Lethargic Chicken with Diarrhea

[ten chicks]

The vet stressed that if Thunderhead turns out to be a hen we could not eat eggs from it. So maybe baytril is banned in productiom chickens. But he is getting the slicked back top knot of a male silkie and has a huge comb. Not too worried if he really is female. We have full sized chickens for eggs.

Thunderhead was walking around a bit this morning. His poop is still green but doesn't look as watery. I am going to feed him more for sure. See if I can't get him to eat some scrambledd egg or mealworms. He loves mealworms. I am going to give the baytril through today because I was told I should see improvement on the 3rd day. If by tomorrow he is still ot attempting to eat by then I will start Corid. Thanks guys. He still has me stumped but I have a plan of action. Hopefully I can save this bird.

Make sure he has access to grit. I hope your little one starts to feel better.

 

[Urchin]

I'll have to get some grit. How fine can grit be? I still have to force feed him. On bright side, he's up walking around a bit every so often, making a peeping/squawking instead of making a rasping sound when I handle him and his poop is back towards normal colors instead of green. It's a little orange for my liking, but if he's really got cocci, then I'm not surprised. I've been feeding him scrambled egg pureed with water in the blender, nonmedicated chick feed, again pureed, and forcing water medicated with Corid into him. He's fighting like hell through feedings and now hates being picked up. Poor guy. He's just going to hate humans after this.

WARNING! EDITING THIS POST TO ADD SOME POOP PICTURES.
















I put him out on some newspapers after feeding him in hopes he would poop so I could see it better than in the wood chips in his cage. He didn't disappoint. The first one looks pretty normal compared to the runny green stuff he was putting out. Sorry it's blurry. I took several shots but couldn't get the camera to focus.



Besides the orange part, this one had an egg white consistency to it. He had a third that was just pure liquid. But at least they're not green anymore, so the nutrition problem is getting solved, even if he's not eating on his own. He did eat a bug while he was out on the newspapers. Snapped it right out of the air. I wish I could tell if he's been picking at his chick starter.

 

[Urchin]

He's still not eating or getting any better. He's not backsliding, either for that matter. I was giving him water medicated with Corid into his food every time I tube fed him, but I found a thread on here that suggested giving a dropperful by mouth three times a day. I started that yesterday with no change yet. If he would just eat, I believe it would help matters out immensely. I'm feeding him about every three hours from seven in the morning to one or two in the morning, so he's not losing any more weight, but he's not gaining either. His poop is still very watery, sometimes green, sometimes a more normal color. I don't know if I should keep fighting for him or if it's time to just let him go.

 

[Urchin]

I'm just documenting Thunderhead's journey here now. He still needs to be handfed, but his poop is mostly normal. I'm still getting an occasional runny one, but I'm giving him electrolytes to help combat that. On the fourth, we went out to my parents' where the chickens are kept and took him along. I put him outside in a pen under a tree where he spent a couple of hours walking around pecking at things before he became tired. At home he gets to wander the living room on newspaper, but doesn't get to go outside because chickens are illegal in town. The thing is, now except for not eating on his own and getting tired more quickly than a healthy bird, he acts like a normal chicken. I have a kitchen scale to weigh him and he gained weight this week.

But he also struggled so hard against feeding that he dislodged his feeding tube last night and swallowed it. That meant another trip to the vet, an overnight stay and endoscopy in the morning to go get it out of his crop. A night without feed meant he lost quite a few grams that I'll have to put back on him, but the vet reported he scattered his feed around his cage. When I got him home, I placed feed in his tray in three separate piles and he's messed up one pile. So at least he's trying and maybe he's actually eating a few crumbles. Also last night when I was on the phone with the vet explaining the feeding tube situation, he was wandering around the living room pecking at the carpet. Hubby said he picked up a guinea pig poop that got kicked out of the pigs' cage twice before he got to Thunderhead to take it away from him. So, there's not a problem with his beak or anything. I'm just still scratching my head at what went wrong with him.

I forgot to add that a float test was done last week and there was no sign of cocci. No worms showed up upon fecal examination. Nobody knows what got to him, but he appears to be on the mend. Now if he would just get the desire to eat.

 

[Urchin]

Thunderhead has gained back all the lost weight with feedings. His poop is normal, except I have to watch out for clear, watery ones and hydrate him if that happens. He's still not eating, but otherwise acts like a normal chicken. He's in a pen in my mud room with a five-month-old pullet companion now that he's not showing symptoms of anything and that has cheered him up. Hopefully he can learn by example from her and start feeding himself. At this point I have to think it's neurological.

 

[SillyChicken]

if the occassional poop is runny and smelly, tha'ts a normal cecal poop..nothing that needs treated. Good job getting your chicken well!

 

[CatWhisperer]

have you ever given him a probiotic or some yogurt to help replace the good bacteria in his gut that the diarrhea and antibiotics may have depleted? I mix it with chick starter and my 4 week olds love it.

 

[Eggcessive]

Fecal float tests aren't always conclusive for testing of coccidiosis oocysts. See page 15 in an article about pig cocci: http://www.animalhealth.bayer.com/fileadmin/media/baycox/Baycox_Folder_A5_72.pdf

 

[Urchin]

have you ever given him a probiotic or some yogurt to help replace the good bacteria in his gut that the diarrhea and antibiotics may have depleted? I mix it with chick starter and my 4 week olds love it.

I think I need to try that. I'll have to force feed it to him, but I'll get it in him. Right now we're working on getting him to swallow. He seems to have forgotten how to do that. I'm just putting small pieces of food in his mouth and stroking his neck until it goes down. He drinks just fine, so it's just solids he needs to relearn.

 

[Urchin]

Fecal float tests aren't always conclusive for testing of coccidiosis oocysts. See page 15 in an article about pig cocci: http://www.animalhealth.bayer.com/fileadmin/media/baycox/Baycox_Folder_A5_72.pdf

If it was cocci, he'd probably be dead by now, plus his pen mate would have it. I knew I might be taking a chance, but I put my shyest, most docile hen in with him so he'd have company and she's still perfectly healthy over a month later. She taught him how to drink again.