pooping blood and worms! SOS! help!!

[jeannieo]

a couple of weeks ago I went into the coop where I have six seven week old babies separated from the rest of the flock which is 13 adult chickens and six sixteen week old "teenagers" and I found one little poop just swimming in blood (I'm a fairly newbie). Didn't see it again so thought it could be a fluke (please don't condemn me for being stupid!

) Anyway I had another teenager that had always been smaller than the rest and a few weeks ago I went out and she was not doing well at all, could hardly stand and was very lethargic. I took her to my "certified avian vet" They didn't have a clue and don't get me started on that either !

anyway they shot her full of fluids and did a gavage feeding and I brought her home, she slept in the house and in the morning she was fine (I thought). Some of the others had been picking on her and when I went out one day she had a HUGE hole pecked next to her tail. I could see bone!

I washed it good, poured peroxide on it, and packed it with neosporin (Like I read right here on BYC) and kept her in a crate in the house. about a week later, she was healing nicely so I put her back in the coop in a wire crate so the others could see her and get used to her again. Little by little I was letting her out in the general population and monitoring. when I saw pecking, I put her back in the crate.So finally I identified the worst offenders (two teenaged roos that had to go anyway) and I took them to the farmer who said he would take them and not eat them

. When I got home Audrey (the little hen) was with everyone else and they were all getting along and she was great. When I went out to lock the coop, she was snuggled into a bag of shavings peeping and cooing. In the morning she was on the floor so weak I thought she was dead

. I rushed her to the "certified avian vet", they gave her oxygen, presented me with an $800 estimate to try and save her. I burst into tears and said I couldn't afford that so they whisked me into an exam room so the other clients wouldn't see my distress. the vet tech came in and said she was pretty far gone and seizing. I told her about the time before when they gave her fluids and nutrition and sent her home and why couldn't we do that. the vet tech said well, yes, we could try that. then she came back and said she was too far gone and if they tried to feed her, they were afraid she would aspirate and choke. So I made the very difficult and sad decision to have her put down.

They never once mentioned that it might have been cocci which is what I am thinking from reading stuff here. sorry to appear to be rambling but it makes sense to me

.
SO! the point of all this rambling is this afternoon there was a pool of blood in the pen with what I thought was poop but on closer inspection saw that it was worms!

I don't know who left me that little present and my question is cocci or worms? don't tell me to go back to those quacks again. when the main guy retired, they have just gone downhill and all they see is dollar signs!

should I treat for both disorders? I'm seeing so many different treatments here that I am very confused!!

 

[purpletree23]

jeannieo....we just moved from CT to NH and I know who you are talking about. Very sad indeed. Anyway there are others who know so much more than I do but I would treat for cocci first and then worm them. Are you sure they were worms in the blood and not maggots? Forget everything I just said and PM threehorses. I know that she can help.

Good luck darlin

 

[shay20]

Quote:
I agree treat for cocci and then for worms, Use Sulmet.
It is very hard to treat a bird with more than one problem, I have had to go through that kind of problems with mine. But when mine got respiratory colds i was looking at everything on what to use how to use and when to use.
And from what i learned from looking it up, is that you can not treat the bird with more than one med at a time, because it has to consume the right amount of meds for the the treatment.

Good luck,
And i am soooo sorry you went through that. I had the same well almost the same thing happen to me at the vet about my oldest cat.
But i refused to put her down and she did not make it with a 10 min , they told us her heart stopped and we said to resuscitate her , they tried 3 times, and her heart started very faint for a second and that was it.
She died from her kidney failure.
I know it hurts when you are presented with that decision.

I really hope the others will be ok.

 

[numamahen]

so sad to hear your story - I am a new chicken owner too. Was skating along enjoying the ride and eggs when one of my girls was dead in the coop last week for no apparent reason and then when I started observing more, the bloody poo started, it was so disappointing. We are to the end of a week of cocci treatments, my DH thinks I am nuts. I am just tired and worried and disappointed that my 20 eggs a day have dropped to 3 and will they come back in the next 10 days as I have been bragging to my fellow teachers that I will have "fresh" eggs this fall when returning to school!! Feel like a dope!! I also have 25 - 5 week old meaties I was going to have ready for the end of September. Oh boy!! not what I wanted!!

I asked about weather being related to the cocci because it seemed to come out of the blue, we were on vacation and came back to torential rains. It has been cool otherwise. I think I am resigned to the fact I won't figure this out. I dont' think it came from the 5 week old meaties, but it could have, it also could have come from naturally occuring cocci on the ground from other birds/animals.

I know there is ALOT of info out there. I read tooooooo much about treating and cleaning. I haven't gotten done what I was planning to before returning to teaching. I don't have a great recommendation except, if you do start treating because you have other chooks, follow through with the cocci treatment (I used corrid in a mash for two days and also in water for now 7 days) and am looking forward to starting with a probiotic mash now to try to build the gut back up.

I chose to treat all 50 birds since we were traveling back and forth with out changing shoes so I know we tracked in poo from each area. Anyways, I have another week before I get kids back in my classroom and start grad school again. My DH is so good about getting up in the morning and feeding everyone and making certain water is filled. I also pulled all of my bedding for the big girls to watch the poo, they HATE the brown butcher paper I put down & come flying out in the mornings to avoid walking on it. It's hopefully almost done now. We are all stressed out!! So please know there are others out there having the same struggles but there are alot of good/knowledgeable chicken lovers out there. I think I have gotten to the point when I look at the treatments and see what is similar and kind of average the treatments.

So treating for cocci with the wet mash I used is just 1 qt feed with 2qts water treated with 2 tsps of Corrid. I also used a gallon of water with 2 tablespoons of corrid and I included my 18 drops of electrolytes. Most of the poo is well formed, I have a couple runny but no more blood! I did the wet mash for 2 1/2 days and then just the treated water to make a week of treatment. Tomorrow I start with the probiotic mash that includes buttermilk, applesauce, yougurt, vitamin e. I am going to make certian my one really sick one who has recovered, it directly fed this concoction. I even went and bought baby vitamins today - no iron. On top of all of it I have a broody one that I keep trying to dropper feed medicated water and for two days caged so she would eat and I could watch her poo - just in case!!!! Anyways, enough ramblin - as you can see, too much to think about! Hang in there though - know that there are MANY who care.

 

[jeannieo]

I love BYCers!!

thanks so much for the info!!