Help please, Bloody stools, sudden death 9 week old chicken

[Kris5902]

I looked up sulfa drugs and found an entry for sulfamexanine (think I spelled that right) and it said not for use in laying poultry... these chickens are my layers... even if they aren’t old enough yet. Thoughts?

Ok... the FARAD website is making my head spin right now...

I will get the medicated starter feed for sure on Thursday, will look for, buy and stockpile basically anything else that looks antibiotic like at the pet store, will force myself to go into buckerfields and try to get them to sell me something... they are all in the clean brooder and their new tractor (huddled together in the corner last I looked... ignoring the roosts I spent half a day putting in for them!)

Again thank you all for your help... I’m too damn old to be such a novice at this, but that’s what happens when you finally get to be a farmer... in your late 30’s, with a chicken obsession, and little more than book knowledge and the internet to guide you. So glad I found you all here!

 

[casportpony]

Call your small animal vet, they will have something. The sulfa drugs are fine, you just have to observe an egg withdrawal time.

 

[Eggcessive]

Amprol or amprollium, the drug in Corid has had to be obtained from a vet for as long as I have been online here, not just since the Canadian laws that have recently changed.

Henny Penny 2019, as far as I know, metronidazole is not used for treatment of coccidiosis. Amprollium (Corid, Amprol, Coxoid,) sulfa antibiotics, and toltrazuril (Baycox) are the only ones used that I am aware of. Sulfa drugs are Bactrim or SMZ-TMP, Albon, and sulfadimethoxine and others.

Sorry for your loss. I would raise your waterers to shoulder height of the shortest chicks, by placing small boards or bricks underneath your waterers to help prevent the chicks soiling the waterers.

 

[MissChick@dee]

I will also check out the fish med section at the pet store... just need to know what I’m looking for and then get the dosages figured... next time I get an antibiotic prescribed to me I’m going to hoard it for my animals... I’ll see what I can find.

Really they looked healthy and happy, and I’m shocked one on the 9 week olds died... I was concerned about the younger chicks, the stools only seem to get bloody when my mother forgets their water in the morning, and I come down between 10 and 2 and find it completely fouled.

it will get better... I have them (at least the 9week olds) where I can get their morning set up feed wise before I do the cows, and I will keep building tractors to get the other chickens moved out here as well.

I will admit... I got my hatching eggs before I had the proper infrastructure to support them, I know I don’t know enough about poultry, and I shouldn’t have impulse purchased the next batch of chicks.

Going to get things set up properly though, and part of that is I need to prove my systems work on my own before I can remove the adult layers from their never see the light of day, 15 chickens in a 5x8 box situation. It was fine when they could daytime free range maybe, but now they are in total confinement.

Little changes... but my pretty girl suddenly dropping was a shot to the gut. I failed them. Working on the tractor which I should’ve had done earlier rather than spending time on them, trusting their care to just my mother for the last week... it’s all on me. I will resolve to do better.

Come on Kris we just can’t do the woulda~shoulda thing. Please don’t do that to yourself. We’ve all been where your at. There’s just so much we don’t know until we realize we just didn’t know. It’s a tuff lesson to gain wisdom (that’s different). Hang in there. Your situation was on my mind all night. God hears our hearts in prayers.

 

[MissChick@dee]

Amprol or amprollium, the drug in Corid has had to be obtained from a vet for as long as I have been online here, not just since the Canadian laws that have recently changed.

Henny Penny 2019, as far as I know, metronidazole is not used for treatment of coccidiosis. Amprollium (Corid, Amprol, Coxoid,) sulfa antibiotics, and toltrazuril (Baycox) are the only ones used that I am aware of. Sulfa drugs are Bactrim or SMZ-TMP, Albon, and sulfadimethoxine and others.

Sorry for your loss. I would raise your waterers to shoulder height of the shortest chicks, by placing small boards or bricks underneath your waterers to help prevent the chicks soiling the waterers.

Thank you

 

[Kris5902]

I have the waterers raised up... the little chicks fly onto the top, perch on them, and poop directly into their water! That hadn’t been a problem with the 9 week olds, their waterer is also raised, they managed to get some shavings into it when scratching, but not as much stuff as the littles, they’ve also been flying right out of the brooder since their wing feathers started coming in fully. I’ve gotten a larger waterer for them now that the little ones are in the larger brooder, I’ll be raising it up today when I get down to the farm, because I wanted to clean the boards throughly.

The way everyone talks about Corid here it just seemed so readily available in the USA... I know we used to be able to order most of our medications directly from a Veterinary supplier until this year. I will go check the cow/sheep med cabinet today, but all the antibiotics we have admintered since I came to the farm are injections (sheep with mastitis, lambs that had infections from raven or eagle attacks) we don’t really use a lot of medications aside from those sorts of problems. In January the sheep get an injected selenium supplement (we are deficient here, very carefully dosed!) and one vaccination (I forget what it is for, last year was a huge learning curve) given to the ewes before lambing.

 

[Kris5902]

Update... I just let them out, brought them feed and fresh water, there were several bloody droppings in the shavings I gave them last night. I cleaned those out and moved the tractor onto fresh ground without bloody droppings. While I was feeding they produced several more bloody droppings. They are looking content and happy except for their excrement. About to call my cats vet... can’t make it to town today, but may be able to get in tomorrow, Thursday for sure. If there are any other husbandry changes or suggestions I could implement? What do you think the chances are for my flocks survival if I cannot obtain the medications?

 

[Kris5902]

Cannot get medicated started feed... feed store isn’t licensed to carry it!

Waiting on my vets call back... they do treat birds, but hummed and hawed a little when I said chickens. Asked how well they travel on the ferries! I don’t know... I hatched these ones here and the littles were much smaller when I brought them home! “You don’t really want me to bring all 25 in do you???”

 

[Kris5902]

Got the call back and tomorrow he will do a stool sample/necropsy (if any die tonight, praying they won’t!) though he doesn’t treat farm animals... he does treat pet birds and is willing to help me out. He might not have the appropriate meds in stock but can have them ordered for the next day delivery, so I’m looking at treatment on Thursday at the latest. Thanks again for all the support!

 

[Eggcessive]

You can gather a few of their fresh droppings, and just take them into your vet to examine with the fecal float test. No need to take the chickens, unless you want to take just one. Medicated feed really is not going to help if they have an outbreak of coccidiosis. Using medicated feed doesn’t always prevent cococidiosis— they can still get it. What do cattle farmers there use to prevent scours? Can they get amprol without a vet?