roost diarrhea (with photos) - what to do?

[cityeggs]

They are some wild flowering onion - definitely not chives, unfortunately; I think they are glassy onion, allium hyalinum, or something very similar. They pop up all over our yard around this time of year when it rains, and they used to be mostly concentrated in where we naively decided to site the chicken coop and run. I spent hours and hours digging and sifting them out of the soil last winter, but I'm sure I missed some.

 

[azygous]

It's not going to harm your chickens to nibble on the scant few left. The damage onions do is over a long period of consumption. It harms red blood cells, but it has to be cumulative exposure. I wouldn't worry too much about a few shoots.

 

[cityeggs]

Good to know I don't have to worry about a sprout or two around.

So the last 2 mornings, her crop has still been hard, though maybe smaller, first thing in the morning. I've given her coconut oil right away, a brief massage, which seems to make it go away, and then let her out with the rest. Aside from that one day where there were possibly more solids on the dropping board, the last 2 days have been back to watery, though maybe a little more food showing up. This morning, it looked like there was undigested crumble in it. And I've seen her have more diarrhea in the morning - today's was watery with small 1/4" chunks - normal color, but I didn't get a photo. The one day that I think there was more solid on the dropping board was the day I gave her coconut oil before bedtime - any reason to try this again, based on that one day? It also could've just been a coincidence - so hard to tell. I thought she might eat more food if it cleared earlier in the day, but without fully separating her, I have a hard time telling how much she's eating any day, unless I hang out all day.

I have also given her a hard boiled egg before bed, as well as mash throughout the day and she's only eaten some of the egg even when left alone with it, where normally she'd fight everyone else off to eat it all.

I haven't given Corid or dewormer yet. The day I could've gone was the day she looked better, so I hesitated bc it's a whole trip to the closest place that carries either, and since then, I've been dealing with sick kids on top of sick hen and holiday craziness. I should've just gotten some shipped and would have it by now, so I will have to either do that today or take a trip to get some - things don't seem to be improving at any rate that I can see.

So, my other two are still laying - I think I've seen that you have to throw out the eggs while de-worming, is that correct? And if so, for how long? Is there a specific dewormer you'd use if you don't know what parasite you're trying to cover?

Do you throw out the eggs too if I just give Corid? Sorry - I know the answers are somewhere in the forum, but somehow I seem to be missing the articles that have all the info in one place.

 

[cityeggs]

Update - I've now given Corid at the "severe outbreak" dosage (2tsp/gal of 9.6%/day) for the last 5 days, and the diarrhea has continued - no change; if anything, it's worse. She still has a hard crop every morning. I have not given coconut oil every day, but a few times and tried to massage it - it clears pretty quickly when I do, but I've noticed no change in poop. I tried feeding her egg before bed in hopes that would be easier to digest, but no change in poop with that either and still a hard crop the next morning.

I waited to deworm mostly bc there's been so much going on that it was hard to coordinate the weighing etc. and fathom dosing daily, but also she seemed a little better last week, so I figured I'd try Corid first to see if it was necessary to de-worm. Since I haven't seen any change on the Corid, I plan to start the fenbendazole.

I haven't gotten someone with a better sense of smell out there to check to make sure she doesn't also have sour crop, so I will try to do that today too.

I'm just confused as to what is causing the hard crop that seems to clear quickly but reappear every morning. Do you think I should try coconut oil at bedtime instead of first thing in the morning? Or give her a Colace before bed to see if that does any better than coconut oil? Morning and night time for a few days? Could she just not be eating grit?? Or does it sound more like an obstruction??

 

[cityeggs]

@azygous

Today is the first day of lower dose Corid after the "severe outbreak" dose for 5 days - no change; if anything, someone else either has a little diarrhea also now, or Monarch (the patient) moved around on the roost a lot last night, and I think hers may be worse - the dropping board has been very wet the last few mornings.

Everyone is now weighed, so I can start dosing with Safeguard. I also had my husband smell their breath finally and he said Monarch smelled a little like bread dough, and the others didn't, though my mom has a better sense of smell, so I will have her double-check later today. Does that constitute sour crop, or possibly not?

Assuming Monarch does smell sufficiently funky, should I treat her with miconazole AND Safeguard, or should one come first? And since her crop still feels hard every morning, but softens up quickly, do I keep doing coconut oil in the AM every day until it's empty in the morning? Should I add a dose before bed? or switch to Colace? I feel like the only time I saw more solids on the dropping board possibly from her was the day I gave her coconut oil before bed, but that could have just been a coincidence, or someone else's!

We're headed out of town for a few days in 10 days so I want to make sure whichever medicine I start, we're done before we leave, so the chicken sitter doesn't also have to give medicine!

 

[azygous]

If any chicken seems sick, do the Corid drench dose for those chickens. This is in addition to the Corid water. Drench dose is around .5ml undiluted Corid once a day for three days.

You can safely treat with Corid, worming med, and the miconazole all at once. None of those will interact with each other.

The hard crop in the morning would call more for coconut oil. But is the chicken smells yeasty, I would definitely do the micanzole to be safe. Impacted crop can turn into a sour crop if the crop doesn't empty soon enough. It does no harm to treat if you aren't 100% certain of a yeast infection. Better to be safe. Giving oil before bed is actually a great idea.

 

[cityeggs]

Update: I finished the miconazole last week and she seems to be better - no more diarrhea on the dropping board, though I am still seeing the occasional loose stool around the coop/run throughout the day (though, today's more loose than normal cecal blob was from someone else, which I will keep an eye on).

Before I left last weekend, her crop in the morning was still a little hard, but a very small knot, not the entire thing like before, and broke up easily, but she was going to bed with a mostly empty crop, which was worrysome. I did give her a day or two of mash with whey, and that seemed to appeal to her more than regular food. I haven't checked since we got back from our trip, but plan to do so tonight and tomorrow morning.

Also before I left, I had also seen one dropping that was almost all grit, as well as a bunch of droppings on the board that had undigested plant in them towards the end of the miconazole treatment (small, dried and intact fir needles - I don't know where she got them - as well as small wood shavings), but I haven't seen any since then, which is also an improvement.

She re-grew her tail in the 4 days we were gone, and it's now up and alert most of the time, though her comb is still shrunken and pale. But there are still lots of wing and underfeathers all over the dropping tray every morning, so she's clearly still molting - it seems like she's on the slow and steady molting pattern instead of the all of a sudden naked one.