Help! I am in Coccidias and Worm Hell!

[LoLoGarrett]

I am ready to pull my hair out! After 3 weeks of treating Coccidias and worms, there are still present in their poop! One of my young girls was the first give away that something was not right a few weeks ago when she had blindness and swollen eyes with puss coming out. One eye seemed to have cleared up, but the other one was getting worse, after two vet visits, the vet finally gave me some antibiotic to treat her eyes and the really bad eye had a quarter size amount of puss come out on the lab table during her exam (yuck). The really bad eye improved, the better eye has remained red with a large amount of white around it; however she can now see and acts like her normal self in all other ways. I called the vet this week to ask her for an antibiotic to place directly in her bad eye to see if this would help improve her eye. We are now on day 5 of this type of treatment, followed by the previous antibiotic treatment orally. Now back to the Coccidias and worms.... I dropped off poop samples yesterday to make sure the poop end of things had cleared up, only to be told that they still have Cocci and worms and to do another round of Corid for the next 5 days and then a round of Ivermectin for 3 days after that.

1st question - What the heck with the eye? This is really the only sign of illness displayed in all of this, other than a couple of sneezers who gasp for air occasionally and then I treat their nasals with saline..... Oh and the eye treatment, I have been going between a Vetericyn type of pink eye spray and then Terramycin or do a saline flush followed by Terramycin, which I have been doing since before antibiotics. I am still doing these treatments with Antibiotics. Am I treating her incorrectly?

2nd question - Does it normally take this long for things to improve?

 

[dawg53]

Valbazen kills every known roundworm that chickens can get: Large roundworms, cecal worms, capillary worms are the main types of worms that infest poultry. It'll also kill gizzard worms, eyeworms, and gapeworms. I give my birds Valbazen 1/2ml orally to each chicken, that's for a 5 pound bird. It would take alot more than that to overdose a chicken, so no worries when administering orally. Use a syringe without a needle to give it orally. Pull the hens wattles down and her mouth will open. Then quickly squirt the liquid in her mouth and release the wattles at the same time so she can swallow the liquid on her own.
I've used Ivermectin long ago and it was ineffective treating large roundworms in my birds.

 

[dawg53]

Go out to the coop early in the morning before sunrise when all your birds are roosting, bring your bottle of Valbazen and syringe with you. Preload your syringe. Open the coop and snatch a bird off the roost and cradle the hen in your forearm.
With your free hand grab the preloaded syringe. With your other hand, while cradling the hen, use your fingers and thumb to pull down on the wattles and squirt the liquid in the hens mouth with your free hand quickly as I mentioned in my previous post. Then release the hen and grab another hen off the roost and repeat this procedure until all your birds are wormed.
If a bird shakes its head while hanging on to her wattles, hang on and she will tire out, then dose her accordingly. If a hen has short or no wattles, grab the skin under her lower beak/neck area and her mouth will open.

It's best to withhold feed the previous evening before worming your birds the next morning. The chickens will be starving and so will the worms. You'll be feeding them the Valbazen and it will be very effective killing the weakened worms.

After you worm them early the next morning, wait at least 2 hours before feeding your chickens. They will be starving, feed them a little at a time, gradually increasing feed during the day back to normal feeding.
If you dont do this, hungry birds may gorge feed possibly causing impacted crop or gizzard.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

I clean out the hen boxes and the eggs are infested in millions of little white worms still wriggling around, is this normal after worm treatment? and then NEXT is that the hen boxes are also infested with millions of Mites and then notice the rest of the coop under their roost is the same. I have been putting DE dust down everyday, cleaned out coop everyday...WHY????

I'm sorry you're having so much trouble.

Let's do something here. Please get some photos of the birds, that eye, your coop/run, the poop, the worms you are seeing wriggling around...
No judgement on our part - just some photos of what you see and what you are dealing with so we can understand better and help you get this under control.

Now. You mention that the hen boxes and egg have little white worms wriggling around. Do the hens sleep in the nesting boxes, is there poop in there? Could it be maggots that have hatched on the poop instead of intestinal worms?

It would be a really good idea to inspect each hen around her vent, pull the feathers away so you can see the skin. Anybody have a poop butt or maggots on those feathers or skin?

