Guinea Fowl with Coccidiosis - On Medication but is not getting better.

[PTR]

Hello, one of my Guinea fowl recently started showing signs of coccidiosis. His mother was also showing signs, and I took her to the vet a few months ago when she was acting sick and it was coccidiosis. We got medicine (the bottle says “Albon Oral Liquid”) and it worked right away and within a few days, she recovered and was back to normal. Well, she and her son started showing signs or coccidiosis, so I called the vet and got the same medicine. Her son had never showed signs of coccidiosis before, and he has never been treated separately for it - just the same as the rest of my flock, and I used Corid for five days and then gave them vitamins.
Well, this time when I got the medicine that the vet gave me, it didn’t work. The hen died after a few days of medication (very sad for me - she was my soul Guinea) and her son isn’t getting better. Ditzy (the alive one that is sick) has finished his medicine and I gave him NutriDrench (because I am not just going to keep giving him medication when his doses have ended) I have no idea what to do, and I don’t want to lose him. He is the hen’s only son, and I would like to keep part of her with me for as long as I can, until Ditz gets picked off by predators or died of old age. I don’t want to lose him to something that has killed four of my hens. (In the past. I lost two in one day to coccidiosis and one a few months later. And now I lost the favorite hen.)
I am very worried that he isn’t going to make it to tomorrow, and I worry that I shouldn’t have given him NutriDrench. I put some VetRX (respiratory medication) under his wings and on his head, as the directions instructed because his mom had a respiratory issue towards the end - and I feel like that is what killed her quickest. She might still be with me if she didn’t get ill with that and coccidiosis.
I’ve had guineas for three years and have never had this problem, except for this last year. In a span of one year, I’ve lost four Guinea hens to coccidiosis and possibly now one male if I can’t save him. My chickens are fine (knock on wood) but the guineas are just getting sick so often.
Is there anything I can do to save Ditzy? I don’t want to do something that may cause his death, because I think he could pull through. He is special needs and is a huge fighter, and I can tell he doesn’t want to die.
I don't think he is suffering, so I’m not going to cull him. I just want him to get better.
@azygous @Eggcessive @Wyorp Rock

 

[Susan Skylark]

Coccidia is a secondary pathogen, most creatures naturally carry a low number in their gut flora. It is only when it gets out of hand (stress, over crowding, poor husbandry) that they break with it. Everything causes diarrhea in poultry (including many respiratory bugs) but coccidia doesn’t cause respiratory signs. Coccidia probably isn’t your biggest issue, a respiratory pathogen is more likely. A bacterial pathogen may be susceptible to antibiotics but a virus isn’t. Get your dead hen necropsied by a vet to figure out what this is and start some antibiotics in the meantime for bacterial pneumonia. Good nursing care is vital too.

 

[PTR]

Coccidia is a secondary pathogen, most creatures naturally carry a low number in their gut flora. It is only when it gets out of hand (stress, over crowding, poor husbandry) that they break with it. Everything causes diarrhea in poultry (including many respiratory bugs) but coccidia doesn’t cause respiratory signs. Coccidia probably isn’t your biggest issue, a respiratory pathogen is more likely. A bacterial pathogen may be susceptible to antibiotics but a virus isn’t. Get your dead hen necropsied by a vet to figure out what this is and start some antibiotics in the meantime for bacterial pneumonia. Good nursing care is vital too.

It has been very wet here lately. I try to clean out their pen as often as I can and put new bedding in, but they are just such messy birds. I only had seven (now six) in a coop that could easily hold 16 birds at night.

I think the reason the hen had a respiratory issue is because I was gone all day one day, and she spilled her water and was laying in it. I didn’t know until I got home. No one else is/was sneezing.

Unfortunately the hen died a few days ago, so I didn’t even think to do a necropsy.

 

[PTR]

Hello, one of my Guinea fowl recently started showing signs of coccidiosis. His mother was also showing signs, and I took her to the vet a few months ago when she was acting sick and it was coccidiosis. We got medicine (the bottle says “Albon Oral Liquid”) and it worked right away and within a few days, she recovered and was back to normal. Well, she and her son started showing signs or coccidiosis, so I called the vet and got the same medicine. Her son had never showed signs of coccidiosis before, and he has never been treated separately for it - just the same as the rest of my flock, and I used Corid for five days and then gave them vitamins.
Well, this time when I got the medicine that the vet gave me, it didn’t work. The hen died after a few days of medication (very sad for me - she was my soul Guinea) and her son isn’t getting better. Ditzy (the alive one that is sick) has finished his medicine and I gave him NutriDrench (because I am not just going to keep giving him medication when his doses have ended) I have no idea what to do, and I don’t want to lose him. He is the hen’s only son, and I would like to keep part of her with me for as long as I can, until Ditz gets picked off by predators or died of old age. I don’t want to lose him to something that has killed four of my hens. (In the past. I lost two in one day to coccidiosis and one a few months later. And now I lost the favorite hen.)
I am very worried that he isn’t going to make it to tomorrow, and I worry that I shouldn’t have given him NutriDrench. I put some VetRX (respiratory medication) under his wings and on his head, as the directions instructed because his mom had a respiratory issue towards the end - and I feel like that is what killed her quickest. She might still be with me if she didn’t get ill with that and coccidiosis.
I’ve had guineas for three years and have never had this problem, except for this last year. In a span of one year, I’ve lost four Guinea hens to coccidiosis and possibly now one male if I can’t save him. My chickens are fine (knock on wood) but the guineas are just getting sick so often.
Is there anything I can do to save Ditzy? I don’t want to do something that may cause his death, because I think he could pull through. He is special needs and is a huge fighter, and I can tell he doesn’t want to die.
I don't think he is suffering, so I’m not going to cull him. I just want him to get better.
@azygous @Eggcessive @Wyorp Rock

He just ate more food than he has in a week, snapped at (and got) a mosquito, and pecked my fingers five times. He’s feeling better, but I’m not sure if it’s from the NurtiDrench, or the whole “pre-death perk up thingy that animals do.”

 

[azygous]

Yes, Nutri-drench has thiamine and that would cancel the effect of the coccidiostat. For a very sick chicken with coccidiosis, you can give a three-day drench dose of undiluted coccidiostat in addition to the treated drinking water. In addition to that, a very sick chicken with coccidiosis is often treated with a sulfa antibiotic to treat enteritis, infection in the intestines.

It sounds like your rooster may be on the mend. Usually that kind of inprovement is to be taken as a good sign.