Did coccidiosis kill my cockerel or could this be something else?

[Hippiefrog]

My first thought was worm or protazoic infection.

I've seen one of my hen's vomit but she got into my compost which has a lot of mold and biological activity for decomposition.

It's important to deworm the flock yearly. As a safe measure to keep them healthy. And it's one less thing to scratch off when diagnosing a sick bird.

Thank you, can you recommend a dewormer that is safe to use and available over the counter? Last year we had a hen poop out a roundworm. At the time, we had an amazing vet that saw chickens that prescribed something to put in the flocks water. He has since left the practice and they don't currently have an exotics vet that sees chickens so that option is out. I've never used anything else and haven't been able to find anything approved for use so I'm assuming I'd have to do off label.

 

[Eggcessive]

Many of us use Valbazen sheep and cattle wormer 1/2 ml given orally to each chicken, and then repeat it in 10 days to get the worm eggs that hatch. The other common one is SafeGuard Liquid Goat Wormer 1/4 ml per pound given orally for 5 days straight. If you only want to treat roundworms, it can be given once and repeated in 10 days.

 

[jessejeanne]

Actually, @jessejeanne , you may be right about it being a crop problem. Though I prefer to use chilled coconut oil, Colase, miconazole, or even acidified copper sulfate to treat crop problems, Epsom salts can be used, according to some poultry colleges, to flush a crop. Here is an example of that:
https://extension.umd.edu/resource/common-crop-issues-backyard-chickens/
Next time you suggest a treatment, just post the whole article or link. We all are entitled to giving our advice here, so keep it up. We may disagree with you, but if you have a link to back it up, it is perfectly welcome.

Thank you for the tips. I got it from this site :
https://poultrylane.com/chicken-vomiting/

It wasn’t my intention to give anyone advice and I just took a screenshot for what could’ve been the cause. I will make sure to provide the article or link next time.

 

[Hippiefrog]

Necropsy update/pics.....

Thank you to everyone for encouraging me to have a necropsy done! I opted to drive to the closest state lab and drop him off. I'm so glad that I did!! Two weeks later, I hadn't received the preliminary report email so I called the lab and was put through to the performing doctor. She was amazing! She resent the results and went over them with me in detail, answering my many questions. She was even willing to speak with me again, just a few days later, to answer more questions when Patch's "twin " sister Mini starting showing similar symptoms to his(fluffed up, poop was also very watery/white,thankfully no blood and when I picked her up, she also vomited brown liquid). Thanks to the encouragement to have a necropsy done, the doctor who permformed it and her preliminary results, we were able to quickly treat her for gout and I'm happy to say she is doing much better and is happy to be back with the flock again! We will continue to monitor her and treat for gout as needed. Thank you again for the encouragement to have a necropsy done. It saved my pullets life!

 

[Primchick88]

Did the vet mention anything else to help determine the cause at a young age in chickens who are otherwise not dehydrated because they always have access to fresh clean water? We are facing some strange issues currently in a few of ours with similar symptoms.
So sorry for your loss!

 

[Hippiefrog]

Did the vet mention anything else to help determine the cause at a young age in chickens who are otherwise not dehydrated because they always have access to fresh clean water? We are facing some strange issues currently in a few of ours with similar symptoms.
So sorry for your loss!

Thank you! I'm sorry to hear you're having issues with your flock too. I asked that same question bc our flock has a huge pool and several waterers so dehydration wouldn't have been an issue. I also watched both of them drink quite often. In hindsight, it was too often. Putting all of the pieces together though, we discovered it was layer feed that was the cause. Long story short, we had to abruptly stop free ranging around the time those two hatched, due to our crazy neighbors dogs. It was a nightmare. We had losses and injuries. I had become a full time vet tech it seemed, while also trying to maintain the peace in a large flock that was very upset that I wouldn't let them out to free range and attempting to build a larger run area...all with no help. I had to separate all of the boys too which left me with no way to separate my broody and her two chicks. She's a fierce mom so I wasn't too concerned. But, the hens were eating all of the chick feed and momma would get mad and take her chicks to the layer feed containers to eat. This happened a lot a lot so I just started giving them all layer crumbles. I figured they'd be ok but I was wrong. It was too much calcium for them and a very hard lesson to learn. Since then I've changed feeding habits completely. I no longer use layer feed. Ever. All flock feeds caused soft eggs and egg binding despite oyster shell always being available to the layers. What I finally found that worked for my flock is to just use a high protein chick feed for all and to make sure there's always plenty of oyster shell available for the layers. We always have roosters, broodys, and chicks so it just makes sense for us. So far it's working out well. I hope this helps and you're able to pinpoint what's going on with your flock.