Hello. I need some help! I have a sweet little silkie who has been pretty sick lately. Case history: Poop started to get very watery about a month ago. She laid a couple eggs with paper thin shells then stopped laying completely. Vet did poop sample and saw bacteria and yeast, gave Flagyl and Nystatin. Toward the end of the Flagyl course her poop had not improved so the vet gave me another broader spectrum antibiotic that I can't remember the name of right now. Her appetite had waned too, although she still would nibble at treats. She is 10 days into a 14 day course of the 2nd antibiotic, no improvement in her poop and has become increasingly lethargic and thin and has refused to eat even her favorite treats. She had been doing some head shaking and had some puffy eyes yesterday but both of those things seem to have resolved since I brought her inside. She is very tired and lethargic and sits puffed up, sometimes with her head under her wing. I've kind of lost confidence in the vet as I had another chicken several months ago with a similar poop issue (she was also older) with no improvement with antibiotics, etc. She's a really sweet little girl and I hope she can pull through. Thanks for all your ideas. Meg
Quote:Hi and sorry your little silkie is sick, I'm not sure what her problem is, but having given that much antibiotics she needs some kind of probiotics to help her tummy recover. I'd go to the feed store and look for a probiotic made for live stock probably a powder. or give her some buttermilk and try giving her some scrambled egg, to intice her to eat. or boiled egg mashed up with maybe some butter milk mixed in. Also Kefir is another good probiotic.might try giving her some electrolytes in her drinking water, it's full of vitamins. I hope these suggestions will help and you can get your girl back to feeling good again. Did your vet also check for worms when doing the fecal? I would assume so.
Do you think she could be laying internally? It could be so many things! Was she checked for lice/mites? How is her crop? Does that feel normal? Did the vet test for worms?
You could possibly be dealing with E Coli. The only way to confirm that would be for the vet to send a fresh feces sample off to a lab to be analyized. If it's E Coli, you would need your vet to prescribe a powerful antibiotic (baytril) and do what Miss Lydia has stated in regards to probiotics...to promote the growth of good bacteria in your silkies guts. You might have to tube feed her. You may or may not be able to pull her through this and I wish you the best.
