Lethargic, runny poop in 6 mo rooster - Treat alone or whole flock?

LanaB

In the Brooder
Apr 29, 2018
7
19
34
GA
I have a flock of 7, two roosters and five hens that are all around 6 months old. Last weekend the smaller roo (Flamingo, an olive egger) looked tired, started fluffing up his feathers, head tucked back, and holding his wings away from his body. He's also a little off balance while he tries to preen. He put out some green streaked poop, followed by what is best described as explosive diarrhea in the treat pan (not fun to clean btw), but I didn't see any worms or anything in it. His waddle was pale and dry.

After doing some research I thought maybe it was the heat (90+ degrees) so I mixed up some homemade pedialyte and we've been giving it to him twice a day. He's perked up a bit, waddle looks normal now, but he's still falling asleep standing up and fluffed up, just not himself. I sat with them for quite a while today but never did see him poop to see how it looks now. The nest boxes all have normal poops in them except for one that has a lot of runny stuff in it, I think that's his box. He's eating 16% feed pellets, cracked corn and mealworms, weeds & grass that I bring them, usually an apple or tomato or something from the kitchen, and is drinking water fine. His crop was empty this morning so I've ruled that out.

The other 6 appear to be healthy, some runny poos (not green or bloody) but also normal ones. They're all active and acting normal. Two of the hens are laying, the other three are due to start any week now. All 7 are kept in a covered wire coop with an enclosed, ventilated large roost with 10 nest boxes. Due to an abundance of loose neighbor dogs out here in the boonies, I don't dare free-range them.

My question is if it's safe for me to just treat Flamingo by putting a couple drops of Corid on his beak a couple times a day, while keeping him integrated with the rest? Or should I break down and treat the whole flock even if he's the only one with symptoms?
 
looked tired, started fluffing up his feathers, head tucked back, and holding his wings away from his body. He's also a little off balance while he tries to preen. He put out some green streaked poop, followed by what is best described as explosive diarrhea
he's still falling asleep standing up and fluffed up, just not himself.
My question is if it's safe for me to just treat Flamingo by putting a couple drops of Corid on his beak a couple times a day, while keeping him integrated with the rest? Or should I break down and treat the whole flock even if he's the only one with symptoms?
I would treat the whole flock, the Corid won't hurt them.

A couple drops per day is not going to treat a Coccidiosis overload.
He needs to have access to and be drinking the Corid medicated water during waking hours. If you have liquid Corid you can give him a direct dose at a rate of .10ml per pound of weight for 3 days - that is IN ADDITION to him drinking the Corid water.

Mix your Corid water fresh each day as follows - 1 1/2 teaspoons Corid powder or
2 teaspoons of 9.6% Corid liquid per gallon of water. Give for 5-7 days as the only source of drinking water.

Encourage him to eat as well, make his normal feed the main source of nutrition, treats are fine in limited quantities. With 2 cockerels and only 5 pullets, what are your plans and how much space do you have?
 
If you suspect it's coccidiosis then I would go ahead and treat them all, if that is what it is they have all been exposed. Corid is very safe and won't hurt anything if it's something else. Usual practice is to treat all birds that are kept together. I would give him the oral dose, and provide the treated water to all. If you have a vet that will do a fecal test for you, that would be a good idea, it will check for all internal parasites. Correct dosing for the oral dose of Corid is here: https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/corid-oral-drench-instructions.1211991/
Treatment chart is below for the water, use the severe outbreak dosing, and make sure it's the only water they have access to. Also do not give any vitamin supplements during treatment as it may reduce the effectiveness of the medication.
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Since they are 6 months old, I would suspect worms and not coccidiosis. Can you get a vet to do a float test for you? The test can find cysts as well as worms. Then you can treat correctly
 
I would treat the whole flock, the Corid won't hurt them.

A couple drops per day is not going to treat a Coccidiosis overload.
He needs to have access to and be drinking the Corid medicated water during waking hours. If you have liquid Corid you can give him a direct dose at a rate of .10ml per pound of weight for 3 days - that is IN ADDITION to him drinking the Corid water.

Mix your Corid water fresh each day as follows - 1 1/2 teaspoons Corid powder or
2 teaspoons of 9.6% Corid liquid per gallon of water. Give for 5-7 days as the only source of drinking water.

Encourage him to eat as well, make his normal feed the main source of nutrition, treats are fine in limited quantities. With 2 cockerels and only 5 pullets, what are your plans and how much space do you have?

Better safe than sorry, treating them all would make sure they're all healthy.

We're planning on building a smaller second coop next to the new one so we can start buying more pullets or hens and integrate them with the "look but don't touch" method. We also plan to eventually fence the area around both coops to give them a safe free range area. We bought two BBS marans and an olive egger from a lady nearby who hoped they were all pullets, one marans (Speedy) and Flamingo both turned out to be cockerels. They're both good birds so we didn't have the heart to get rid of either of them.
 
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If you suspect it's coccidiosis then I would go ahead and treat them all, if that is what it is they have all been exposed. Corid is very safe and won't hurt anything if it's something else. Usual practice is to treat all birds that are kept together. I would give him the oral dose, and provide the treated water to all. If you have a vet that will do a fecal test for you, that would be a good idea, it will check for all internal parasites. Correct dosing for the oral dose of Corid is here: https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/corid-oral-drench-instructions.1211991/
Treatment chart is below for the water, use the severe outbreak dosing, and make sure it's the only water they have access to. Also do not give any vitamin supplements during treatment as it may reduce the effectiveness of the medication.
View attachment 1559781

Since we have a PVC watering station, I bought a large separate waterer just in case I needed to treat them all. I can drain the pipes and use it instead.
 
Since they are 6 months old, I would suspect worms and not coccidiosis. Can you get a vet to do a float test for you? The test can find cysts as well as worms. Then you can treat correctly

Unfortunately we haven't found an affordable vet around here yet. We found a vet that mostly treats livestock, but they want almost $200 for a visit, so I'm trying to take care of it myself.
 
Here we can take or ship a poo sample to a lab at UC Davis for testing. It is in the $15.00 range for cost.

Check to see if you have something similar in GA
 

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