Hi all, would like to share our experience in case is is useful for anyone else, and if you have any advice on how we can help Minnie now, would be appreciated!
TL
R - coccidiosis doesn't always cause bloody poops. If your chook has any kind of diarrhoea, and/or is off her food, get a fecal float done and ask them to check (any vet should have the facilities, cats and dogs need this too). Or get a cheap microscope and follow one of the excellent tutorials here on BYC 
So, the sort begins around the end of July - noticed diarrhoea during a spell of hot weather, but not who was doing it. Didn't think anything of it - assumed it was just down to the extra water/heat.
Following week weather was very wet, and then early August one of our light Sussex pullets (Minnie) was spending a lot of time sleeping, and not gaining weight as she should. (I'll attach weight chart for info).
Minnie has a kind of croaky voice compared to the others, so I was concerned about a respiratory infection, and took her to the vet (our local, as they said they take chooks, not the fancy avian one that charges for them as 'exotics' - still questioning whether I made the right call there).
Vet checked her over, said can't see anything particularly wrong except she's maybe slightly underweight - will prescribe some Baytril (strong, broad spectrum antibiotics).
Now this might be because I pointed out the croaky voice (and although prescribing antibiotics without making sure you're using the right ones isn't great practice, the sample extraction/lab work is tricky and expensive on chickens, so I get the reasoning). Also, I told the vet we had wormed them recently, so maybe he just ruled out a fecal float. However, as I now own a copy of the BSAVA Backyard Poultry manual, I can tell you the very next thing you should do for a chicken that is not eating well is a fecal float, to check for worms *and* coccidiosis.
Minnie did perk up for a week or so after the baytril, but then quickly deteriorated and kept losing weight. Our other light Sussex pullet, Sybil also started doing goopy green poo and sleeping a lot. It was at this point I googled 'mucus poop chicken' and finally discovered coccidiosis can cause mucousy poop, not just bloody poop. It literally looked like that non-drip fence paint (same shade of green too!).
I ordered a cheap microscope and some slides from Amazon, and a fecal float test kit from chickenvet.co.uk. Based on the vet book I was pretty confident I had identified coccidiosis (worm eggs are much larger), and ended up starting to treat with Harker's coxoid solution (amprolium hydrochloride) in the water for all the chooks. I didn't wait for the fecal float result because Minnie had taken a turn for the worse - she was pale, had lost 1/4 of her bodyweight, and was so weak she was stumbling trying to keep up with the flock. Through all of this our two ex-commercial bluebells were fine - I assume they were vaccinated as the farm was organic and vaccines are allowed where meds are heavily restricted.
Minnie got a little better - less anaemic, and a bit stronger, but even after a week of the strong dose of amprolium she still had coccidiosis in her poop, and wasn't eating well. This was made tricker because bread was one of the few things she showed interest in, but it is enriched with thiamine in the UK, so she couldn't have it without stopping the amprolium from working!
Finally, the float test result came back, and I forwarded this to the vet with the request that they prescribe toltrazuril (Baycox) and tylan ASAP. The vet passed my request on to a colleague with a bit more experience of chickens (let me know if anyone is looking for a chicken vet in Cheshire, UK), who prescribed a baycox drench for the two pullets, and Tylan in the water for everyone. He also kindly confirmed the harkers pigeon amprolium mixture is the exact same thing as the prescription meds (just with a pigeon on the front) and it is fine to eat the eggs (of the bluebells - light sussexes not laying yet).
Minnie and Sybil both did much better for a week or so, but since yesterday Minnie has been deteriorating again (from wet normal-colour poop to very wet green stuff, and was off the pellets again). Couldn't reach the vets this morning, but checked her poop under the microscope, and it is full of oocysts (coccidiosis egg-things) again, so we've decided to give her another round of baycox.
Not sure if this is a great idea, but she has no reserves - can't afford to wait and see if she shakes it off or gets sicker.
