Have lost amost all my chickens ~ mystery disease ~ HELP PLEASE !

[Dee Dee 2]

Here we go AGAIN. As stated in post some time back, I have a mystery disease killing my chickens. It almost always starts the same way. Bird starts getting lathergic, poops a sulfer colored poo. Still eats but is not "normal" with behavior ~interacting, running around while free ranging etc. This all keeps progressing till bird finally dies. Time period 4 ~6 days. All living conditions are exceptional, have wormed, Wazine only. Going to do liquid ivermectin today. Started J.G. roo last night on 250 mg Metronidazole. Don't know what else to do. If anyone has any thoughts or ideas ~ PLEASE ~ would love to hear them. THANKS !

 

[pidgejr]

This is a agreat site on diagnosing through poop if its any help . I hope you can save whats left of your sweet chickees!
http://www.the-chicken-chick.com/2012/02/whats-scoop-on-chicken-poop-digestive.html

 

[ten chicks]

Here we go AGAIN. As stated in post some time back, I have a mystery disease killing my chickens. It almost always starts the same way. Bird starts getting lathergic, poops a sulfer colored poo. Still eats but is not "normal" with behavior ~interacting, running around while free ranging etc. This all keeps progressing till bird finally dies. Time period 4 ~6 days. All living conditions are exceptional, have wormed, Wazine only. Going to do liquid ivermectin today. Started J.G. roo last night on 250 mg Metronidazole. Don't know what else to do. If anyone has any thoughts or ideas ~ PLEASE ~ would love to hear them. THANKS !

May be a coccidiosis outbreak/overload. Cocci is a parasitic infection of the intestinal tract and kills very fast. Some symptoms are: runny/watery poop(may or may not show blood,depends on which of they 11 strains it is)lethargic,fluffed feathers,not eating/drinking.
Purchase Corid or Amprol(will be called either depending on where you live,they both contain Amprolium). Dose for Corid/Amprol 9.6% liquid is 2 tsp per gallon of water,dose for Corid 20% powder is 1-1.5 tsp per gallon of water. Treat ALL chickens for 5-7 days,DO NOT give vitamins during treatment as they interfere with the ability of amprolium to work, You can give vitamins after treatment is complete.

 

[pidgejr]

Also read online "Sulphur yellow, foamy dropping can bea sign of Blackhead (Histamonosis) which is caused by a protozoan parasite infecting the gut. It is however rare in back yard hens !"

 

[casportpony]

Here we go AGAIN. As stated in post some time back, I have a mystery disease killing my chickens. It almost always starts the same way. Bird starts getting lathergic, poops a sulfer colored poo. Still eats but is not "normal" with behavior ~interacting, running around while free ranging etc. This all keeps progressing till bird finally dies. Time period 4 ~6 days. All living conditions are exceptional, have wormed, Wazine only. Going to do liquid ivermectin today. Started J.G. roo last night on 250 mg Metronidazole. Don't know what else to do. If anyone has any thoughts or ideas ~ PLEASE ~ would love to hear them. THANKS !

Sounds like you suspect blackhead, so metronidazole is what you need, but many birds with blackhead will also get an e. Coli infection, for that you'll also need something like Baytril, Cipro or Clavamox, 'cause metronidazole won't work for that. If just blackhead, birds should show improvement in 2-3 days.

If they do have blackhead, you need to treat for cecal worms with Safeguard 50mg/kg (.5ml per 2.2 pounds) or Valbazen 20mg/kg (~.2ml per 2.2 pounds), ivermectin probably won't work.

Did a quick search and saw that JG roos weigh ~13 pounds (5.9kg), so if your rooster weighs that he would get either Safeguard - 2.95ml or Valbazen - 1.18ml.

FYI, I have treated many turkeys and peafowl, so this advice is coming from experience, not just something I read about.

-Kathy

 

[casportpony]

Also read online "Sulphur yellow, foamy dropping can bea sign of Blackhead (Histamonosis) which is caused by a protozoan parasite infecting the gut. It is however rare in back yard hens !"

There have been a few cases here on BYC that were confirmed by necropsy and UC Davis also had several last fall, so not as rare as many think.

-Kathy

 

[casportpony]

Regarding Ivermectin:

Source: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2816174
Ivermectin as a bird anthelmintic--trials with naturally infected domestic fowl.

Oksanen A, Nikander S.
Abstract

To evaluate the use of ivermectin as a bird anthelmintic, 29 White Leghorn hens naturally infected with Ascaridia spp., Heterakis spp. and Capillaria spp. were treated with 0.2, 2 or 6 mg/kg intramuscularly or 0.2 or 0.8 mg/kg orally. Faecal samples were collected before treatment and at autopsy, 2, 6, or 16 days after treatment, when the intestines were also examined for helminths. None of the treatments gave satisfactory anthelmintic results.

 

[Dee Dee 2]

Dang Kathy ! What would I do with out you ! THANKS ! I have Cypro and maybe ? clavamox. I also noticed yesterday this bird is very thin but eats well ? How much Cypro ? Going to hit him with some Safeguard today also. Will have to go to town for that ~ only have ivermec. for the horses ~ paste.

 

[casportpony]

Dang Kathy ! What would I do with out you ! THANKS ! I have Cypro and maybe ? clavamox. I also noticed yesterday this bird is very thin but eats well ? How much Cypro ? Going to hit him with some Safeguard today also. Will have to go to town for that ~ only have ivermec. for the horses ~ paste.

The book I have, Plumb's Veterinary Drughandbook has three entries for Cipro - 20-40mg/kg twice a day, 20mg/kg twice a day, 10-15mg/kg twice a day. Are your Cipro tabs 500mg? How much Clavamox do you have? He would need a lot of that, I think he would need 500mg twice a day for 7-14 days. Let me know and I'll look it up.

-Kathy

 

[casportpony]

Thought I should also share that some people on BYC have had metronidazole prescribed at 60mg/kg twice a day, but I do ~60mg/kg once a day even though my vets prescribed it at 30mg/kg once a day.

Do you have a kitchen or postal scale that you can weigh him on? If he's really thin you should recalculate the doses for him.

-Kathy