Runny yellow poop, cecal worms? (Picture)

Thedogsbark

Chirping
Jan 29, 2017
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I have a young hen with runny yellow poop, something I have seen before in previous pullets and hens of mine a few months back. I lost around six hens to whatever this is before it tapered down and all was normal again. It was quite traumatic, as I lost both of my first ever hens. I sent one for a necropsy and one thing it came back with was "And a mild to moderate worm infestation (no worms were found to aid with species identification, but egg morphology and location was consistent with Heterokissp/cecal worms.)"
From my understanding these can cause blackhead, correct? My current hen with similar poop is having the same symptoms as the others before they passed as well. Losing weight, tail drooping, moving around slowly, sleeping standing up for the most part. I really do not want to lose any other chickens to this. Please help me determine is it is blackhead, and what I can treat it with quickly.
Picture of poop.
e5fe1699f1b1cc05fde6e6f941c449bf.png
 
The cecal worms have to be infected with the protozoa that causes blackhead. You have to worm your chickens first in order to get rid of the host cecal worms, then use metronidazole 250mg twice a day for 5 days to treat for blackhead.
I recommend getting a necropsy performed on your sickest bird to verify that it's blackhead.
 
Cecal worms very rarely show any clinical signs in chickens, and while chickens can get blackhead disease to some degree, it's not common at all and a disease of turkeys rather than chickens. It's not something I'd think of given your chickens' symptoms. I would suspect some sort of enteritis before I'd go to parasites, and if parasites, something other than cecal worms. A necropsy is an excellent way to be sure.
 

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