Hen with never-ending case of diarrhea

[Jemma Rider]

Another option would be don't tell them it is a sample from chicken.

My vet won't do any tests on an animal they haven't done a basic physical for, and they're the cheapest in the area at fifty bucks to a hundred (they don't see chickens either so it doesn't really matter), it was one of my father's conditions with the chickens was that i could never get anything done for them at the vet. We put a lot of money into saving my second lizard Roxy Heart, who was abused by her first owner and she still ended up passing, it left my family with a mistrust of vets (in reality the damage that was done to her was to extensive for her to survive, she passed at no fault of mine or my vet).

 

[EggSighted4Life]

My vet won't do any tests on an animal they haven't done a basic physical for

I think my vet might also require at least one previous visit even if not recent. But they have seen ally dogs at some point.

When I was younger, we never took pets to the vet. But having a good working relationship with one you trust really does go a long way towards having healthy pets. $50 isn't too bad for a basic visit, but that IS a lot if you don't have it or can't spare it. Fortunately BYC is a huge help!

Sorry my brain fry and spinning mixes some details... since the vet isn't an option... MAYBE you can buy a microscope and learn to do your own floats for ALL of your pets.. if you have enough animals to make it with your time and investment... not worming when you don't need to equals savings ultimately... so it can make the cost a wash, in addition to being a fun experiment.

 

[Jemma Rider]

I think my vet might also require at least one previous visit even if not recent. But they have seen ally dogs at some point.

When I was younger, we never took pets to the vet. But having a good working relationship with one you trust really does go a long way towards having healthy pets. $50 isn't too bad for a basic visit, but that IS a lot if you don't have it or can't spare it. Fortunately BYC is a huge help!

Sorry my brain fry and spinning mixes some details... since the vet isn't an option... MAYBE you can buy a microscope and learn to do your own floats for ALL of your pets.. if you have enough animals to make it with your time and investment... not worming when you don't need to equals savings ultimately... so it can make the cost a wash, in addition to being a fun experiment.

i could couldn't i? I didn't consider that i could do that. I should read a bit about that and see if it would be possible for me. And just for the record I'll stop worming them on a schedule, on of my chicken keeping friends told me i NEED to three times a year to prevent them from getting really sick and looking back i really should've questioned her further before i took her advice, that's my fault of course.
If i could do my own floats for the chickens that would be amazing, i don't think i could do it for the other pets though because I'd need prescribed medication for them since they're exotics but it would still be amazing to be able to see if i should take the exotics at all, at the moment they go for a physical at the vets once a year and usually need multiple visits since they're rescues and my one lizard has a very weak immune system she almost died last year from coccidia overload (which lives naturally in crickets digestive systems) and then my tortoises shell is deformed because of his lack of humidity it's a mess.
thanks!

 

[EggSighted4Life]

https://fiascofarm.com/goats/fecals.htm#Supplies

I would personally consider the hen with diarrhea to be a genetic issue. Something I would cull for... because I breed. I understand rescuing allows for special treatment though. In which case if I had done everything I could... I simply would do my best and not worry about it until I had to.

Regarding advice from your friend... or even here on BYC... always feel free (maybe even compelled) to get a second and third opinion from people with differing points of view/experience and choose what makes the MOST sense to YOU. When you learn something new, switch it up if you need.

 

[tjo804]

Without seeing a poo sample it is hard to tell if it is a bad poo. I found this link helpful in seeing the different range of healthy looking poo.

http://chat.allotment-garden.org/index.php?topic=17568.0

Good luck to you
Your hens are beautiful

 

[dawg53]

Give her plain boiled white rice mixed with buttermilk for a few days, that should take care of the diarrhea. Keep in mind that if it's hot where you live, birds drink more water and excretions will be watery.

It would be great if you could do you own fecals, it would save you money in the long run. I'm sure there are Youtube videos to learn how to do it. There is a BYC member here that does free testing. She is studying to be a parasitologist, she knows her stuff. Her BYC user name is Sue Gremlin. Please PM her for more information.