In parallel to all this, we've been trying:
-mash made from chick feed - which she eats tentatively
-avipro in with the mash (I checked, it doesn't have thiamine in, so won't have undermined the amprolium)
-fully roofed over their dirt-floor run, so there's no damp ground in it
-scooped all the poop we can find, daily (not sure how much good this does - Minnie's poop is so runny it is nearly impossible to scoop up - and hers is the infectious stuff!)
-jet-washed the paved areas of our back garden (they free range, but it isn't a large space)
Any other tips welcome!
If anyone else is looking for sick-chicken food, this is what has gone down best with Minnie (roughly in order):
-yoghurt (she loves this, we've been feeding small quantities since the antibiotics, to rebuild her healthy gut bacteria, but I'm not sure how good the dairy stuff is for her)
-bread (not with amprolium)
-grapes
-blackberries
-millet seed
-chick feed or pellet mash
-oats (sometimes - she's not always keen)
-mealworms (sometimes again). Officially not allowed in the UK (nor are kitchen scraps), but we were trying everything at this point! We used the rspb-approved ones on the basis that they (hopefully) wouldn't approve a facility that was producing mealworms in a risky way.
-small chopped peanuts or sunflower seeds
She's also keen on any human food she shouldn't really have - lamb moussaka even got a squeak and an attempt to bite my finger off! Sometimes a little bit of sauce on top of her mash gets her going and then she keeps eating - same works with yoghurt.
Sybil doesn't bully her, and sometimes seeing Sybil eating gets her started as well, so we've been feeding her separately, and then bringing in Sybil at times to try and get her interested again.
Will update with how we get on!
Weights - to yesterday.
Poop as of this morning:
The small round ones with a double wall and some texture in the middle are coccidiosis oocysts, not sure about the bigger blobs (if you know, plz share - they're new!)
Minnie in the middle, earlier this week.
Fecal float results:
What the poop looked like at this stage, if you're wonderign what nearly a million eggs/g looks like
:
And what Minnie looked like at the time - very pale compared to Sybil:
TL
R - coccidiosis doesn't always cause bloody poops. If your chook has any kind of diarrhoea, and/or is off her food, get a fecal float done and ask them to check (any vet should have the facilities, cats and dogs need this too). Or get a cheap microscope and follow one of the excellent tutorials here on BYC So, the sort begins around the end of July - noticed diarrhoea during a spell of hot weather, but not who was doing it. Didn't think anything of it - assumed it was just down to the extra water/heat.
Following week weather was very wet, and then early August one of our light Sussex pullets (Minnie) was spending a lot of time sleeping, and not gaining weight as she should. (I'll attach weight chart for info).
Minnie has a kind of croaky voice compared to the others, so I was concerned about a respiratory infection, and took her to the vet (our local, as they said they take chooks, not the fancy avian one that charges for them as 'exotics' - still questioning whether I made the right call there).
Vet checked her over, said can't see anything particularly wrong except she's maybe slightly underweight - will prescribe some Baytril (strong, broad spectrum antibiotics).
Now this might be because I pointed out the croaky voice (and although prescribing antibiotics without making sure you're using the right ones isn't great practice, the sample extraction/lab work is tricky and expensive on chickens, so I get the reasoning). Also, I told the vet we had wormed them recently, so maybe he just ruled out a fecal float. However, as I now own a copy of the BSAVA Backyard Poultry manual, I can tell you the very next thing you should do for a chicken that is not eating well is a fecal float, to check for worms *and* coccidiosis.
Minnie did perk up for a week or so after the baytril, but then quickly deteriorated and kept losing weight. Our other light Sussex pullet, Sybil also started doing goopy green poo and sleeping a lot. It was at this point I googled 'mucus poop chicken' and finally discovered coccidiosis can cause mucousy poop, not just bloody poop. It literally looked like that non-drip fence paint (same shade of green too!).
