How do I get this under control?

[foreverlearning]

No, age, weakness, and sometimes loose stool and/or blood in the stool are our only ways to tell without a test at a vet. I happen to think it is a louse or mite problem for lack of other symptoms, however you can never be too careful. The reason I gave you the link for the milk flush is because coccidial infections are in the bowel tract, it has been proven that by making the bowel tract acidic the parasites cannot live or thrive. All the items listed in the flush can be bought at walmart and most in the baking isle. The reason I think it is louse or mites is because I had 3 girls I bought from a swap, presented with the exact symptoms, and everyone told me it was coccidiosis because of their age. I didn't see any bugs on them until I lost the first one, when I spotted them I treated the other two (still didn't see any on them) and they were fine. Louse is soo small that it looked like a tiny flake of dandriff. You can get them by other birds flying by.

Blood may or may not be evident in the feces. The disease results in a decline in general health, a failing appetite and eventually a loss of condition. The precise mechanism of development of these signs and the details and degree of recovery from coccidial infections are incompletely understood. It is certain that the physiologic and cellular pathologic changes which occur in infected animals significantly affect their ability to throw off the disease and return to normal. Such changes can also be expected to affect the ability of the animals with clinical coccidiosis to resist other diseases.

 

[Lilfrogjr]

I went out to check on the girls again and take them watermelon w/rind..... and someone (not sure who) had a brown, soft (not runny, not firm) stool. This is the first one like this that I have seen.....

 

[Lilfrogjr]

And for mites(if this is what we are dealing with) other than the poultry dust, what should we be doing?

 

[foreverlearning]

Every 5th or 6th stool will be soft to runny naturally for chickens, see how often it happens. For Mites and lice, both require a good cleaning. I prefer sevin (red bottle in garden), it is cheap and easy, and when it dries it harmless to the girls. When it comes to mites, there is a little more work. They live in the wood so any unsealed wood needs to at least be painted. Any paint will do, I used outside house paint when I built my coop. Also any oil based paint will seal the wood. You can tell with mites tonight, just go out there with a flashlight and look really good. They should be in the corners and near the roost. Louse are harder to see and find. If it is either louse or mites, you want to repeat cleaning and dust in two weeks to get any hiding or hatching.

 

[Lilfrogjr]

Thank you for all the info! Hopefully we can get whatever this is figured out.... I'm going in the morning to purchase the Corid...... If it is the coccidiossis, how soon should we see improvement with meds?

 

[foreverlearning]

It depends on how bad the girl is, however in most cases around 24 hours. Did you read up on it? There is a 5 day treatment to take care of it and a 21 day treatment to prevent it. Both are the same med just difference in how much to give. Corid is always good to have around. The 5 day treatment is what you want to start with, ten chicks gave the instructions for dosage in post #3. I would also suggest making your own mother acv to put in the water after treatment is done on a regular basis. To make it you buy a gallon of regular (cheap) acv and a small bottle of mother acv (unfiltered). Put a splash of mother in the gallon, let sit for a month, then you have cheap mass amounts of mother acv. It helps the birds in so many ways to stay well. During treatment the only thing you want in the water is the Corid as many things will reduce the effectiveness, and treat your whole flock just incase. Let us know how it works.

 

[Lilfrogjr]

I will keep you updated......What about the duramycin 10 at the same time as the Corid? Maybe the eye symptom is a secondary infection?

 

[foreverlearning]

They suggest not. It is up to you, but it is like antibiotics in us one is great but 2 might not work as well at the same time. If you choose to do both at the same time, I would suggest an extra day or two of the Corid just in case. I posted earlier part of the study that said while they were messing around with the doses there weren't any signs of overdose. This is good for those of us that don't measure perfectly. In fact around here a glug IS a proper form of measurement. lol. Think of your girls like your kids when it comes to health, go with your gut it is usually right.

 

[Lilfrogjr]

This morning I went to let them out and Annie (my son's Bantham) was making a sneezing/coughing sound?

 

[Lilfrogjr]

I prefer to use essential oils on ourselves we when start having symptoms of anything.... I don't typically like to use medications, especially antibiotics. I can't afford to mess around with the girls right now though with as quickly as we lost Miss Belle.