Boy have I had a hard weekend! Suddenly my 6 week old Easter Eggers began pooping blood...and I mean...feces that are completely blood. I would describe it as "chick parvo" for those familiar with dogs. It has been rather disturbing. Especially when I found one of those stools on my porch. I immediately guessed as the cocci the chickens can get. I happen to be a vet assistant so I took a stool sample from one of those bloody stools yesterday to work. The vet wasn't in, but I had access to a microscope so I did a fecal float and decided to see if my home diagnosis was indeed correct. Well, it was:
I unfortunately don't have a better image to display, but the small circular dots on the image are the oocysts. It's Eimeria tenella. Which makes me mad. I have a SMALL flock. So to have such a serious case of this is really frustrating. I let my chickens free roam all day long and the only time they are in an enclosed area is at night for a few hours when I place them in a dog crate or tub. My dad who came over to visit said I had "too many chickens in the dog crate" Mind you, I have 5 10 week old chickens and had another 6 smaller ones sleeping in a dog crate big enough for a German Shepherd. *shrug*
I am now cleaning their litter daily instead of every couple days. No longer feeding them directly on the dirt. They are being treated with corvid in their water. But it's looking like I will be battling this for a while. I live in South Carolina and right now the environment at my house is just perfect for the occysts to survive until the chicks come into contact with them. We have the perfect temperature, humidity, an we've had a VERY damp spring.
Now my trouble is I am about to complete the coop and I need to move the chickens into it, but I don't want the coop infested with cocci. Ahhh! The horror! So I've had quite a time bleaching containers and washing birds and I had one die already.
Here is chick #1 (Mascara) she's doing the worse. She is off her feed and water. I've been forcing the water on her mostly trying to get her to ingest the medication. See how pitiful the cocci can make them get?!
But on the plus side is I did find the medication today at TSC so everyone is on meds now! Here is the rest of the buggers who are infected or "living amongst the infected". I took two shots of each in hopes someone can help sex these guys for me! (To include Mascara though I have a feeling she/he could be dead by morning...sigh)
Falcon
Chick 3
Speedy
Chick 5
And last but not least...what is this rooster mixed with? He lives with the Easter Eggers and so far is not sick in the least? Only 3 of the EE's are sick acting. You can tell by the photos who doesn't feel good!
He has feathered feet
Thanks for reading! Not sure where to section. Just wanted to talk about the cocci and also ask about genders, but didn't want to start various threads?
I unfortunately don't have a better image to display, but the small circular dots on the image are the oocysts. It's Eimeria tenella. Which makes me mad. I have a SMALL flock. So to have such a serious case of this is really frustrating. I let my chickens free roam all day long and the only time they are in an enclosed area is at night for a few hours when I place them in a dog crate or tub. My dad who came over to visit said I had "too many chickens in the dog crate" Mind you, I have 5 10 week old chickens and had another 6 smaller ones sleeping in a dog crate big enough for a German Shepherd. *shrug*
I am now cleaning their litter daily instead of every couple days. No longer feeding them directly on the dirt. They are being treated with corvid in their water. But it's looking like I will be battling this for a while. I live in South Carolina and right now the environment at my house is just perfect for the occysts to survive until the chicks come into contact with them. We have the perfect temperature, humidity, an we've had a VERY damp spring.
Now my trouble is I am about to complete the coop and I need to move the chickens into it, but I don't want the coop infested with cocci. Ahhh! The horror! So I've had quite a time bleaching containers and washing birds and I had one die already.
Here is chick #1 (Mascara) she's doing the worse. She is off her feed and water. I've been forcing the water on her mostly trying to get her to ingest the medication. See how pitiful the cocci can make them get?!
But on the plus side is I did find the medication today at TSC so everyone is on meds now! Here is the rest of the buggers who are infected or "living amongst the infected". I took two shots of each in hopes someone can help sex these guys for me! (To include Mascara though I have a feeling she/he could be dead by morning...sigh)
Falcon
Chick 3
Speedy
Chick 5
And last but not least...what is this rooster mixed with? He lives with the Easter Eggers and so far is not sick in the least? Only 3 of the EE's are sick acting. You can tell by the photos who doesn't feel good!
He has feathered feet
Thanks for reading! Not sure where to section. Just wanted to talk about the cocci and also ask about genders, but didn't want to start various threads?