I ordered a cheap microscope and some slides from Amazon, and a fecal float test kit from chickenvet.co.uk. Based on the vet book I was pretty confident I had identified coccidiosis (worm eggs are much larger), and ended up starting to treat with Harker's coxoid solution (amprolium hydrochloride) in the water for all the chooks. I didn't wait for the fecal float result because Minnie had taken a turn for the worse - she was pale, had lost 1/4 of her bodyweight, and was so weak she was stumbling trying to keep up with the flock. Through all of this our two ex-commercial bluebells were fine - I assume they were vaccinated as the farm was organic and vaccines are allowed where meds are heavily restricted.
Minnie got a little better - less anaemic, and a bit stronger, but even after a week of the strong dose of amprolium she still had coccidiosis in her poop, and wasn't eating well. This was made tricker because bread was one of the few things she showed interest in, but it is enriched with thiamine in the UK, so she couldn't have it without stopping the amprolium from working!
Finally, the float test result came back, and I forwarded this to the vet with the request that they prescribe toltrazuril (Baycox) and tylan ASAP. The vet passed my request on to a colleague with a bit more experience of chickens (let me know if anyone is looking for a chicken vet in Cheshire, UK), who prescribed a baycox drench for the two pullets, and Tylan in the water for everyone. He also kindly confirmed the harkers pigeon amprolium mixture is the exact same thing as the prescription meds (just with a pigeon on the front) and it is fine to eat the eggs (of the bluebells - light sussexes not laying yet).
Minnie and Sybil both did much better for a week or so, but since yesterday Minnie has been deteriorating again (from wet normal-colour poop to very wet green stuff, and was off the pellets again). Couldn't reach the vets this morning, but checked her poop under the microscope, and it is full of oocysts (coccidiosis egg-things) again, so we've decided to give her another round of baycox.
Not sure if this is a great idea, but she has no reserves - can't afford to wait and see if she shakes it off or gets sicker.
In parallel to all this, we've been trying:
-mash made from chick feed - which she eats tentatively
-avipro in with the mash (I checked, it doesn't have thiamine in, so won't have undermined the amprolium)
-fully roofed over their dirt-floor run, so there's no damp ground in it
-scooped all the poop we can find, daily (not sure how much good this does - Minnie's poop is so runny it is nearly impossible to scoop up - and hers is the infectious stuff!)
-jet-washed the paved areas of our back garden (they free range, but it isn't a large space)
Any other tips welcome!
If anyone else is looking for sick-chicken food, this is what has gone down best with Minnie (roughly in order):
-yoghurt (she loves this, we've been feeding small quantities since the antibiotics, to rebuild her healthy gut bacteria, but I'm not sure how good the dairy stuff is for her)
-bread (not with amprolium)
-grapes
-blackberries
-millet seed
-chick feed or pellet mash
-oats (sometimes - she's not always keen)
-mealworms (sometimes again). Officially not allowed in the UK (nor are kitchen scraps), but we were trying everything at this point! We used the rspb-approved ones on the basis that they (hopefully) wouldn't approve a facility that was producing mealworms in a risky way.
-small chopped peanuts or sunflower seeds
She's also keen on any human food she shouldn't really have - lamb moussaka even got a squeak and an attempt to bite my finger off! Sometimes a little bit of sauce on top of her mash gets her going and then she keeps eating - same works with yoghurt.
Sybil doesn't bully her, and sometimes seeing Sybil eating gets her started as well, so we've been feeding her separately, and then bringing in Sybil at times to try and get her interested again.
Will update with how we get on!
Weights - to yesterday.
Poop as of this morning:
The small round ones with a double wall and some texture in the middle are coccidiosis oocysts, not sure about the bigger blobs (if you know, plz share - they're new!)
Minnie in the middle, earlier this week.
Fecal float results:
What the poop looked like at this stage, if you're wonderign what nearly a million eggs/g looks like
:And what Minnie looked like at the time - very pale compared to Sybil:
