Feed suggestion...?

[Barredhen]

Thanks guys.

Yeah he said he cannot test for anything more nor does he have any suggestions for their symptoms but said he did see a few cocci and that "it probably wouldn't hurt to treat with DiMethox if we want to"

So I still do not know why they're having this continuing issue.

 

[casportpony]

Did the vet do a fecal float with a centrifuge, float without centrifuge, or direct smear?

 

[casportpony]

This is why I ask:

This vet says centrifugation is the way to go http://www.capcvet.org/expert-articles/why-fecal-centrifugation-is-better/

"I perform an interesting exercise every year in my parasitology class by using a fecal sample from a dog with a hookworm burden typical of what practitioners would see in pet dogs. The students are divided into three groups. One group performs a direct smear, another group mixes 2 g of feces with flotation solution and performs a passive flotation procedure, and the third group uses 2 g of feces and performs the centrifugal flotation procedure.
Each year the results are graphic. Usually only 25% of the students performing the direct smear recover hookworm eggs. About 70% of the students performing the passive flotation procedure report seeing hookworm eggs. And every year, without exception, 100% of the students performing the centrifugal flotation procedure report recovering hookworm eggs. This simple exercise convinces my students of the improved sensitivity of centrifugation. Improved recovery rates using centrifugal flotation procedures are also substantiated by published studies.1-4"

 

[ChickNanny13]

 

[Kiki]

I had a direct smear fecal that came back negative once.


I had roundworm and tapeworms.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Why would the vet recommend using the DiMethox then?
Something doesn't make sense.
Does DiMethox treat other "things" too?
I am not familiar with this stuff at all.

Their post says this:

I understand what you are both saying.
If this isn't an avian vet with significant poultry experience, I can imagine him taking a shot in the dark. If one doesn't know the appearance of intestinal pathogens that can populate chickens' bowls, they don't know what they are looking at.

Thanks guys.

Yeah he said he cannot test for anything more nor does he have any suggestions for their symptoms but said he did see a few cocci and that "it probably wouldn't hurt to treat with DiMethox if we want to"

So I still do not know why they're having this continuing issue.

The fact is that almost all poultry - or any other animal with soil access will have some of those Eimeria protozoa in their fecal samples. Having coccidia present doesn't indicate the need for coccidiosis medication. Almost all those animals are already resistant. Unless there is some other extreme stressor, they will never contract coccidiosis, even with oocysts ingested.
Virtually all grazers, browsers and foragers will ingest some oocysts. That doesn't mean they need to be treated with Corid or other coccidiostat. THEY DON'T. If they did, one would have to keep them on Corid their entire lives.
In the last 10 years or so, I have treated chickens for coccidiosis twice but not in the last 5 years. I have not had a case of coccidiosis other than those two instances many years ago. I guarantee, every one of the thousand or so chickens I've had in that time have had some Eimeria oocysts or eggs and protozoa in their fecal samples. But they didn't need to be treated.
I have a friend who was a vet tech at a hospital that treated a lot of poultry. She could always find coccidia in a fecal sample. The birds weren't there for coccidiosis though.
The vet almost always wanted to treat for it but IMHO, it wasn't necessary.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

This is why I ask:

This vet says centrifugation is the way to go http://www.capcvet.org/expert-articles/why-fecal-centrifugation-is-better/

"I perform an interesting exercise every year in my parasitology class by using a fecal sample from a dog with a hookworm burden typical of what practitioners would see in pet dogs. The students are divided into three groups. One group performs a direct smear, another group mixes 2 g of feces with flotation solution and performs a passive flotation procedure, and the third group uses 2 g of feces and performs the centrifugal flotation procedure.
Each year the results are graphic. Usually only 25% of the students performing the direct smear recover hookworm eggs. About 70% of the students performing the passive flotation procedure report seeing hookworm eggs. And every year, without exception, 100% of the students performing the centrifugal flotation procedure report recovering hookworm eggs. This simple exercise convinces my students of the improved sensitivity of centrifugation. Improved recovery rates using centrifugal flotation procedures are also substantiated by published studies.1-4"

 

[Barredhen]

OK so - Don't treat them?

I am not sure which test he used, but they've been dewormed a couple times this year.

Any other ideas then, why some would be messy and some would have bald butts?

(They do not have mites, not that I can find)

I attached a close up photo of the only one of the girls who would cooperate for that, I don't think it's vent gleet because even the messy birds don't look like the photos online to me and they have dry vents, but some have poo stuck everywhere and some are bald! Could be wrong though, because I have no experience with that.

One is loosing feathers above her tail, which is exactly where she lost them the last time they did this.

It's not molting, because they will have bald butts forever!

Last time I did so much, that I'm not sure what it was that worked.

I just bought a bag of Neutrena layer crumbles to try a food change and they hate it lol!

They lay great, seem happy, just always look terrible! :-/