Treating a severe case of coccidiosis

[azygous]

If you are seeing the vet again, take some random samples of poop from your flock to have them run fecal float tests on them. This is to check the flock, not just a dead chicken.

Have you checked the feed for mold? Do you have a decent sense of smell? Sniff the run bedding and coop bedding. Mold smells. For so many of your chickens to have crop disorders, something in the environment should be suspected.

I take it these chickens are not two years old yet if they aren't molting. Ask the vet for an antibiotic to treat your flock. A bacterial infection could be behind this runny poop. Ask for a med that is not in the penicillin family as those will aggravate crop yeast.

 

[Ccort]

If you are seeing the vet again, take some random samples of poop from your flock to have them run fecal float tests on them. This is to check the flock, not just a dead chicken.

Have you checked the feed for mold? Do you have a decent sense of smell? Sniff the run bedding and coop bedding. Mold smells. For so many of your chickens to have crop disorders, something in the environment should be suspected.

I take it these chickens are not two years old yet if they aren't molting. Ask the vet for an antibiotic to treat your flock. A bacterial infection could be behind this runny poop. Ask for a med that is not in the penicillin family as those will aggravate crop yeast.

Should the samples be separate?
I throw out the entire bag of food and emptied the feeder. I didn't see any mold but didn't just I'm case.

They're 3 years old, just not presently going through a molt. When I asked for antibiotics for the flock, they said no because she said she would only give antibiotics if she saw each chicken. @azygous

 

[azygous]

A random stool sample consists of three or four poop clumps found in the run, fresher the better. When you test random stool samples, you then get a reading on the general condition of the intestines of your flock. If, for example, the fecal float shows worms in these samples, you will then know that the entire flock likely has worms, and you would treat the entire flock. Same if coccidia are found in sufficient numbers.

The same goes for a bacterial infection. When you have one chicken that is sick, you would treat the one chicken with an antibiotic. Usually, it's E.coli, and amoxicillin is a good broad spectrum antibiotic to use for this. But if you have three or four chickens in the flock sick with similar symptoms, you would then treat the entire flock assuming they all are infected. Usually a vet that treats farm livestock will understand this.

There is no need to bring in every single chicken to be examined. That's not how flock dynamics work. A vet that insists on this is either ignorant or trying to empty your wallet.

You can order this non-penicillin antibiotic here. https://jedds.com/products/enrofloxacin-10?variant=40215712661693

 

[Ccort]

A random stool sample consists of three or four poop clumps found in the run, fresher the better. When you test random stool samples, you then get a reading on the general condition of the intestines of your flock. If, for example, the fecal float shows worms in these samples, you will then know that the entire flock likely has worms, and you would treat the entire flock. Same if coccidia are found in sufficient numbers.

The same goes for a bacterial infection. When you have one chicken that is sick, you would treat the one chicken with an antibiotic. Usually, it's E.coli, and amoxicillin is a good broad spectrum antibiotic to use for this. But if you have three or four chickens in the flock sick with similar symptoms, you would then treat the entire flock assuming they all are infected. Usually a vet that treats farm livestock will understand this.

There is no need to bring in every single chicken to be examined. That's not how flock dynamics work. A vet that insists on this is either ignorant or trying to empty your wallet.

You can order this non-penicillin antibiotic here. https://jedds.com/products/enrofloxacin-10?variant=40215712661693

Thank you. I know the vets just want money. It's ridiculous. I've spent over $1200 and am going again because the three I've seen all insist on seeing each one and testing each one, desperately trying to save them. One is now a passing nothing but very watery, milky stool. I'm taking her today. One of the vets is 2 hours there, two hours back. I'm frustrated because clearly these people do not care about the animals. Thank you for that link to an antibiotic. I'm going to order it today,.assuming no script is needed.

 

[Ccort]

@azygous the soonest that antibiotic would arrive is next week on Thursday.

 

[azygous]

It is what it is. Unless you can talk sense into your vet. You'd then be able to take the prescription to your local pharmacy and get it right away.

My local vet has always been agreeable to providing antibiotics for my chickens when I assure them that I would assume all responsibility for treating my chickens myself.