I think my hen had coccidiosis

[rewild]

One of my red star hens, Hazelnut, about 1 year old, was euthanized at the vet today. Starting yesterday, she became extremely lethargic and listless and stood separate from the flock. She didn’t go home to her chicken tractor last night and I had to put her in myself. Today she was worse. She stood in a corner of the tractor by herself hunched over and with ruffled feathers. I checked for egg binding, nothing, checked for lice and mites, nothing. Her crop wasn’t impacted and her comb looked fine. I brought her inside and syringe fed her water since she wasn’t interested in drinking it or eating scrambled egg on her own. She had really runny poops too. When I put her in the pen I made for her she wouldn’t stand on her own so that’s when I decided to take her to the vet. At this point, I’m texting 3 different people trying to get advice and I’m getting 3 different answers. One persons saying worms, ones saying she’s probably egg bound (though I checked for that), ones saying coccidiosis. I took her to the emergency exotic vet and they looked at her and told me they wanted to do bloodwork and X-rays and hospitalize her to the tune of $1000. I love my chickens and so does my mom but my mom wasn’t paying for that and I don’t have that kind of money. Without the testing, they didn’t know exactly what was wrong with her but the vet suspected something neurological bc apparently (I hadn’t noticed this) she was leaning to one side and only opening one eye. And of course it could be an infectious disease. We decided to have her humanely euthanized, sadly. I’m left with a dead chicken and no answers. Should I be concerned about the rest of my flock? How can I protect them? If it is coccidiosis what can I do to treat it? Thank you in advance for reading and answering.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

I'm sorry to hear about Hazelnut.

At 1 year old, Coccidiosis is not something I would first think of. Lethargic, hunched over and ruffled, I would suspect a reproductive disorder. Internal Laying, Peritonitis, cancer, etc. can be fairly common in laying hens.
Without a necropsy or testing - it would be speculation to know what was going on.

Interesting the vet suspected something neurological - did they say anything like Marek's or?
If you suspect Coccidiosis and/or worms to be an issue - a fecal float would give a lot of info about that. If another test isn't possible, then you would treat your flock for both.
Corid is a Coccidiostat and is found in the cattle section of Tractor Supply. This treats Coccidiosis. It comes in liquid or powdered form. Liquid Corid dose is 2tsp per gallon of water and Powdered Corid is 1 1/2tsp per gallon of water. Give for 5-7 days as the only source of drinking water.
Safeguard (Fenbendazole) can be used to treat most worms except for tapeworms. Dose is .23ml per pound of weight given orally for 5 days in a row.

If you happen to lose another hen in a short period of time, it may be worth your while to have a necropsy performed. Depending on what state you live in, the fee may be affordable - seems like pricing is all over the place - some states offer free services while others are quite expensive. https://www.metzerfarms.com/PoultryLabs.cfm
Some of us do our own informal necropsy to see if we find anything obvious, if that's something you wish to do, then we can give you information about that as well.

 

[rewild]

I'm sorry to hear about Hazelnut.

At 1 year old, Coccidiosis is not something I would first think of. Lethargic, hunched over and ruffled, I would suspect a reproductive disorder. Internal Laying, Peritonitis, cancer, etc. can be fairly common in laying hens.
Without a necropsy or testing - it would be speculation to know what was going on.

Interesting the vet suspected something neurological - did they say anything like Marek's or?
If you suspect Coccidiosis and/or worms to be an issue - a fecal float would give a lot of info about that. If another test isn't possible, then you would treat your flock for both.
Corid is a Coccidiostat and is found in the cattle section of Tractor Supply. This treats Coccidiosis. It comes in liquid or powdered form. Liquid Corid dose is 2tsp per gallon of water and Powdered Corid is 1 1/2tsp per gallon of water. Give for 5-7 days as the only source of drinking water.
Safeguard (Fenbendazole) can be used to treat most worms except for tapeworms. Dose is .23ml per pound of weight given orally for 5 days in a row.

If you happen to lose another hen in a short period of time, it may be worth your while to have a necropsy performed. Depending on what state you live in, the fee may be affordable - seems like pricing is all over the place - some states offer free services while others are quite expensive. https://www.metzerfarms.com/PoultryLabs.cfm
Some of us do our own informal necropsy to see if we find anything obvious, if that's something you wish to do, then we can give you information about that as well.

Thanks for your condolences. I didn’t even think of reproductive disorders. Thanks for bringing that up. It’s definitely a possibility. We didn’t do a necropsy but definitely will if another hen passes. Thanks for the information about Corid and safeguard. I’m going to treat the flock tomorrow after a TSC run. I’m also going to do a full clean of the chicken tractor in case it was anything contagious. I really hope it was an isolated incident. I don’t want to lose any more hens.

 

[rewild]

I'm sorry to hear about Hazelnut.

At 1 year old, Coccidiosis is not something I would first think of. Lethargic, hunched over and ruffled, I would suspect a reproductive disorder. Internal Laying, Peritonitis, cancer, etc. can be fairly common in laying hens.
Without a necropsy or testing - it would be speculation to know what was going on.

Interesting the vet suspected something neurological - did they say anything like Marek's or?
If you suspect Coccidiosis and/or worms to be an issue - a fecal float would give a lot of info about that. If another test isn't possible, then you would treat your flock for both.
Corid is a Coccidiostat and is found in the cattle section of Tractor Supply. This treats Coccidiosis. It comes in liquid or powdered form. Liquid Corid dose is 2tsp per gallon of water and Powdered Corid is 1 1/2tsp per gallon of water. Give for 5-7 days as the only source of drinking water.
Safeguard (Fenbendazole) can be used to treat most worms except for tapeworms. Dose is .23ml per pound of weight given orally for 5 days in a row.

If you happen to lose another hen in a short period of time, it may be worth your while to have a necropsy performed. Depending on what state you live in, the fee may be affordable - seems like pricing is all over the place - some states offer free services while others are quite expensive. https://www.metzerfarms.com/PoultryLabs.cfm
Some of us do our own informal necropsy to see if we find anything obvious, if that's something you wish to do, then we can give you information about that as well.

I have a question, can I use horse Safeguard to deworm chickens? Or does it have to be chicken safeguard? It’s a paste. I just happen to have it on hand from my horses. Thanks in advance.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

I have a question, can I use horse Safeguard to deworm chickens? Or does it have to be chicken safeguard? It’s a paste. I just happen to have it on hand from my horses. Thanks in advance.

Yes, you can use the Safeguard Equine Paste, it's the same dose at the liquid. Use a small syringe to pull/draw the paste out of the tube so you get the correct amount.

 

[rewild]

Yes, you can use the Safeguard Equine Paste, it's the same dose at the liquid. Use a small syringe to pull/draw the paste out of the tube so you get the correct amount.

Okay, great, thank you so much!