Sadly, DE is not an effective treatment for parasites. You can find Permethrin dust or spray at stores like Tractor Supply. The most economical way is to buy the concentrate. Get a spray bottle and a garden sprayer if you can find those. Spray each bird under the wings, around the vent, along the back. Spray down/treat your coop removing the bedding from the coop and nesting boxes first and disposing of it is a good idea before you treat the coop. Do this in 7 day intervals.

Alternatively, use spray for the coop and dust for the birds - this is what I do. I prefer to use a dust on the birds-easier for me it seems. I put the dust in a sock or pantyhose, then I can move feathers and pat the dusty sock onto the skin and rub it in. If that makes sense.

Let's revisit the eye and the treatment the vet gave you. Have you been putting some ointment in the eye and tried again to push out any pus? What antibiotic did the vet give, I'm not finding what it was - I may be missing it.

Take a deep breath. You've got this, don't give up just yet

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Please post some photos - eyes, poop, chicks....

How old are they?

Eye infection and white still in the eye - without seeing it - just a guess, there's pus still in the eye and it needs to be removed. Remove it yourself or get the vet to do it.
Sounds like you may be dealing with a respiratory disease - did they vet say which one they suspect?

Worms? What type? Roundworms?

Ivermectin may treat roundworms....which do you have pour on, paste, injectable?

Better yet forget the Ivermectin - use a de-wormer like Fenbendazole(Safeguard) or Albendazole (Valbazen) either of these will treat most worms that poultry have except for tapeworms.

Dose for Fenbendazole is .23ml per pound of weight given orally once a day for 5 days.

Dose for Valbazen is .08ml per pound of weight given orally once, then repeat in 10 days.

Corid dose is 2tsp Liquid or 1 1/2 tsp Powder per gallon of water given for 5-7 days as the only source of drinking water. Don't add anything else to the water.

You can de-worm while giving Corid.

What antibiotic did you vet give you for treating the eye infection?

 

[dawg53]

You have a respiratory disease in your flock with the "sneezers who gasp for air occasionally," along with the two you have taken to the vet.
I suspect that you could possibly be dealing with Mycoplasma Gallisepticum (MG.)
Baytril would be best in this situation.

As far as the coccidiosis and worms go; follow @Wyorp Rock instructions regarding the Corid and I recommend Valbazen. Forget Ivermectin.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Sorry to but in here. I wish you well with your flock LoLoGarrett. I do have a question that has to do with your issues. If I have to treat my flock for parasites in general where do I buy the Valbazen? I live in Dade City Florida. Thank you.

You can order it online.
https://www.valleyvet.com/ct_detail.html?pgguid=30e07949-7b6a-11d5-a192-00b0d0204ae5
https://www.jefferspet.com/products/valbazen-broad-spectrum-dewormer
https://www.premier1supplies.com/p/valbazen

 

[Wyorp Rock]

It's good that you can have the vet tend to the eye. Let us know how that goes.

 

[LoLoGarrett]

It's good that you can have the vet tend to the eye. Let us know how that goes.

Will do! I feel better letting the Vet do it, as I am afraid I am causing more harm.

 

[LoLoGarrett]

Got 8 out of 10 yesterday! Yay me! They look forward to being let out of their coop yard to free range in the mornings, so I let them out one at a time and dosed each one as I let them out. The twins, did not cooperate as expected! The Golden girls are pistols! They just kept flying over my head! LOL So my game plan is to take on the twins early in the morning, per your suggestion, as this is the only possible way of grabbing them. Last day of water treated with Corid, this is second round since last Monday. I had a light bulb go off in my head and added frozen blueberries to their water. The water bowl was almost empty this morning! Sweet!!! Sooo now I have to move onto treatment for those showing respiratory issues. Sigh... almost there!
So Baytril to treat for this? How much of a dose? Once or twice a day?

Thank you so much for the advice! BYC has been more helpful than the vet office!

Done! I was able to take care of the twins this morning and administer the medication successfully! The Red Sex Links were sounding worse this morning with their sneezing and gasping. Gave them treatment with VetRX hoping to provide relief, until I can get the mediation for raspatory problems. What a month this has been! Hopefully we have an end in sight with all of these illnesses. Good thing, is they are all still alive and very active!