Depressed, malnourished Easter Egger, won't eat, please help

[casportpony]

This is a cecal worm:


-Kathy

 

[casportpony]

Tape segments










Large roundworms



-Kathy

 

[Seiryu]

No that's not what I've been doing. I wasn't clear abour me raising her I guess. I should have been. I've had her since she was 1 week old and I started her immediately on the medicated chick starter crumble that prevents coccidiosis. When she was 3 months old my father insisted she was old enough to switch her over to adult pellets. She was introduced to the outside world and dirt at a young age. I read that chicks get coccidiosis from the dirt and it spreds to the other chickens. None of my other chickens that were with her always got this. It's just her. Maybe it's worms but I don't know how catchy it is. My 4 hens are healthy. I've mingled them since she's been sick and they are still healthy.

 

[Seiryu]

She weighs about a pound.

 

[casportpony]

No that's not what I've been doing. I wasn't clear abour me raising her I guess. I should have been. I've had her since she was 1 week old and I started her immediately on the medicated chick starter crumble that prevents coccidiosis. When she was 3 months old my father insisted she was old enough to switch her over to adult pellets. She was introduced to the outside world and dirt at a young age. I read that chicks get coccidiosis from the dirt and it spreds to the other chickens. None of my other chickens that were with her always got this. It's just her. Maybe it's worms but I don't know how catchy it is. My 4 hens are healthy. I've mingled them since she's been sick and they are still healthy.

Can you take her to a vet tomorrow?

-Kathy

 

[Seiryu]

Yes I have decided she definitely needs to see a vet. I looked up the closest vet that sees poultry and will take her first thing in the morning. It's an hour away but she is very important to me and should be alright with a long car ride. This vet also takes house calls. So if they say that whatever she has is contagious I will get them to come to my house to take care of the other 4 that were in direct contact with her. I will let you all know how it goes and what the vet says.

 

[casportpony]

Yes I have decided she definitely needs to see a vet. I looked up the closest vet that sees poultry and will take her first thing in the morning. It's an hour away but she is very important to me and should be alright with a long car ride. This vet also takes house calls. So if they say that whatever she has is contagious I will get them to come to my house to take care of the other 4 that were in direct contact with her. I will let you all know how it goes and what the vet says.

A trip to the vet is a good idea. Good luck, and I hope she makes it.

-Kathy

 

[ChickenChaser9]

Yes I have decided she definitely needs to see a vet. I looked up the closest vet that sees poultry and will take her first thing in the morning. It's an hour away but she is very important to me and should be alright with a long car ride. This vet also takes house calls. So if they say that whatever she has is contagious I will get them to come to my house to take care of the other 4 that were in direct contact with her. I will let you all know how it goes and what the vet says.

Let us know how things go with the Vet. We're pulling for you and your lovely.

 

[newmarch2014]

So just a note for future use. Cocci is just an overload of a protozoa. As with anything there is a "normal, or acceptable" range that a bird may have in their system that causes no real problem for a healthy bird. The problem is with a bird that gets a overload that their system can't handle, sometimes caused from a compromised system for some other reason. Blood is A sign but many times there is no blood in the poop. The medicated feed is mildly helpful but it is not a large enough dose of the inhibitor for a severe build up of the protozoa and is no help whatsoever if the animal is no longer eating the feed.
I have a bird that lays internally quite frequently and because of the infection that comes with that she is much more prone to getting an overload of parasites and such simply because of her less than healthy state when the infection sets in. I am pretty sure she had worms after her last bout even though there were none visible to the naked eye.....since it took much longer for her to start putting weight back on after her appetite was back to normal. None of my other birds show signs of any parasites or problems but I surmised it must be her problem since she was eating like a champ for almost 2 weeks with no weight gain and still very runny poop. I wont give advice on how I went about fixing that problem I will just say that once I addressed the suspected worm problem she almost immediately started putting weight back on and her strength and stamina improved drastically within a week.
My circumstance is different than yours and you will want to follow your vets advice but I will tell you that once a chicken has been cleared for solids, I entice my hen with anything that will keep up her strength when she is feeling bad. Some days all she wants is a few mealworms, some days only berries others only cooked egg. This is not a diet for prolonged time but it is enough to keep her calories up while she fights the infection with help of antibiotic. I leave food and fresh water for her of course in the hopes that she will eat on her own in small amounts to monitor if she is eating even a couple bites when I am not in attendance but a few times a day I offer her food that is soaked in water, yogurt, boiled egg mashed up, meal worms, blueberries and bananas. I also float a pinch of chick food on the top of a small container of water held in front of her, this many times triggers her to grab the floating food and tricks her into getting a mouth of water in her. So far I have nursed mine through being really sick 3 times and she is back near the top of the pecking order and sleeping on the mean girls roost so hang in there and keep trying. But if she passes know that you did all you did and sometimes we just cant save that $3 bird no matter what.

 

[Seiryu]

She didn't make it to the vet...she died that night...I did everything I could to save her. She probably had worms of some kind. Because I fed her and gave her plenty of fluid but she continued going downhill, not gaining anything back. Or she could have had something else internally wrong with her. I loved her all I could...