ongoing chicken issue, advice needed

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Chickenslol said:
whelp, she’s not much better and not much worse. eating, a little bigger stools, but still pretty small. gave her the recommended probiotic, as well as some ACV. i poked around online and found that Bacitracin could be helpful? should i give it a shot? seems strange because most packages say external use only but i had like three websites say it could be beneficial. anyways here’s a picture of one of her most recent stoolsView attachment 2928156
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Bacitracin has been used in the past in chicken feed to help prevent enteritis in commercially raised chickens, but is no longer available to most people in feed stores. Most antibiotics were banned in 2017 from most feed stores. Zoetis manufactures it according to some online sources, but I would be reluctant to use that without a vet diagnosis. Asking your regular large or small animal vet to just run a fecal float and a gram stain for bacteria, worms and coccidiosis would be best.
 
Eggcessive said:
Bacitracin has been used in the past in chicken feed to help prevent enteritis in commercially raised chickens, but is no longer available to most people in feed stores. Most antibiotics were banned in 2017 from most feed stores. Zoetis manufactures it according to some online sources, but I would be reluctant to use that without a vet diagnosis. Asking your regular large or small animal vet to just run a fecal float and a gram stain for bacteria, worms and coccidiosis would be best.
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closest vet is an hour away, last time i got an app plus fecal float test and it was 225 dollars and the chicken died 48 hours later. then i went to an animal hospital the next time one of our girls got sick and we waited until 4am having come there at 7 and the chicken also died. i really wish vet was an option but i might treat until she gains some weight and then give corid a last shot, other than that idk what more i can do.
 
Chickenslol said:
whelp, she’s not much better and not much worse. eating, a little bigger stools, but still pretty small. gave her the recommended probiotic, as well as some ACV. i poked around online and found that Bacitracin could be helpful? should i give it a shot? seems strange because most packages say external use only but i had like three websites say it could be beneficial. anyways here’s a picture of one of her most recent stoolsView attachment 2928156
Click to expand...

Her dropping looks like she passed something very toxic or bacterial. I have seen droppings similar to that in some really sick hens i had. Once the black exited their system, it was a few more days of recovery. Hopefully she doesnt have a lot more to go before it is all out of her system. I sometimes see droppings like that on occassion but none of my chickens are chronically sick, so it may be a good sign to see whatever is in her passing.

I dont know for sure what more to help her. Electrolytes, vitamin K maybe. Oregano is a natural antibecterial and contains vitamin K. If you could get her to eat some green oregano maybe would be beneficial.

Im on the fence with cocci treatment. On one hand amprolium may be beneficial if she does have cocci concurrently with the enteritis, but on the other hand her diarreah is fairly watery and clear.

What are you worried about most if she continues as she is? Is it her weight being very low? What is she eating? Can you supplement any high nutrient food like liver?

Hope she pulls through!
 
Update: we found an avian anti biotic at Walmart? says it’s intended for birds and can be used to treat digestive infections. Going to pick it up tomorrow and give it one last shot. https://www.walmart.com/ip/Morning-Bird-Enrotex-Antibiotic-Formula-for-Birds/654707015

edit: goodness i feel like a crazy person re-reading this, as i’m reading more I’m getting conflicting information. On Chewy it says that there is a 14 day withdrawl period, but on the same website it says not to use for animals where the meat or eggs are going to be eaten. If the eggs were just for me I wouldn’t worry, but I sell them to my neighbors, so i have to be careful.
 
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Banana01 said:
Her dropping looks like she passed something very toxic or bacterial. I have seen droppings similar to that in some really sick hens i had. Once the black exited their system, it was a few more days of recovery. Hopefully she doesnt have a lot more to go before it is all out of her system. I sometimes see droppings like that on occassion but none of my chickens are chronically sick, so it may be a good sign to see whatever is in her passing.

I dont know for sure what more to help her. Electrolytes, vitamin K maybe. Oregano is a natural antibecterial and contains vitamin K. If you could get her to eat some green oregano maybe would be beneficial.

Im on the fence with cocci treatment. On one hand amprolium may be beneficial if she does have cocci concurrently with the enteritis, but on the other hand her diarreah is fairly watery and clear.

