On the mend, but still questions: UPDATE, 20 week old banty wormy as heck,

[Mtn Laurel]

In reading your posts, your problem sounds somewhat like what I was going through with one of my girls last month. She was just "off" and I couldn't initially find any symptoms. I first thought it was a social issue between her and two older hens. Then things went from bad to worse and she quit eating, was fluffed up, drinking a lot, and had greenish diarrhea with what appeared to be undigested food in it. She was a sick little girl.

Daughter is a vet tech so I had her droppings tested. Yep, sent my daughter to work with a bag of poop. No worms. [I was surprised at that] There was some cocci - not necessarily an excessive load - and also spirochetes, which I'd not heard of before. The vet said to start corid, which I did. But I'd been through cocci in the spring and she didn't respond to the meds as my other birds had done when they had cocci. I then wondered about the spirochetes.

Did some research and found that they were the culprit, not the cocci. Got her on meds - an antibiotic - quit the corid and she's just fine now. I had a thread on this, the link is below if you're interested in the details of the symptoms, meds, etc.

Link> https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...in-droppings-but-meds-dont-seem-to-be-working

It's amazing what they can tell from a stool sample. You might want to have one done if you've not done so. It might find something entirely different than you think.

 

[Leahs Mom]

In reading your posts, your problem sounds somewhat like what I was going through with one of my girls last month. She was just "off" and I couldn't initially find any symptoms. I first thought it was a social issue between her and two older hens. Then things went from bad to worse and she quit eating, was fluffed up, drinking a lot, and had greenish diarrhea with what appeared to be undigested food in it. She was a sick little girl.

Daughter is a vet tech so I had her droppings tested. Yep, sent my daughter to work with a bag of poop. No worms. [I was surprised at that] There was some cocci - not necessarily an excessive load - and also spirochetes, which I'd not heard of before. The vet said to start corid, which I did. But I'd been through cocci in the spring and she didn't respond to the meds as my other birds had done when they had cocci. I then wondered about the spirochetes.

Did some research and found that they were the culprit, not the cocci. Got her on meds - an antibiotic - quit the corid and she's just fine now. I had a thread on this, the link is below if you're interested in the details of the symptoms, meds, etc.

Link> https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...in-droppings-but-meds-dont-seem-to-be-working

It's amazing what they can tell from a stool sample. You might want to have one done if you've not done so. It might find something entirely different than you think.

That is fascinating. Thanks for posting the link.

 

[aoxa]

I don't recall reading that you were supplementing her with vitamin water. Are you Rebecca?

We have this additive called Stress Aid. I used this with my first bout of Cocci until I could get the Corid from the vet. It helped greatly. They perked right up.

It is more than just basic electrolytes. It has vital vitamins and minerals.

 

[lalaland]

That is fascinating. Thanks for posting the link.

Yes, thank you. Now I am regretting that I didn't take the time off work and get a fecal test! makes me wonder, I've never felt cocci was the issue but as a last resort thought it was worth a try.

aggravating that I was betting wrong on this one.

I don't recall reading that you were supplementing her with vitamin water. Are you Rebecca?

We have this additive called Stress Aid. I used this with my first bout of Cocci until I could get the Corid from the vet. It helped greatly. They perked right up.

It is more than just basic electrolytes. It has vital vitamins and minerals.

I have been dowsing her every other day with polyvisci or whatever the iron free liquid child meds are. And have been using eletrolytes in her water on the opposite days. Haven't seen stress aid, sounds perfect.

This morning, she ate a tiny bit of liver (1/8 tsp), an equivalent amount of cottage cheese, and maybe 1/2 tsp of groats. Not enough to sustain herself.

 

[Mtn Laurel]

Yes, thank you. Now I am regretting that I didn't take the time off work and get a fecal test! makes me wonder, I've never felt cocci was the issue but as a last resort thought it was worth a try.

aggravating that I was betting wrong on this one.

Do you have access to Duramycin-10 so that you could try it to see if it works? If she has a bacterial infection, it might resolve it even if she doesn't have spirochetes. Sounds like you don't have anything to lose at this point. I got mine at Tractor Supply, it's in a foil pouch-like package and wasn't with the rest of the antibiotics. In fact, they told me they didn't have it at all [my store is in a suburban area and the staff isn't very adept at such stuff]. I happened to glance over as I was leaving the antibiotic area and spotted it in with goat stuff. Just glad I found it. It was relatively inexpensive, I think under $6.

