Coccidiosis?

[WTDavis]

Hey everyone,

I have six pullets about 21 weeks old. I noticed some bloody stool two days ago and am worried it might be coccidiosis. They seem fine to me, all are eating, drinking, and behaving normally. If I hadn't seen the bloody stool, I wouldn't have any reason to suspect they're sick. The stool is almost completely blood (not just a few spots, see attached picture) and I've seen it for three days in a row. One possibility I can think of is tied to the fact that one of them just started laying 9 days ago. I also switched feed to layer feed which has some bigger pieces than what they've been eating so maybe it irritated their intestinal lining??

Like I said, they seem completely normal and happy but I decided to start treating them with Sulmet yesterday just in case.

Does anyone have any experience with coccidiosis? Other than treating with Sulmet, is there anything else I can do? Since they aren't showing any other symptoms, is it probable that it's not coccidiosis and something else? Will they still lay if they have it?

Any comments, suggestions, or advice is greatly appreciated. I've read that 4 days after infection blood shows up in the stool and by day 8 or 9 they are either dead or on their way to recovery and that's a little disheartening.

Thanks all for your time,
Warren

 

[speckledhen]

Have they eaten any berries of any type? You'd be surprised what that will do in poop. By 21 weeks, they should mostly be immune to cocci, but they can get it if exposed to a new type they are not immune to. They will shed intestinal lining, but that doesn't look like that. Intestinal lining will look more pinkish.

Sulmet is NOT the best treatment. Corid is. It messes with the thiamine that oocysts which cause cocci feed off of and you can eat the eggs if they are laying since it is not an antibiotic or a sulfa drug like Sulmet. I'm not 100% sure it's cocci, but if they haven't eaten any berries lately, I'd get a bottle of Corid 9.6% solution (it's in the cattle section usually) and give them 2 teaspoons in a gallon waterer for 5 days, changing daily.


No, layer feed will not do that.

 

[WTDavis]

Thanks speckledhen for the quick reply! They've actually eaten a ton of blueberries over the past few days...do you think that's it? I've seen that some of the stool was blue-ish after they ate the berries but didn't think it would make it look like blood. I've only seen three droppings over the past three days that look like the picture above.

 

[Ridgerunner]

That looks a lot like the stool did after I canned some beets and gave them the cooked skins and such. You'd have sworn they were pooping pure blood. Since they are acting normal, I'd much more suspect something they ate than cocci.

SpeckledHen is really knowledgeable about cocci. You got a good person to respond.

 

[WTDavis]

I took a stool sample to the vet and they said it was loaded with coccidia...They still look healthy and I didn't seen any blood under the roost this morning so maybe they're on their way to recovery. I'm going to finish out the Sulmet treatment and see how they do. The nearest place that carries Corid is about an hour drive, which is where I got the Sulmet.

Thanks again for the feedback.

Warren

 

[speckledhen]

Sulmet is fine if you have access to it, but it's great to have Corid on hand since it is better for this and easier on their systems.

Ridge, thanks for the compliment. I appreciate it. I sure have lots of unwanted experience on several levels, LOL.