sick chickie

[jkulp00]

Oh and not to be gross, but does poop caused by Blackhead have a very very strong, unpleasant, but very sweet smell? it's terrible. After I deal with her i have to take all of my clothes off and wash them bc they absorb the smell even from the air

 

[casportpony]

Metronidazole is Flagyl, which one needs a prescription for, but many poultry owners buy Fish-Zole for tropical fish. You *might* be able to find it at a tropical fish store, but most people buy theirs online. I get the 250mg tablets from Valley Vet: http://www.valleyvet.com/ct_detail.html?pgguid=30e07300-7b6a-11d5-a192-00b0d0204ae5

Fenbendazole is Safeguard for Goats/Cattle (fenbendazole 100mg/ml) and you can get that at Tractor Supply: http://www.tractorsupply.com/livestock-wormers/safe-guard-reg-goat-dewormer-125-ml-2226898

 

[casportpony]

Oh and not to be gross, but does poop caused by Blackhead have a very very strong, unpleasant, but very sweet smell? it's terrible. After I deal with her i have to take all of my clothes off and wash them bc they absorb the smell even from the air

That sound more like coccidiosis to me. My blackhead poops smell pretty normal for poop, but coccidiosis is really bad. Treatment for coccidiosis is Corid (amprolium), which is also at supposed to be at Tractor, but there have been some stocking issues with it.

 

[jkulp00]

Thank you

 

[jkulp00]

Isn't my bird too old for cocci? She's almost 2... and there has been NO blood in her poop

 

[casportpony]

Isn't my bird too old for cocci? She's almost 2... and there has been NO blood in her poop

The oldest ones I have had a necropsies on were 4 month old peafowl, so I don't know... The three that died from coccidiosis never had any blood, just nasty, smelly poop. They where also severely thin and dehydrated and one had visceral gout. FYI, they weren't my birds, they were at the feed store and I sent the bodies to the lab.

 

[jkulp00]

So now I have no idea what to do.... treat her with corid or treat her for blackhead? Any harm in doing both?

 

[casportpony]

So now I have no idea what to do.... treat her with corid or treat her for blackhead? Any harm in doing both?

Do you have either of the drugs on hand?

 

[jkulp00]

no. just the tylan... i would have to go on a med hunt tomorrow to find the corid and/or the blackhead meds

 

[cowcreekgeek]

Now, before ya get too concerned? Blackhead is just this one guy's best guess, based upon little information ... it ain't definitive, yet. And, my personal experience w/ it is nil ... I'm just diggin' up some more details, most of which require casportpony's closest review. If this is, indeed, what you've got to deal w/ then know this: It can be defeated, and the logical course is to treat the bird for internal parasites w/ something proven save/effective against the vector of the responsible protozoan, so as to hopefully control the level of the infection, should they be present -- this buys a bit of time, which isn't even needed if my best guess was wrong (believe it, or not? It wouldn't be the first time ~'-)

At this point, you're considering internal parasites, and cecal worms (Heterakis gallinae) will most likely be among them, and are a vector of Histomonas meleagridis, the agent that causes blackhead.

A 'good to know' fact: Chinese ringneck pheasant was the best host for cecal worms, followed by chickens and
guinea fowl.

Both albendazole and fenbendazole are very effective against cecal worms, but do nothing to the responsible protozoan.
Despite any claims otherwise, the benzimidazoles are ineffective as well. Specifically, of albendazole, fenbendazole, flubendazole, mebendazole, and nocodazole, "...all tested drugs showed no efficacy, [on H. meleagridis in vitro]."

There *may* be another way, in that some wormers actually *do* effectively eliminate the protozoa responsible as well. Unfortunately, very effective treatments for this protozoan parasite have been pulled from the market, but there's some that can be cross-referenced for off-label use (not that we chicken-keeper would ever do such a thing ~'-)

And, STOP: I've not researched this well, but just pullin' sources TO BE CHECKED for both efficacy, and the potential that some may contain other unwanted and/or dangerous active ingredients.

For example, there's some things on eBay that might be worth lookin' at ...

ZOOPAN Tricobacter 100gr and Tricobacter 2 in 1 both contain Dimetridazole, Sulfadimetoxina and Vitamin K3.

Moureau CCP 50 tab. contains Dimetridazole, Sulfadimethoxine, Trimethoprime, Piperazine and Neomycine

MedPet Canker Combo 100g contains Dimetridazole 1000 mg, and Ronidazole 500 mg.

Again: DO NOT DOSE w/ these products. I've just found new studies which indicate other possible treatments, such as some nitroimidazoles, and specifically Dimetridazole, as highly effective. However, one source reports it is classified as 'hazmat' and a possible mutagen, which is good cause considerable study.

http://lib.bioinfo.pl/paper:15135862

Jinghui Hu, L R McDougald
Department of Poultry Science, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602, USA.

Nine drugs with known or suspected antiprotozoal activity were tested in vitro, and in vivo for activity against Histomonas meleagridis. The nitroimidazoles dimetridazole, metronidazole, ornidazole, and tinidazole suppressed growth of H. meleagridis in vitro at 10 microg/ml or higher. Paromomycin sulfate, and carbadox were weakly effective at high levels. Quinolinol, mebendazole, diloxanide furoate, and albendazole had no demonstrable efficacy in vitro. Drugs showing some activity in vitro were tested in young chickens inoculated intracloacally with 2 x 10(5) H. meleagridis/bird. Dimetridazole, metronidazole, ornidazole, and tinidazole were highly effective at 200 ppm in feed. Paromomycin sulfate, and carbadox were ineffective in vivo, with no improvement in liver or cecal lesion scores compared to that of infected controls. Thus, the only new entities with efficacy against blackhead disease in vivo were nitroimidazoles, related to the positive control dimetridazole.

There were also studies that did not declare the formulations combined w/ the product RepaXol, but proved effective.

From the poutrysite: Historically nitro-imidazoles (e.g. dimetridazole), nitrofurans (e.g. furazolidone, nifursol) and arsenicals (e.g.nitarsone) have been used to treat this important disease of poultry. At the time of writing no products of these groups are approved for use in the European Union, and only nitarsone is approved in the USA. Arsenicals are less effective in treatment than they are in prevention. Some herbal products based on the essential oils (e.g. 'Herban)' have been used with some apparent success though controlled trials and formal approval for this purpose are not recorded. Intensive relittering may help reduce the level of infection, given recent new knowledge on the mechanism of transmission.

From a report regarding blackhead in turkey: There are currently no drugs approved for use as treatments for histomoniasis. A single drug (nitarsone) is available for prophylaxis by feed medication. Nitarsone is mixed with the feed at 0.01875% and fed continuously. Under most conditions this product is effective, although some outbreaks in turkeys on medication have been reported. Historically, nitroimidazoles such as ronidazole, ipronidazole, and dimetridazole were used for prevention and treatment and were highly effective. Some of these products can be used by veterinary prescription in non-food-producing birds. Frequent worming of chickens with benzimidazole anthelmintics helps reduce exposure to heterakid worms that carry the infection.