Continued diarrhea and lethargic...

[LLvida]

This is a sweetie we hatched about 3 years ago- easter egger blend.

She has been having increasingly watery green diarrhea over the last couple of weeks and has gone from moving around the coop to being more self isolating. Epson salt bath but didnt feel any stuck egg or reproductive bulging. She has had thin shelled eggs in the past despite calcium supplements.

Currently drinking plenty on her own, and eating worms and oats out of my hand and intermittently going to the feeder. She seems just tired (dehydrated no doubt!) and isn't moving to food that much. She is now rejecting eggs and yogurt and I am giving 1cc of nutridrench per day. No visible parasites around the vent or in the rest of our girls.

Lastly she has too much energy to happily be nestled up in a box in our kitchen where we usually do chicken care. Its an odd combo. I have never treated for internal parasites as we hatch from egg but maybe I am missing something? I read suggestions for corid but have never used it now really know how and if it is a good idea for a sick little girl

Please help, she is our favorite girl!
PS first pic is a different poop than usual and it stank so I thought maybe it was her version of a cecal poop now that she is ill?

 

[LLvida]

I forgot to mention that half of the girls are molting, and at firsst this just seemed to be normal molting behavior...it is not a hard molt but she has many feathers coming in.

 

[LLvida]

Just checking back in to see if anybody would please reply!

 

[LLvida]

This poor Chicken still continues to have nothing but watery diarrhea with flex of green in it. She will forage if I take her out of the coop and then quickly tires and has to take a rest. She’s not interested in any of the protein I am offering her, but she will eat cooked rice if I sprinkle it in front of her while she is outside. I’m supplementing with Nutridrench, vitamin B 12, vitamin E, and some calcium by mouth syringe. She also seems very thirsty. No visible injuries, no reproductive bulging. It’s very confusing and sad, and we love this Chicken so much!

 

[CCsGarden]

I'm so very sorry no one every got back to you! I know how you must feel! Keep going with the vitamins. Seems like she is very weak. Could she have eaten something that made her sick? What is her diet? It is possible she has an egg stuck up high in her body. I had one that finally passed after 6 weeks of having the egg in her ( of course I couldn't feel the egg when she was living and didn't know she was egg bound till the necropsy).

Very sorry you are dealing with a weak hen !

 

[Liddychick]

This is a sweetie we hatched about 3 years ago- easter egger blend.

She has been having increasingly watery green diarrhea over the last couple of weeks and has gone from moving around the coop to being more self isolating. Epson salt bath but didnt feel any stuck egg or reproductive bulging. She has had thin shelled eggs in the past despite calcium supplements.

Currently drinking plenty on her own, and eating worms and oats out of my hand and intermittently going to the feeder. She seems just tired (dehydrated no doubt!) and isn't moving to food that much. She is now rejecting eggs and yogurt and I am giving 1cc of nutridrench per day. No visible parasites around the vent or in the rest of our girls.

Lastly she has too much energy to happily be nestled up in a box in our kitchen where we usually do chicken care. Its an odd combo. I have never treated for internal parasites as we hatch from egg but maybe I am missing something? I read suggestions for corid but have never used it now really know how and if it is a good idea for a sick little girl

Please help, she is our favorite girl!
PS first pic is a different poop than usual and it stank so I thought maybe it was her version of a cecal poop now that she is ill?

My BO has the exact same problems, her poop is identical! She’s a youngster on mash but is now being hand fed nutri bird A21

 

[Polish rooster]

This is a sweetie we hatched about 3 years ago- easter egger blend.

She has been having increasingly watery green diarrhea over the last couple of weeks and has gone from moving around the coop to being more self isolating. Epson salt bath but didnt feel any stuck egg or reproductive bulging. She has had thin shelled eggs in the past despite calcium supplements.

Currently drinking plenty on her own, and eating worms and oats out of my hand and intermittently going to the feeder. She seems just tired (dehydrated no doubt!) and isn't moving to food that much. She is now rejecting eggs and yogurt and I am giving 1cc of nutridrench per day. No visible parasites around the vent or in the rest of our girls.

Lastly she has too much energy to happily be nestled up in a box in our kitchen where we usually do chicken care. Its an odd combo. I have never treated for internal parasites as we hatch from egg but maybe I am missing something? I read suggestions for corid but have never used it now really know how and if it is a good idea for a sick little girl

Please help, she is our favorite girl!
PS first pic is a different poop than usual and it stank so I thought maybe it was her version of a cecal poop now that she is ill?

