Only symptom...

[hmeadq]

We have 30 ladies and one rooster. One of our girls, a 4 year old now has runny dieherea, and a puffy bottom... She seems fine is running around eating and seems un-phased by her illness....

We are thinking the best thing to do is treat them all with one course of antibiotics...

But how do we decide what the cause is?

 

[threehorses]

Antibiotics are unlikely to fix this. It's more likely a yeast issue, or a bacterial imbalance which will only worsen as antibiotics kill the good bacteria of the gut. You'd really have to know it was an E. coli infection, and you can't know that based on only those symptoms.

First, try to get her digestive tract back in a correct working order by replacing the good bacteria which usually keep the droppings solid, as well as (through competition) keeping other pathogens (yeast/fungi, bacteria, cocci) more under control.

You can do that in one of three ways:

Using acidophilus capsules from the grocery/pharmacy - the contents of one emptied capsule or one crushed tablet per bird per day.
Using plain yogurt - 1 teaspoon per bird per day during this period.
Using a prepared livestock probiotic like Probios brand dispersible powder.

Make a quickly eaten damp mash by mixing one of the above with a little water and then mixing that with crumbles.

Be sure to offer her both plain water and some with pedialyte or electrolytes in it tomorrow (or gatorade in a pinch) to help replace whatever she lost with the diarrhea.

Do the probiotics for a week.

Then please while you're doing that, could you answer the questions on the second sticky of the forum - only type the answers here? That gives us a start on a flock history so we can more accurately help your bird.

Also, please let me know the following:
Is your flock on a worming regimine (do you worm twice annually or has this bird been wormed?)
Are the droppings jetting out or just runny? Are they frothy? What color is the diarrhea?

When you say puffy bottom - is the skin red and irritated and swollen? Or if you delicately feel between her legs and back to her vent is it mushier than normal? Or lumpy? Or does it feel like there are fluids?

Have you seen any blood or orange or mucus int he droppings? Stringiness?

Does she have access to compost piles, any soured or wet feed, decaying hay or vegetation?

I would definitely NOT recommend an antibiotic at the moment, as they're very specific to certain bacteria and not usually digestive ones. And again - the digestive system relies **heavily** on good bacteria - which are killed back whenever antibiotics are used, causing more diarrhea, causing more dehydration, without necessarily addressing the problem she has. So at this point, it's not worth it and might harm.

We'll do the best we can if you can provide the information I've asked for. I very much look forward to your reply.