Your chicken friends gave you good advice about worming 3 times a year, especially if you're getting alot of rain. Worm eggs are in the soil no matter where you live, wet or dry soil, frozen tundra, Sahara desert. Birds on dry soil may require less worming as well as birds that stay on cool or cold soil, same is true for rocky or mountainous soil. Birds on warm, moist or wet soil will require frequent wormings. Chickens constantly peck the ground and pick eggs up, then excrete them. Then they become infective and are picked up again and infect the chicken. One female large roundworm lays hundreds of eggs a day onto the soil, to be picked up by your other birds. One female roundworm can literally infect a whole flock. Chickens have no resistance to worms, neither do humans. Here's an example regarding hookworms, and yes, chickens can get hookworms as well as dogs, cats etc, they are zoonotic:
https://people.com/human-interest/teen-infected-hookworms-florida/

Insects and earthworms are carriers of different type of worms eggs and chickens eat insects and then become infected.
Next time you worm your birds, alternate with different wormers besides wazine. Benzimidazoles are best; safeguard, valbazen, flubendazole, as well as other types of wormers; pyrantel pamoate and levamisole, worm out gel, and a couple others I cant think of right now.
I worm monthly and rotate with valbazen, safeguard, pyrantel pamoate and wazine.
Tossing eggs in the garbage is up to you. If you suspect you or a family member might have a reaction to the residue in the eggs, then toss them and dont give them away nor sell them.
We eat eggs after worming and I'm still here.

 

[Jemma Rider]

Give her plain boiled white rice mixed with buttermilk for a few days, that should take care of the diarrhea. Keep in mind that if it's hot where you live, birds drink more water and excretions will be watery.

It would be great if you could do you own fecals, it would save you money in the long run. I'm sure there are Youtube videos to learn how to do it. There is a BYC member here that does free testing. She is studying to be a parasitologist, she knows her stuff. Her BYC user name is Sue Gremlin. Please PM her for more information.

Your chicken friends gave you good advice about worming 3 times a year, especially if you're getting alot of rain. Worm eggs are in the soil no matter where you live, wet or dry soil, frozen tundra, Sahara desert. Birds on dry soil may require less worming as well as birds that stay on cool or cold soil, same is true for rocky or mountainous soil. Birds on warm, moist or wet soil will require frequent wormings. Chickens constantly peck the ground and pick eggs up, then excrete them. Then they become infective and are picked up again and infect the chicken. One female large roundworm lays hundreds of eggs a day onto the soil, to be picked up by your other birds. One female roundworm can literally infect a whole flock. Chickens have no resistance to worms, neither do humans. Here's an example regarding hookworms, and yes, chickens can get hookworms as well as dogs, cats etc, they are zoonotic:
https://people.com/human-interest/teen-infected-hookworms-florida/

Insects and earthworms are carriers of different type of worms eggs and chickens eat insects and then become infected.
Next time you worm your birds, alternate with different wormers besides wazine. Benzimidazoles are best; safeguard, valbazen, flubendazole, as well as other types of wormers; pyrantel pamoate and levamisole, worm out gel, and a couple others I cant think of right now.
I worm monthly and rotate with valbazen, safeguard, pyrantel pamoate and wazine.
Tossing eggs in the garbage is up to you. If you suspect you or a family member might have a reaction to the residue in the eggs, then toss them and dont give them away nor sell them.
We eat eggs after worming and I'm still here.

I do feel like i should worm them once in summer and once in winter with some different kinds. Most of the year the ground here is solid, like you can't dig in it without a sharp metal shovel and even then it's tough, the chickens need to dust bathe in the old sand pit they've been trying all year to dig a hole in the actual dirt, no such luck. But then we get a few weeks in early winter where you can't step in the grass the dirt is pure slush and then in spring it rains for a few weeks straight and it's the same as early winter.
oh yeah hookworms are nasty, reptiles get them and they are a pain, that's why i don't feed my dragons crickets coccidia and hookworms are commonly found in the cricket digestive system (they're in most feeder insects but the dragon has gotten parasites from crickets four times and never from her super worms so suffice to say i don't trust crickets), and once an exotic animal has it they're a pain to get rid of and very dangerous (but this is a chicken thing not a lizard thing, sorry).
but yeah i recognise i defiantly shouldn't continue worming only with wazine three times a year, i thought wazine took care of most parasites, i was very wrong, I'm glad I've been set straight.
But the thing about this hen is she's healthy otherwise, like she's a healthy weight and very active and like a normal chicken, it's just confusing to me how most of her poo is liquid and she can act fine otherwise (and yeah, this has been going on since i got her at the beginning of winter so I'm pretty sure it's not because she's drinking more water then normal).
Thanks!