Classic coccidia infection. Isolate in warm place. Buy Corid (amplorium) ASAP and mix with drinking water. This water must be the ONLY drinking water the chicken can drink. Treat for 5 to 7 days and repeat the treatment in 9 days. Feed with MEDICATED starter feed for chicks (medicated means it has amplorium in it). Absolutely no grains. Chicken feed has a boost of nutrients the chicken needs because coccidia starves the chicken. Amplorium starves coccidia - that is how amplorioum works. No treats such as dried mealworms. Only medicated chick starter feed and amplorium-treated water. Initially you can soak the feed. Make sure the chicken has comfortable temperature (70 - 75 degrees) and rests. Stay away from straw, hemp, hay bedding because starving chicken will eat it and develop compacted crop which will lead to sour crop/yeast infection = big problem. I use 1 - 1-1/2 foam padding covered with absorbent underpads you can buy at Costco, eBay or medical supply stores.
If the rest of the flock is doing fine it does not mean they are not infected. Treat the whole flock with amplorium. Make sure there is not a chance poop can be introduced into drinking water or feed. The waterers/feeders that are placed on the ground are a disaster. That is how chickens get infected. Earth worms carry coccidia "eggs". Chickens must be treated 3-4 times a year for coccidia as a prevention.

 

[LLvida]

Thank you so much for your responses! I had been thinking that it couldn’t possibly be coccidia as no other chickens were showing symptoms and I’ve been a chicken tender for 10 years and I’ve never had it in my flock! I did do the corid before I got this note as a last resort and her diarrhea definitely went away! My assumption is that you were correct and I wish that I had done it sooner!

I’ve done the full round for a week and have done the lower dosage for a week and I’m now boosting vitamins.

This special hem is very low energy and very low weight but is now back to eating on her own which seems like a miracle.

Unfortunately, she seems to be molting big time and I just don’t know if her body has enough to recover from growing feathers and recovering from the parasite.

Do you know if it is normal to have a heavy molt post corid use? I really want to give her a lovely Epsom salt soak because she does still have icky under vent feathers, but I’m worried that this will be too stressful for her.

I lift her out of the nesting box every day now since she is back in the coop and take her to the food which she starts gobbling up. I’m giving her nutridrench directly.

Thank you all for your support!

 

[Polish rooster]

Thank you so much for your responses! I had been thinking that it couldn’t possibly be coccidia as no other chickens were showing symptoms and I’ve been a chicken tender for 10 years and I’ve never had it in my flock! I did do the corid before I got this note as a last resort and her diarrhea definitely went away! My assumption is that you were correct and I wish that I had done it sooner!

I’ve done the full round for a week and have done the lower dosage for a week and I’m now boosting vitamins.

This special hem is very low energy and very low weight but is now back to eating on her own which seems like a miracle.

Unfortunately, she seems to be molting big time and I just don’t know if her body has enough to recover from growing feathers and recovering from the parasite.

Do you know if it is normal to have a heavy molt post corid use? I really want to give her a lovely Epsom salt soak because she does still have icky under vent feathers, but I’m worried that this will be too stressful for her.

I lift her out of the nesting box every day now since she is back in the coop and take her to the food which she starts gobbling up. I’m giving her nutridrench directly.

Thank you all for your support!

Hi, heavy molting is something that happens when a chicken is starving - coccidia starves chickens. In fact induced molting is a practice in the industry to force chickens to molt by withholding food for up to a week which is a cruel practice. Corrid does not cause heavy molting. Amplorium mimics vitamin B1 which is food for coccidia adults. These microscopic parasites starve and die because they cant metabolize the fake vitamin B1 (amplorium). It does not destroy anything, just starves the parasites. Treatment must be repeated in 9 days to kill young coccidia that "hatched" after the initial treatment. Remember that Corrid only starves adults, does not affect eggs and larvae buried in chicken's gut walls. Make sure that the vitamins you give do not contain vit B1 because instead of boosting the weak chicken you would be actually feeding the parasites. That is also why no grains because some contain a lot of vit B1. It takes a long time for an affected chicken to come back depending how much damage coccidia caused to the guts of the chicken. Another rule is that if one chicken has it you treat the whole flock because others are infected too, just do not show it yet. All that you do when you give chickens amplorium is that you trick coccidia to eat fake vit B1. You can eat chicken eggs at the same time. Amplorium is not poison that kills, but rather only starves pathogenic adult coccidia. There is info on the web explaining the life cycle of coccidia that would help you understand what you are fighting.
Food and water high so there is no chance of contamination with poop which spreads coccidia. Molting chickens require extra protein because feathers are actually protein so, a chicken that is coming back from coccidiosis and is molting requires that extra boost of protein. Remember the chicken is weak and molting so it has no good insulation therefore requires good 70 - 75 degree temperatures to heal.

 

[LLvida]

Thank you SO MUCH! I am offering yogurt and ground meat to boost protein. When you say no grain I am guessing you mean whole grain such as scratch and peck? Or are you including ground grains such as pellets? I read your response after I did the initial corid dose so I did not offer medicated chick feed. Is it too late to offer that or would you suggest doing it with the second round of corid?

I did dose the entire group of hens. When I dose at 9 days is it the full amount or the perfect decrease? When I read the directions it didn’t not say anything other than the step down second dose.

This hen does not do well away from her ladies. I have insulated her nesting box and I’m tucking her into towels during the day in eyesight of her fellow hens. I don’t know how to achieve 70 degrees this time of year in sight of her crew