Lethargic Chicken, Yellow Diarrhea, PLUS regular droppings?

[Henhouse Harlot]

I'm so glad he's feeling better!

 

[Eggcessive]

Good that the Valbazen is in. DE can be very irritating to eyes and lungs in both the chickens and you. I don’t use it.

 

[762]

Good that the Valbazen is in. DE can be very irritating to eyes and lungs in both the chickens and you. I don’t use it.

If we are dealing with worms, how long after Valbazen should we see diarrhea start to clear up? We are still seeing a significant amount. Chicken will only eat crumble and not the mash I made for it. Drinking but not as much as I’d like.

 

[Eggcessive]

Valbazen works over several days. I would try to use some probiotics to help with getting the bowel flora back in order. Probios (or the store brand) powder is good, and some use a little plainngreek yogurt or buttermilk that has cultures. Cottage cheese also may help to firm up droppings.

 

[762]

Valbazen works over several days. I would try to use some probiotics to help with getting the bowel flora back in order. Probios (or the store brand) powder is good, and some use a little plainngreek yogurt or buttermilk that has cultures. Cottage cheese also may help to firm up droppings.

I noticed some yellow runniness on the backside of another rooster (not lethargic, though). I decided I should probably dose the entire flock (26 birds). I made 25 small pieces of bread and dosed each with .5ml Valbazen. My plan was to let each bird out of the coop this morning one by one and feed them a piece of bread as they came out. Utter failure. The OG sick bird ate his dose readily the other day, but we could not get ANY of the other birds to eat the bread today. All of them rejected it.

I ordered a 1ml syringe (should be here tomorrow) and I guess the next plan is to hold each one as they come out and inject directly into their mouth.

Is there a better way to worm the whole flock? I'm kinda hesitant about worming all of them, tho. Should I?

 

[Eggcessive]

Oral dosing to individual birds is the best way to make sure they each get a proper dose. Unfortunately Valbazen does not mix in water, and will settle out. Some use grapes or other foods. I have given it in scrambled egg, but deworming that many birds is chaos if you try to do it in food. If your vet could run a fecal float on some fresh combined droppings, they could tell you if there are any worm eggs present, and what types. Lethargy can occur due to any illness, so you may want to just worm the sick bird, and then get a fecal float.

 

[762]

Oral dosing to individual birds is the best way to make sure they each get a proper dose. Unfortunately Valbazen does not mix in water, and will settle out. Some use grapes or other foods. I have given it in scrambled egg, but deworming that many birds is chaos if you try to do it in food. If your vet could run a fecal float on some fresh combined droppings, they could tell you if there are any worm eggs present, and what types. Lethargy can occur due to any illness, so you may want to just worm the sick bird, and then get a fecal float.

Well, it's dead. It seemed to be doing OK all day...no improvement, but it was moving around in the isolation pen yesterday and today. Drinking water and eating. I went to the store to get some yogurt and came back to it dead. Super sad. And frustrating.

We started off with 29 chicks and are now down to 25 after about 19 weeks. Pretty sure the first one died due to something stuck in its crop. I'm ok with that and chalked it up to a learning experience. But the other three have died of illness, and I don't get it. All three had very different symptoms.

I'm going to see if I can get a necropsy for this one. Seems like we are not having very good luck.

 

[Eggcessive]

Very sorry for your loss. If you want to try and get your statsd vet to perform a necropsy to help find a cause of death, keep the body cold, not frozen, and call your state vet from this list tomorrow morning:
https://www.metzerfarms.com/poultry-labs.html