Input on Diagnosis - Diarrhea

[CarolineSpark]

Early stage diarrhea - June 16

june 18

after 1 dose of med june 19

june 21

june 23

june 24

june 25 - noon

june 25 - noon

I am new to chicken keeping, and this is my first experience trying to nurse a chicken back to health. Wondering if anyone can help with figuring out what's going with Petal? Thanks for any input you might offer!

Petal is a Rhode Island Red pullet, almost 20 weeks old, hasn't started laying yet. About 12 days ago she started looking sick - lethargic, closing one or both eyes, hanging out by herself. I

I isolated her in a hospital cage, and observed her - no diarrhea at first, just low in energy.
no-one else in the flock showed signs of illness, she perked up and i let her roost with the flock.

But next day she was tired again after little activity, so I put her back in isolation and watched her some more.

That night I found her crop was hard and round, seemed like it was impacted, so gave water in a syringe and massaged her crop - next morning, big poop, no more hard crop.

Good! Thought that was it and she was fine so put her back with the flock.

But she continued to tire quickly, closing one or both eyes and staying still all day. So put her back in her hospital crate. Then the diarrhea began, and low energy continued, also her comb started to droop.

Took her to local vet - fecal float (nothing showed up), throat and vent swab, and CBC. The vet we saw didn't give us anything to treat her with, or a diagnosis though she thought it migth be kidney problem. She also said she'd send the samples off to a lab for testing the next day -- but this wasn't done soon enough though, so all the samples were wasted

At least a more experienced vet intervened before the blood sample coagulated, and a slide of blood revealed high white blood cell count. He prescribed erythromycin (by syringe, 2ml x 2 daily for 7 days) We are now on day 6, 2 more doses to go.

After 3-4 days Petal was much improved - and now after 6 days of meds, her energy is normal, she's eating like a horse, and has gained weight nearly 1/4 of her body weight, poop is approaching normal (it varies, sometimes normal (firm, white on top), occasionally runny but not as bad as before, also what looks like cecal poop seems to happen more often than 1 per 8-10 poops)

I am going to consult again with the vet who prescribed the antibiotic, but meanwhile thought I would post some poop pictures and see if anyone has any ideas about what this might be, recommendations, etc..

Thanks in advance! Petal is an awesome chicken - Thanks on her behalf I included a photo of her so you know her by her face not just her awful looking poops!

 

[True Patriot]

Since she seems to be improving give her a couple of days. Antibiotics can cause gastrointestinal distress by killing the beneficial digestive bacteria. The changes in poop may be reflecting this.

 

[Eggcessive]

It is very hard to tell what is wrong when they become lethargic and separate themselves from the flock. Some chickens with Mareks disease will close an eye, according to one of our BYC posters, and also from other threads I have read. Don’t be alarmed, since that is not a diagnosis.

Reproductive disorders are more common in hens two and over, but occasionally I have seen a few young pullets who have problems. It sounds like some infection somewhere since she has rebounded with the antibiotic.

Honestly, most of us do not know what is wrong with out sick chickens until we either do a brief necropsy at home after death, or get a necropsy through the state vet or poultry lab.

Did they test her for coccidiosis when they did the fecal float? Crops can become slow to empty when some other illness is going on. Hopefully, she will make a complete recovery. I am glad that you were able to get her seen by a vet, even though some of the lab work was ruined. If you see one again, you may want to ask for a gram stain of her poop to look for enteritis and clostridium perfringens. That responds to many antibiotics such as erythromycin, so good that she is responding.

Probiotics if her feed contains them, or give plain yogurt for several days during and after antibiotics to repair her gut bacteria.

 

[CarolineSpark]

Thank you so much everyone for all your helpful input, it is great to be part of a group of knowledgable chicken folks.

They did a fecal float on her first vet visit and found one single coccidium (or whatever a single unit of this is called!) we are going back to pick up more antibiotic today as they dispensed too little but the good thing is we get to see the chicken experienced vet, and he will also run a centrifugal fecal test. I will ask about the gram stain too.

Happy to report that Petal is doing really well - all healthy poops so far today, and in fine spirits, acting like her old self!

Her comb is still floppy - can anyone tell me about that? Once a comb flops might it not stand up again? or does it take time for that to happen when fully recovered?

 

[Northern.Ontario]

Should be laying eggs by 18-20 weeks. Sounds like a reproductive disorder.

Likely suspect: http://www.theveterinaryexpert.com/backyard-poultry/egg-yolk-peritonitis/

 

[adickenscoop]

Have you tried using the chicken symptom checker tool? - http://www.poultrydvm.com/views/symptoms.php

 

[CarolineSpark]

Happy to share the good news that Petal is completely recovered and back with the flock, after two weeks of Erythromycin by beak x 2 per day. I learned a lot about how to administer meds to a chicken. None of the other chickens got sick. Thankful to the vet who knew what to do, and to all of you for your input!

 

[Eggcessive]

Did the vet suspect what was wrong? Glad to hear that she is back to normal.

 

[CarolineSpark]

No, my understanding is that he looked at her blood under a microscope (couldn't send away for testing, the sample coagulated) and there were a lot of white cells indicating an infection of some sort somewhere. He did another fecal test this time with some kind of centrifugal process instead of a fecal float, but again nothing from that. So it was one of those things we'll never know but just thankful the antibiotic cleared it up.

She has begun laying, and is fine except for her floppy comb, which is looking perkier but still floppy. I am interested in combs - what makes them flop, how is that related to health/sickness? once they flop can they go back up again? what is it about being sick that makes them flop? does anyone have a detailed source of info about combs?