milky diarrhea and listless chickens

[Sabrina24]

Back in January we had one of our chickens die, she had had diarrhea for several months (we did worm them during this time). It was sometimes bloody but usually just watery and almost milky looking. For the last 2 weeks or so one of our chickens started having similar diarrhea, but no blood that I have noticed. She has also had scaly leg mites that is finally starting to look better. I started using Rooster Booster (I know it has mixed reviews) and adding GSE to their water. This chicken the last 2 days seems to be less active and not interested in treats. Now another one this morning started to leave the coop and seemed to fall asleep on the step. A couple hours later I found her in a corner of the coop just huddled down. I'm afraid she is going to die today. We have had a lice problem and have treated all the chickens twice with DE. We noticed a big improvement on them after the first treatment and were glad to see it. Should I call my local store and see if they have Corid? I don't know what to do. I feel like we have had terrible luck with our chickens since we got them and I'm feeling frustrated. Hawk problems and diseases left and right. We feed them an organic feed, give them fresh water. I clean the poop board every 1-2 days and pick up droppings/feathers off the floor at the same time. We have 3 pens that we alternate them through every couple weeks. I feel like we are responsible chicken owners but it feels like it doesn't matter.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

I would suggest taking a fecal sample to your vet to have a fecal float test performed.
They can check for parasites, bacterial/fungal infections.

In case it happens to be dietary, I would go back to giving just plain water, their normal poultry feed and a few treats (fresh fruits/veggies).

IMHO you need to address your lice problem with Poultry Dust. DE is not effective when there is an infestation. Lice/mites can cause health problems if there is an overload. Clean out all bedding and treat your coop as well.

 

[Sabrina24]

Thank you for your reply! She passed away a few hours later and when I moved her I also separated the other sick chicken. I cleaned the board yesterday and used a bleach solution on it so I have no other sample right now. I did find a few local vets that do birds so if I can get one I will bring it in. Would it be worth testing a healthy chicken? We have 10 day old chicks in the coop right now. We have them on organic starter but I am thinking about starting medicated feed and switching them to a nipple waterer also. Here is a picture of the board with the poop I was talking about, it looks like there is a little blood in it now, but there hadn't been before. I keep reading how it is usually young chickens that die from cocci but ours are have all been about 2 years old. They are skin and bones too when it happens. I will look into the poultry dust as well, thank you. We really did a big improvement after 1 good dusting with DE and adding wood ash to their dust bathing area. We did a second dusting since.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Thank you for your reply! She passed away a few hours later and when I moved her I also separated the other sick chicken. I cleaned the board yesterday and used a bleach solution on it so I have no other sample right now. I did find a few local vets that do birds so if I can get one I will bring it in. Would it be worth testing a healthy chicken? We have 10 day old chicks in the coop right now. We have them on organic starter but I am thinking about starting medicated feed and switching them to a nipple waterer also. Here is a picture of the board with the poop I was talking about, it looks like there is a little blood in it now, but there hadn't been before. I keep reading how it is usually young chickens that die from cocci but ours are have all been about 2 years old. They are skin and bones too when it happens. I will look into the poultry dust as well, thank you. We really did a big improvement after 1 good dusting with DE and adding wood ash to their dust bathing area. We did a second dusting since.

I'm sorry for your loss.

You may want to take a fecal sample in, just to be sure.

Chickens can have Cocci at any age, but generally at 2yrs old they should have built enough resistance for it to not bother them. With them "wasting" it could be disease, possibly worms. What did you worm with?

If your 10day olds are in a coop where other chickens have lived, then you may want to switch to Medicated Starter (IMO), it has a small amount of Amprol which is a Thiamine blocker which helps slow the growth of Cocci while they build resistance. Medicated Starter won't prevent Cocci and chicks can still become overloaded and need further treatment with Corid, but for "preventative" purposes it may be all you need.

I understand not wanting to use chemicals when treating your chickens, I try to research anything I treat with. I do use ash in the run. A lot of people do use DE for dust bathing and treatment of lice/mites (with mixed results) but if you see improvement, that's great. Poultry Dust is pyrethrum based, so you may want to research it and see if it's right for you. I think getting them out of the coop is harder than getting them off the chickens.

