Sick Hens. Can't match symptoms to anything. Any ideas?? Thanks

[rinehart63]

A few days ago I had a hen appear not to be feeling well. I assumed it was heat stress and soon I found her dead in the coop. Now a couple of other hens in same group look to not be feeling good. One worse than other but they appear to be suffering from same as one that died. They don't move around much, look sort of hunched up and their combs start to look dark almost blackish red and appear to be shriveling up. On one of these currently sick, I saw that the droppings she passed were very watery. Mostly clear so I am thinking that diarrhea is part of this and if so I don't know if they are sick because they have diarrhea or the diarrhea is a result of them being sick. I have looked up symptoms of all the common diseases and nothing fits exactly. My flock was PT tested just 3 months ago. I keep a closed flock so no new birds have come in prior to this. Out of desperation to save any additional, these currently sick were tubed a dose of enrofloxacin yesterday eve but don't know yet if it's going to help. Although this group of birds is separate from most of my other birds, other groups are adjoining. Wish I could figure out what was going on. Any ideas appreciated. Thanks!

btw these birds were wormed about a week ago with ivermectin

 

[Sarevan]

Sorry for your loss.

Are the hens having very clear running poo?? Have they been eating? Free range at all possible got into a compost pile ? Any blood or dark brownish looking poo? How hot has it been? Puffing up could be cocci. Darkening of combs could also be respiratory. How do they sound breathing? Wheezing, sneezing? Any signs of drainage around eyes, nostrils, bubbles in eyes? Abdomen, crop feel soft or solid?

When we had our 100+ temps I had dehydrated rice that I soaked to rehydrate and fed it to them for watery diarrhea, human baby flaked cereals rehydrated works too. Rice is best. I added electrolytes to water, gave them vitamins, and gave watermelon, cantaloupe, to increase water intake. Had water in shallow basins for them to stand in to cool feet, even though a couple would actually squat in the water. Had gallon jugs frozen for them to snuggle against. Gave them water changes frequently they didn't like to drink hot water.

 

[dawg53]

Worming with ivermectin might be your problem. Reworm them with safeguard liquid goat wormer or valbazen liquid cattle/sheep wormer. Dosage for either one is 1/2cc given orally undiluted to each chicken. Repeat dosing in 10 days.

 

[rinehart63]

Thank you for the replies and suggestions. Luckily my birds are doing a bit better. I spoke to Victor at Twin City Poultry yesterday and he suspected coccidia. I started them on coccidia med yesterday and I have already seen improvement. We don't typically think of coccidia causing the deaths of adult birds that are well fed and in clean quarters but I guess a combination of the heat, molting and the recent worming may have been a stress trigger that allowed a situation where the coccidia could flourish. The sickest bird's comb was beginning to shrivel up and turn blackish red but just since yesterday, she is getting correct color back to her comb!

I will be reworming them in a few days with Safeguard after this coccidia treatment is over. Thank you again for the responses! Right now I think this is behind me. Fingers crossed!

 

[jumpstart77]

I have sick ones too. I got some antibiotic they sound better . However, I'm curious as to where you found your meds? What are they called, because I am in dire need of some. Linda

 

[rinehart63]

I have sick ones too. I got some antibiotic they sound better . However, I'm curious as to where you found your meds? What are they called, because I am in dire need of some. Linda

What I am using for coccidia is something I had on hand. It's called Di Methox. I bought it in gallon from online vet supply.

http://www.jefferspet.com/products/di-methox-12-5-gl

I also have Corid on hand but trying the Di Methox first. Both are for coccidia.

You MIGHT could find one or both at a well stock feedstore. Generally they have something for coccidia in livestock. It may be another name but if it's for coccidia in cattle etc, but you may can use it for chickens. Some won't have dosage instructions for poultry but you could probably google it and find out.

Tractor supply has the Safeguard wormer .5% in a pellet in small bag that you can use in poultry. SOme will just say for horses, cattle and other bags are labeled for turkeys and zoo animals but it's same if it's .5%.

You can go here for how much to mix.

http://marsyt.com/turkey.php

If you are feeding a crumble feed, the pellets don't mix in well. I bought a cheap coffee grinder and grind up the wormer pellets before adding to their crumble feed.

I hope this helps you.