I can't figure out if this is sour crop, cocci, or something

[heir_flick]

completely different.

I lost one 3yr old cochin hen yesterday to this mystery disease, and now another hen is down. They haven't been in direct contact, and my mom bleached the surface that the cochin died on.

I also have a 2yr old male turkey who seems to be suffering from the same thing. He has been battling this thing for about a month. He has lost a considerable amount of weight, his poo is runny green/yellow, and his eyes keep sealing shut with a crusty substance.

I can't tell what is going on, really. It may be a combination of two or more different things.

The one common sympton of the two hens is the watery crop. Other than that I am completely befuddled and would love to have some help.

 

[Glenda L Heywood]

the turkey must have sinusitus and the hens may have the green diahrrhea as for the watery crop well that would be a fact of what they are eating

and some sour crop issues such as botulism

for botulism you need to put epson salts in the water

1 cup of epsom salt to 5 gallon of water
so 1 gallon of water is to have a 1/5 of cup of epsom salts for three days

Here is some help from my friend Nathalie Ross "threehorses"on tukeys with diarrhea and sinusitis



Projectile diarrhea - no matter what's causing this, these birds need a hard care treatment of good bacteria in their systems. They also are going to need electrolytes in their water to help with all the fluid they're losing through their diarrhea.

I'm wondering about blood simply from intestinal irritation from the diarrhea. For that reason, and that reason alone, I wouldn't say that I would be convinced that everything but coccidiosis has been ruled out for these babies.

Because of my suspicions, and the other suspicion that E. coli more often presents as that sort of diarrhea more so than coccidiosis, I would not treat with corrid - I'd go with Sulmet.

Here's my reasoning.

Sulmet is sulfamethazine.
Sulmet is used for treatment against bacterial scours in cattle, which just happens to be E. coli. It also is used against Coryza, Pastuerella, and Salmonella Pullorum in poultry. It's an old fashioned sulfur drug, very broad spectrum, safe for babies, easy to give.

This is a strange case, so I'd hit it broad spectrum.

Terramycin would be my second choice, For the same of simplicity, that's why I'd treat with Sulmet. First, see if you can get that diarrhea in check with it. Then if you do, and you continue to see respiratory symptoms, reevaluate (based on whether or not you see any improvement at all) and then consider another antibiotic like Terramycin, Lincomycin, Tylan, etc.

Because of the possibility of E. coli, I'd also drop a capsule of E vitamin into their feed as glenda's article recommends. I would heavily use probiotics for every other day of treatment as well as two weeks after treatment. My choice would be probios, but yogurt is fine. During the after-treatment, use apple cider vinegar (organic) in t heir water. I like about a scant teaspoon per big chick waterer, tablespoon per gallon waterer, etc. You shouldn't really be able to smell it except maybe just a trace.

Their premises, additionally, will need to be kept very very clean. Keeping them on wire for now would be great: you can disinfect it. Some people say adding protein causes a bloom in cocci. Personally, I don't like to change feed when a bird is sick especially with anything digestive. The only time I do change is to use something to get them to eat probiotics, or when the birds are weak. In your case, I'd keep them on their feed, if you use yogurt use it with water and crumbles to tempt them. Personally I'd also probably not feed oatmeal as it's a change in fiber that their systems aren't used to, and their systems aren't in the mood for change at the moment. Changes cause bacteria to get off balance, and we need them as stable as possible at this point.

On the congestion, I'd highly recommend a little bottle of VetRx. It has the same sort of decongestive effect that Vicks does for humans. However, I think the ingredients in Vetrx have a little bit of antibacterial effect - only a tiny bit. I do know that it helps birds breath, which means oxygen is getting into those sinuses. Oxygen kills bacteria. Stuffed sinuses fester and are hard to heal. You can use it, diluted, on clean q-tips (one per nostril, etc) to clean their nostrils, swab the roof of their beaks to clean where their sinuses drain into their mouth, it fumes into their sinuess upwards which helps. If they sleep with their beaks under their wings, put some there diluted. Or use as directed in their water so that when they drink, they coat their own beaks and get the vapors into their sinuses. (Always do the swabs, though, either way.)

Of course, separate them. Always do the sick birds last. Wear clothes you can toss in the washing machine, shoes you only use in their area. They sneeze, those droplets go all over the place. You walk into your other birds, you bring the germs with you.

On the non-sick birds, give them probiotics and watch them very carefully.


Another alternative, of course, is culling. It depends on what philosophy you use with your birds. At this point, I don't think it's quite necessary, but it's something to keep in mind and hope you won't have to do.

I will add the Vitamin E,selenium wet mash probiotic in next post

any questions email me

 

[Glenda L Heywood]

for the chickens and turkey you need to use the
wet mash probiotic with Vitamin E and Selinium

1 qt of dry crumbles
1-1/2 qt of milk any kind
1/2 cup of yoguart
and for each chicken in flock and turkey put in one 1000 mg of vit E cut end off and add to mix
1 vit B complex for each chicken and turkey fed crushed and put in the wet mix
1 tablet of Selinium crushed for each chicken and turkey fed this
mix good

feed this for several days twice a day till their health and manure get better

check and see where the chickens are getting any spoiled feed or water
as that is what causes the sour crop
the flush is this

1 pt of warm water
1/2 cup of baking soda
fill a childs ear syringe with soda water
put bird on table in front of you
then put filled syringe in back of throat of bird and empty into its crop
thwn bring the hand up accross the crop pushing out the sour ingredients
do this at least three times
to clean the sour crop out
may have to do this second day
shouuld keep birds off grains and lots of feed
so their crop can heal from the trama

any questions email me

email me with any questions

 

[heir_flick]

(thanks for the responses so far, it's really helping!)

Note, the turkey is paralyzed and the skin of his head is pinkish when it should be a darker red color. He's pretty much not savable. he's too far gone. But I'd like to know if he's contagious so i can move our other turkey as far away as possible.

 

[Glenda L Heywood]

WELL WITH THAT SAID HE HAS MAREKS
AND IS NOT SAVEABLE
ALL THE WHILE HE IS SLUFFING OFF DANDER TO THE CHICKENS

it would be best to take him out of the picture
and do feed the chickens what I told you as they will need nervous system help
these vitamins at strength I quoted are a must for these chickens for two weeks at least

1 qt of dry crumbles
1-1/2 qt of milk any kind
1/2 cup of yoguart
and for each chicken in flock put in one 1000 mg of vit E cut end off and add to mix
1 vit B complex for each chicken and turkey fed crushed and put in the wet mix
1 tablet of Selinium crushed for each chicken fed this
mix good
any questions email me