If you do happen to have another die, you may want to send it for necropsy, this way you know what you are dealing with.

http://www.metzerfarms.com/PoultryLabs.cfm
http://www.usaha.org/Portals/6/StateAnimalHealthOfficials.pdf

 

[Sabrina24]

At the time we had Wazine, it only kills round worms, but my understanding is that is the most common one to affect chickens and it was all our local store had. I will pick up medicated feed tomorrow and I'm hoping to take in a fecal sample tomorrow (do you know how much it has to be, there is a small one from her today). I was pleasantly surprised to find several local places that work with birds so hopefully we can get some help. I didn't think my husband would go for a necropsy but he is on board, I will be looking into it tonight, I haven't been out there in a couple hours due to dinner and getting kids to bed, but I'm pretty sure we lost her too. Thank you for all your tips. Oh, and do you have a preferred wormer? I really hate having to go through a withdrawal, which is one of the reasons we used the Rooster Booster, but clearly we are doing something wrong.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

At the time we had Wazine, it only kills round worms, but my understanding is that is the most common one to affect chickens and it was all our local store had. I will pick up medicated feed tomorrow and I'm hoping to take in a fecal sample tomorrow (do you know how much it has to be, there is a small one from her today). I was pleasantly surprised to find several local places that work with birds so hopefully we can get some help. I didn't think my husband would go for a necropsy but he is on board, I will be looking into it tonight, I haven't been out there in a couple hours due to dinner and getting kids to bed, but I'm pretty sure we lost her too. Thank you for all your tips. Oh, and do you have a preferred wormer? I really hate having to go through a withdrawal, which is one of the reasons we used the Rooster Booster, but clearly we are doing something wrong.

I'm so sorry you are having trouble.

I don't think you are doing anything wrong. I know 2yrs. seems young that can be "old" when it comes to chickens and their system starts to break down. Reproductive/internal laying disorders, cancer, etc., is fairly common. There are so many things that can happen and go wrong.

They need a very large sample, so get what you can. Hopefully you will be able to get some insight into what is going on. I'm gad you were able to find some vets that work with birds.

Withdrawal for worming stinks, so you may want to wait until you get fecal results, your problem may not be worms. Some people wait until egg production goes down in the winter to worm or when hens stops laying during molt to worm so they don't have to throw away quite as many eggs. A couple of good wormers are Valbazen 1/2 ml orally and then repeated in 10 days for each chicken or Fenbendazole (Safeguard, Panacur) at 1/4 ml per pound for 5 days in a row.

Let us know how it goes.


http://www.the-chicken-chick.com/2015/11/control-treatment-of-worms-in-chickens.html
http://www.the-chicken-chick.com/2012/04/answers-from-chicken-vet-on-worming.html

 

[Sabrina24]

The report from the necropsy basically said the oviduct got infected. It could be because the oviduct of older hens can take longer to retract, or because older hens sometimes carry extra weight, or from vent pecking, all of which can allow bacteria to enter. My only question that wasn't answered is if it is treatable should another hen show similar symptoms. The report did say the ovary was atrophied (out of production), so I'm not sure if treatment would have allowed her to lay again. I have already emailed the office once asking questions and would hate to bother them again so if anyone has any ideas that would be great. I am really glad I did the necropsy. We had a place just 45 minutes from our house so I dropped her off and heard back the same day. Completely worth the $35 for peace of mind, or to know if it was something we needed to change now.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

The report from the necropsy basically said the oviduct got infected. It could be because the oviduct of older hens can take longer to retract, or because older hens sometimes carry extra weight, or from vent pecking, all of which can allow bacteria to enter. My only question that wasn't answered is if it is treatable should another hen show similar symptoms. The report did say the ovary was atrophied (out of production), so I'm not sure if treatment would have allowed her to lay again. I have already emailed the office once asking questions and would hate to bother them again so if anyone has any ideas that would be great. I am really glad I did the necropsy. We had a place just 45 minutes from our house so I dropped her off and heard back the same day. Completely worth the $35 for peace of mind, or to know if it was something we needed to change now.

I'm glad you were able to get a necropsy.
An oviduct infection may be hard to treat, but if you have a hen that shows similar symptoms you may have some success with antibiotic treatment. I would think it depends on what bacteria is the cause. If it is something like Salpingitis, the symptoms usually don't show up until the infection has taken great hold and treatment is usually not successful. Hopefully someone else may have a better answer than I.
http://www.thepoultrysite.com/diseaseinfo/134/salpingitis/
http://www.merckvetmanual.com/mvm/p...productive_system/salpingitis_in_poultry.html