do I even begin to look for answers and/or treatment?
What can I feed her to both get her more interested in eating, and is higher in calories and nutrients to help her start getting back to a healthier weight?
Should I start giving her yogurt (or probiotics made for poultry, if I can find some locally that won't cost me an arm and a leg), and can I give it to her at the same time she's on Corid?
Thanks in advance for your help!
I'm so sorry for the super-long post this is going to be, but I want to give as much information about what's going on as possible.
It started at the end of January, when we very suddenly and unexpectedly lost our 2-yr old rooster overnight. We had just moved the flock into a new coop and run (this was their second night in it), and when I went to let them out and feed them at 7:30ish the next morning, he was dead on the floor. The necropsy came back that he had an abdominal infection that caused him to hemorrhage and bleed out internally. We kept an eye on the flock (five hens, all about three years of age), and thought all was well, until the beginning of March.
At the beginning of March, one of the hens (Ginger) started acting ill. She was just standing around with fluffed up feathers, hunched over, and wouldn't move. She'd had severe diarrhea overnight, so I took her in and bathed her immediately, then called my chicken vet and was able to get in that afternoon.
They were not able to do a fecal that day, because she hadn't passed anything since I bathed her. She was running a fever, and the vet said it was likely a bacterial infection, so we went home with Baytril and we got to force her it down her mouth twice a day for five days.
She showed rapid improvement - the diarrhea cleared up in just a few days, and she was acting like herself by the end of the treatment. She stayed quarantined inside, though, because we had to wait the 2-week withdrawal period for any eggs she laid, though it turned out she isn't laying at all right now.
However, about a week into the withdrawal period, she started having some diarrhea again. I started giving her plain yogurt to rebuild her good gut bacteria after the round of antibiotics, and the diarrhea improved... for about a week, week and a half, somewhere around there.
She started having diarrhea about two weeks ago, but wasn't acting lethargic/ill until about five days later (April 11), at which point my non-chicken vet did a fecal (she's my best friend, so she was able to do it after hours on the weekend when all this came to culmination), and the verdict was coccidiosis.
No one else in the flock has been acting ill.
Regardless, I treated all five of my hens with Corid (2 tsp/gallon) for seven days (April 12-18). The other hens are still acting normal and happy, Ginger is still having diarrhea. She's lost a lot of weight (she was 5.9 lbs at the beginning of March, and I don't know what her actual weight is now, but I do know she's mostly skin and bones), and her appetite is definitely close to non-existent, but she is drinking and grooming still, and interacts with us when we talk to her.
She's only been off Corid for one day, though, and her diarrhea is starting to have the same smell it did before being medicated. I don't think it's quite as mucosal as it was before, but something is definitely still going on. There has not been any blood in her droppings so far.
So, now that you have all the details, my questions are:
Should I put her on Corid again for another week? Or less? Is it even safe for her to keep her on it for that long?
Could it be something other than coccidiosis, and if so, what, and where do I even begin to look for answers and/or treatment?
What can I feed her to both get her more interested in eating, and is higher in calories and nutrients to help her start getting back to a healthier weight?
Should I start giving her yogurt (or probiotics made for poultry, if I can find some locally that won't cost me an arm and a leg), and can I give it to her at the same time she's on Corid?
Thanks in advance for your help!