 

[lalaland]

Mtn Laurel,
how is your hen with the spriochetes? No more symptoms?

I saw the duramycin yesterday when I was picking up the corid. I think you might be right about nothing left to lose. She is the sole banty in the flock, part of a mixed up order, and I'll never hatch anything from her - so she is more a odd, unexpected addition to the flock than anything.

I can't tell you how many people, including people I have great respect for, have told me to get the stool sample checked!

 

[Mtn Laurel]

Mtn Laurel,
how is your hen with the spriochetes? No more symptoms?

I saw the duramycin yesterday when I was picking up the corid. I think you might be right about nothing left to lose. She is the sole banty in the flock, part of a mixed up order, and I'll never hatch anything from her - so she is more a odd, unexpected addition to the flock than anything.

I can't tell you how many people, including people I have great respect for, have told me to get the stool sample checked!

She's absolutely fine with the exception that she's not begun laying again. Probably not an opportune time for her to get sick with the days getting shorter. I figure it might lay her egg-laying off for quite a while. Her poo is totally normal, can't tell it from the other birds. She's eating, is preening, scratching, sun bathing when she can find some sun, etc. She is also hanging out with the rest of the girls more. She was always a bit of a loner and has never been as friendly or outgoing as - say - the barred rocks. She's my only Easter Egger and was really an accidental bird. I hadn't planned on any EE's but the farm store held 6 chicks for me and she was in the bunch. Of course, she's so pretty and her eggs such a lovely shade of blue that we became very fond of her rather quickly.

The meds worked really fast with her, a marked improvement in 24 hours. In all fairness to you, it's not easy getting stool samples from just one bird unless you cage it overnight. I was just lucky that she pooped when I was standing right there. Not to mention that my daughter works for the vet so it wasn't like I had to make a special trip. I might not have gotten that sample to the vet's otherwise.

Good luck!! Please let us know how she's doing. I'll be watching!

 

[lalaland]

good to know you saw improvement so fast. Doesn't sound she was as ill as Mrs. Murphy...who is basically a walking skeleton. she's trying, though.

 

[Mtn Laurel]

good to know you saw improvement so fast. Doesn't sound she was as ill as Mrs. Murphy...who is basically a walking skeleton. she's trying, though.

No, I don't think she was as sick as your girl sounds. While she'd been acting odd for a few weeks prior, she was still somewhat eating and her poo was okay until the very last week when she went downhill fast and I had her stool tested. That's one reason I didn't think it was cocci as I thought cocci would have killed her by that time, especially if you include the few weeks where she acted "off". Cocci moved much faster on my other girl in the spring.

As long as she's drinking you should be able to get the duramycin down her. Fingers crossed!

 

[lalaland]

mrs murphy was in a bad way last night, and I figured I would cull her this morning. I sat with her, and dribbled the water with duramycin in it on her beak, did it for about 30 minutes, using one of those plastic syringes that holds only one ml - very easy to control. she would swallow, close her eyes, rest. open, I would dribble, she would swallow....you can see how painstakingly slow it was. I got about 5 curds of cottage cheese into her. tried quinoa, she was very interested in the seeds, and at a few more groats.

Let her rest a half hour and dragged her out again and repeated the water and got 2 more curds of cottage cheese into her.

Had a dropping with water, an undigested groat, yellow bile, and a tiny bit of something red - intestinal lining or internal bleeding? first red I've seen.

So, of course, this morning she was up and waiting at the kennel door. Marched out! tail up! I had brought in a few clover leaves, and she snatched them up. Had eaten some of the food in her kennel, couldn't tell how much. She ignored the few crumbles and groats I tossed out for her and went straight to the container with the groats and started eating.

I brought in a big handful of clover, dandelion, and grass, and she was grabbing it out of my hands. She previously has not had the strength to pull a clover leaf off the stem, no problem this morning.

She went back to the kennel, scratched in the hay, sat down and snoozed. You have to understand that she didn't just fall into a sitting position, she lowered herself! and her tail is up.

so, this could be that final misleading improvement before death, or it could be a miracle of a wild guess at an antibiotic last ditch hail mary.

I am home today, so can frequently coax her to eat a little. Am making a scrambled egg for her to see if she will eat that - it was not accepted a few days ago.

Culling was scheduled for tomorrow, it is still on if she doesn't eat today a significant amount.