Necrotic enteritis or coccidia? Vets could not diagnose and not seeing improvement with current trea

[txhall3]

Thank you both! Kathy I am sorry to hear about your peafowl, glad you have been able to pull them through! I picked up an antibiotic at the vet today and was disappointed that it was Tylan instead of the Bacitracin. The vet said she had no idea about the metronidazole in this application but would research it. I used the link you sent me Kathy which was helpful. They mentioned Tylan as acceptable for treating NE. I started her on it tonight and held off on the Panacur. No more ACV. Tonight the bowel symptoms are the same but she ate a little bit of my waterfowl starter food. Not ideal but at least it is non mealworm nutrition! If no improvement tomorrow morning I guess I will be learning to tube feed. Rest of the flock still seems fine thank goodness. I cannot tell you how much I appreciate your time!

 

[casportpony]

Tylan will work very well for NE!

-Kathy

 

[casportpony]

Let me re-phrase that "should work very well". I haven't used it, but lots of literature says it should work.

-Kathy

 

[txhall3]

Fingers, toes, and earlobes crossed! SO since you brought up the tube feeding idea I have been thinking and reading a few of your threads and I think I'm prepared to put on my big girl panties and just do it. A little known fact about me is that I managed to make it out of nursing school without ever having to place an NG tube. I was a labor and delivery nurse so it never really came up after graduation. I don't mind doing the feeding but placing it has always wigged me out for unknown reasons. I guess we all have our "thing" right? Mine are apparently shutting fingers in car doors and placing tubes down noses and throats. Anyway I wanted to just double check that you are still recommending the baby bird food from PetSmart. Lilah is 6.5 months old and about 2 lbs so it seems as though an 18 french would work. 50-60 ml twice a day depending on crop. Does all that sound right?

 

[Free Spirit]

You will get great instructions from Kathy. I'm assuming you read the material and watched the videos so you're familiar with what/how to do it.

I'm only posting here to say that it will be easier than you expect. You'll be surprised. You really can do this. Kathy is a great teacher. If you don't have or can't find a catheter tube a silicone airline hose for fish tanks cut to your needed length works well too.

 

[txhall3]

You will get great instructions from Kathy. I'm assuming you read the material and watched the videos so you're familiar with what/how to do it.

I'm only posting here to say that it will be easier than you expect. You'll be surprised. You really can do this. Kathy is a great teacher. If you don't have or can't find a catheter tube a silicone airline hose for fish tanks cut to your needed length works well too.

Thank you so much!

 

[casportpony]

Fingers, toes, and earlobes crossed! SO since you brought up the tube feeding idea I have been thinking and reading a few of your threads and I think I'm prepared to put on my big girl panties and just do it. A little known fact about me is that I managed to make it out of nursing school without ever having to place an NG tube. I was a labor and delivery nurse so it never really came up after graduation. I don't mind doing the feeding but placing it has always wigged me out for unknown reasons. I guess we all have our "thing" right? Mine are apparently shutting fingers in car doors and placing tubes down noses and throats. Anyway I wanted to just double check that you are still recommending the baby bird food from PetSmart. Lilah is 6.5 months old and about 2 lbs so it seems as though an 18 french would work. 50-60 ml twice a day depending on crop. Does all that sound right?

I promise you that placing the tube is in birds is nothing like doing it in other animals. Would it surprise you to know that one of my peacocks still like being tube fed even tough he's four years old? As do the pigeons I'm tubing.

Kaytee Exact is what I use on all birds (pigeons, doves, chickens, ducks, guinea fowl, turkeys and peafowl). How much did you say she weighed? Let me know how much she weighs and I'll think about how much I would give. Feeling a little dehydrated, so not thinking clearly right now.

-Kathy

 

[txhall3]

She weighed 2 lbs 6 oz on Tuesday but I know she's lost weight. Going to weigh her tomorrow but around 2lbs.
So funny about your birdies, I can't imagine that would be fun but you never know...
Well I guess a glass of wine wouldn't help your hydration but I feel like I owe you a bottle after all of your great advice today! If not wine maybe a gallon of Blue Bell ice cream.

 

[casportpony]

How is she today?

Okay.. so she's about 1kg (1000 grams). Total crop volume is said to be 5% of their body weight, so that would be 50ml, but that is too much to tube all at once, so a safe number to start with would be 15-25ml several tims a day. If she were mine I would start with 15-25ml of Gatorade or Pedialyte, then repeat in 60-90 minutes if her crop was mostly empty, and I'd probably do it again in another 2 hours, then start tubing food mixed at about 1 parts food to 2.5-3 parts water. Food should be tubed at least twice a day, but only if the crop is mostly cleared.

Please call your vet and confirm that it's okay to tube her.

@Free Spirit , anything you can think of?

-Kathy

 

[Free Spirit]

How is she today?

Okay.. so she's about 1kg (1000 grams). Total crop volume is said to be 5% of their body weight, so that would be 50ml, but that is too much to tube all at once, so a safe number to start with would be 15-25ml several tims a day. If she were mine I would start with 15-25ml of Gatorade or Pedialyte, then repeat in 60-90 minutes if her crop was mostly empty, and I'd probably do it again in another 2 hours, then start tubing food mixed at about 1 parts food to 2.5-3 parts water. Food should be tubed at least twice a day, but only if the crop is mostly cleared.

Please call your vet and confirm that it's okay to tube her.

@Free Spirit , anything you can think of?

-Kathy

Sound right to me. I did the math on the weight too and came up with 907g/.907kg figuring total crop at 45ml, so going with 1000g/1kg 50ml crop sounds good. Since you had me at feeding 1/2 of crop volume I'd say 15-25ml is spot on.

I did the initial liquid only and again after 1-1/2 hours then her first watered down feed (with 1 part feed to 3 parts water) 2 hours after that. Each feeding after that I slightly decreased the water each time until it was at 1 part feed to 2 parts water (I mixed it fresh each time with warm water). I was feeding every 4 hours (8am, 12 noon, 4pm, and 8pm) but Diamond was not eating anything and therefore her crop was always empty by the next feeding.