My Hen Has Coccidiosis, Now What?

[Goofy Chick]

Alright. Through careful reading on this site and other sites around the web, I have concluded that my hen (a bantam Mille Fleur D'uccle, eight months old) has contracted coccidiosis. She has all the symptoms (minus the bloody stool; hers is a green/yellow and bubbly).

I do have 9.6% Corid on hand, usually used for my goats. I know to mix it with water for a 9.5cc to a gallon ratio. Deal is, my chicken doesn't drink too much water since she got sick. However, she does love drinking some of our raw goat's milk. Would it be possible for me to mix the Corid with raw milk? Or could I simply give my hen an injection into the breast? How deep would the injection be? At exactly what place? How many ccs would I use?

Truth is, this is the first time I've dealt with this, and I don't really know what to do. I really love this hen (don't tell the others, but she's probably my favorite). What do I do?

 

[Eggcessive]

NO, NO, please don't inject the Corid! Putting a few drops of the undiluted Corid into the goat's milk sounds like a winner though. I would use your own judgement on the amount. You can also put it on feed if she is still eating.

 

[cafarmgirl]

When I have one that isn't drinking much I just use a small, needless syringe and slowly dribble the medicated water into the front of the beak every couple hours the first day. I don't squirt it into the back of the mouth, just slowly drop it in the front of the beak and let them swallow. They usually perk up and start drinking on their own by the next day.

I'm not sure about adding it to the goats milk. Milk products tend to coat the intestines, that's why things like buttermilk or yogurt is sometimes used to slow down a case of coccidiosis in the absence of meds, in doing so it may reduce the effectiveness of the Corid.

 

[Eggcessive]

I think that milk will coat the intestines to slow down the disease and soothe the bowel when you can't get the Corid right away, but I've never seen anything in literature about food affecting Corid, so I would doubt that the milk would matter. I'm not an expert on this, it's just my opinion, and I could be wrong.