slow decline 4th chicken NOT WORMS

[Dee Dee 2]

This is the 4th chicken that is exibiting the same symptoms. "Out to lunch" dememour (sp?) . Does not run out with the rest of the flock. Stops (almost) eating. Poo is a lemon yellow and sometimes spinich green. Did a fecal float under microscope ~ found NOTHING. Were on starter feed for coccidisos. Treated for coccidisos 3 weeks ago ~ whole flock. Chicken is 7mo. old. This bird was NOT treated for Mericks do not know about others. I think ? ? ? they were. Any ideas PLEASE. Do not want to lose this big R. C.R.I.R. THNAKS !

 

[casportpony]

Yellow poop on my place usually means blackhead (histomoniasis). Can you post a picture of the poop?

-Kathy

 

[dawg53]

If it's yellow/green diarhhea, it's possibly an ecoli infection.

 

[casportpony]

I agree, but what might cause 4 chickens to get e. Coli infections? FWIW, all professionally done blackhead necropsies that I have seen also had e. Coli and two that I took to the vet after treatment for blackhead also had e. Coli. I know Clavamox, amoxicillin and Baytril could have been used to treat the two that I took to the vet, but I don't remember what other drugs it was sensitive to.

Metronidazole is cheap enough it and it can be used with other antibiotics, so no harm in trying to treat for blackhead, IMO. It is rare in chickens, but someone here did lose one to it, UC Davis had a bunch recently and I had one about a month ago that I suspected had it. He got better after treatment with metronidazole and Safeguard.

-Kathy

 

[ivan3]

Dee Dee 2 wrote: This is the 4th chicken that is exibiting the same symptoms. "Out to lunch" dememour (sp?) . Does not run out with the rest of the flock. Stops (almost) eating. Poo is a lemon yellow and sometimes spinich green. Did a fecal float under microscope ~ found NOTHING. Were on starter feed for coccidisos. Treated for coccidisos 3 weeks ago ~ whole flock. Chicken is 7mo. old. This bird was NOT treated for Mericks do not know about others. I think ? ? ? they were. Any ideas PLEASE. Do not want to lose this big R. C.R.I.R. THNAKS !

Was looking back over your earlier posts (troubles with the Jersey Giants). Didn't see any mention of outcomes. Are all the J.G.'s alive and well?
If not, did you perform a gross, cursory exam of internal organs?

Something like Histomoniasis, in chooks, can be pretty obvious:
http://en.aviagen.com/assets/Tech_C...es/English/AviagenBrief_MaleHealth_June09.pdf

There are a number of different conditions/illnesses that can give a `yellow' poop `sign':
http://msucares.com/poultry/diseases/diseases.html

The Flagyl wouldn't hurt - Howver, it seems, you and your flock have been stressed for a while. I'd be running down a vet and get some testing done.

good luck!

 

[casportpony]

FWIW, I have also seen yellow and green poop in a 2-3 year old hen that died of the visceral form of Marek's.

-Kathy

 

[dawg53]

I've dealt with ecoli bacterial infection verified by the University of Georgia vet med school in Tifton, Ga.
All chickens carry ecoli bacteria. Any type of stress can cause ecoli bacteria to get out of control in the chickens system. It is passed in the feces. If it's caught early it can be treated and requires tube feeding the sick bird about 3 times a day with a liquidy cocktail of probios, baytril, and poultry nutri drench. Chickens are excellent at concealing health problems until it's too late to do anything about it. That said, yellow/green diarrhea is a good indicator and requires immediate treatment or the bird will surely die a slow death.

 

[Michael Apple]

Cholera is more common than most people realize, and often exhibits some of the same symptoms as E.Coli. It doesn't always cause facial swelling either. Here are a few links of information about it:

http://www.avianweb.com/fowlcholera.html

http://www.merckmanuals.com/vet/poultry/fowl_cholera/overview_of_fowl_cholera.html

 

[casportpony]

I've also dealt with e. Coli infections confirmed by the lab that my vet uses. The exam started by looking at the poop microscopically and seeing that they had "raging" gram negative infections, which metronidazole is useless against. She chose to put them on Clavamox 250mg twice a day for 14 days while were were waiting for the culture and sensitivity tests to come back. The results showed that the raging infection was e. Coli and listed several drugs that it was sensitive two, two of those drugs were amoxicillin and enrofloxacin (Baytril), but I can't remember what the other drugs were.

Of course *any* bird that is not eating/drinking needs to be tube fed, 'cause dawg is right, they will die a slow death otherwise. And to quote my vet, "it's not *usually* the disease that kills them, it's dehydration and starvation. Hydration should always be corrected first, never force feed a dehydrated bird.

Kaytee Exact Baby Bird food and pedialyte are what I use, the food can pass through the tube very easily *and* it has probiotics already in it. The amount I give depends on the size of the bird, but it works out to about 30ml/kg (30ml per 2.2 pounds) absolutely no less than twice a day.

@Dee Dee 2 , I know you know how to tube, but I thought I would add the following links for those that might want to learn.

Crop feeding videos

These are using a crop needle, not a plastic tube.

This one uses a tube like I use

Two good threads on tube feeding:

• https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...cken-and-give-subcutaneous-fluid#post_9910754

• https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...-for-visuals-very-detailed-post#post_11652991

-Kathy

 

[casportpony]

Here are some pictures from my peafowl that had blackhead and e. Coli.

This is from a peachick that died from blackhead and e. Coli - Confirmed by LSU necropsy


-Kathy