What are you worried about most if she continues as she is? Is it her weight being very low? What is she eating? Can you supplement any high nutrient food like liver?

Hope she pulls through!
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I feel it is important to mention that my birds have already been through a bout of Cocci in May, one of my birds passed for it but i managed to get a fecal float and treat the rest. I know that this can predispose them to enteritis



i am most worried not that the bacterial infection will not pass, but that she will not be strong enough to fight it. She has not been laying, she has lost significant weight, and she is not eating as much as she should. She has been drinking a lot, just not really eating. I even gave her scrambled eggs (she usually loves) and she did not seem that interested. She seems more interested in roaming the basement when i let her out of the quarantine bin. I’ll try oregano, as well as the antibiotic i hope to get. Hopefully she will be well enough to re-join the flock in a bit. I put her out briefly, but she was miserable and fluffed up in a corner.


also she has not been laying. She was in the beginning of the illness, but suddenly has stopped sometime during the duration of the illness. Not surprised considering how underweight she is
 
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Chickenslol said:
I feel it is important to mention that my birds have already been through a bout of Cocci in May, one of my birds passed for it but i managed to get a fecal float and treat the rest. I know that this can predispose them to enteritis



i am most worried not that the bacterial infection will not pass, but that she will not be strong enough to fight it. She has not been laying, she has lost significant weight, and she is not eating as much as she should. She has been drinking a lot, just not really eating. I even gave her scrambled eggs (she usually loves) and she did not seem that interested. She seems more interested in roaming the basement when i let her out of the quarantine bin. I’ll try oregano, as well as the antibiotic i hope to get. Hopefully she will be well enough to re-join the flock in a bit. I put her out briefly, but she was miserable and fluffed up in a corner.


also she has not been laying. She was in the beginning of the illness, but suddenly has stopped sometime during the duration of the illness. Not surprised considering how underweight she is
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You are a commercial farmer, so can not just give antibiotics without researching which are allowed and what are egg withdrawals for the approved antibiotics.

That antibiotic you found is enrofloxcin. I use a lot of enrofloxin where i live, but if you are selling eggs, I cannot recommend enrofloxacin because it would be violating the usa laws and regulations regarding commercial poultry. I am just a pet keeper and live outside the usa, so the rules dont apply to me, only for commercial hens which you have. I eat the eggs no matter what medicines i use generally.

Enrofloxin probably cant be used in a commercial hen. Be very sure you can use this in your laying hen and still sell the eggs, the egg withdrawal period is undefined because it has been banned in poultry. But if you read around on various research, two weeks is adequate.

Terramycin (Oxitetracycline) would be a better choice for your hen. But I dont know if it is available in oral in the usa, and i dont know if you would be comfortable making an oral solution from a gel.

If you do use it, be very careful with enrofloxacin dosage. Too much can cause irreversible harm to the hen.

Another off the books idea, neosporin contains bacitracin. You could give her some neosporin mixed with water orally. But really that is something I maybe would do, but never had the need to. The worst side effect of consuming neosporin would be if your hen had an allrgic reaction. So you could dose your hen with bacitracin by giving her oral neosporin.

None of the ingredients are fda regulated, except you have to check the egg withdrawal for all three antibiotics in neoaporin. Its probably a bad idea again because you are a commercial farmer.

Interestingly the ingredients in neosporin are all edible. And it contains the original antiviotic you were looking for.

Screenshot_20211214-000545_Chrome.jpg
 
i’ve come to the conclusion that she is probably starving because of her condition, so my number one priority should be stopping that. i’m going to give her the lowest enrofloxin dose i can, and tube feed her some sugar water because she needs to get her strength up. after that i’ve done all i can, if we go another week and she is the same i might make the decision to cull because she is in so much pain. hopefully @Banana01 has a good theory and it will flush from her system soon, but i unfortunately can’t rely on that right now. she’s been a good hen, i’m ok with her passing, but i hope that she will recover, she has acted as the protector of the flock and i’m sure they will suffer if she dies. i’ll keep you updated.
 

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