Treating diarrhea after impacted crop

[broodybird]

My bantam cochin recently came down with an impacted crop. I caught it in time, isolated her and withdrew her regular feed. The first day, I gave her only a little soft bread dipped in olive oil and water with ACV and a little apple juice mixed in. The second day I gave her a little more bread than the day before and also added some scrambled egg. I massaged the crop several times each day. I did not "vomit" her, but during one massage she did throw up a little. By the third day, I managed to squeeze down the hard "tennis ball" lump to a soft gushy sponge, which eventually also passed. It has been almost a week and the impacted crop is gone and now she is back to eating normally. She hasn't laid since the first day I brought her inside. But that may have a lot to do with the stress of being confined.

I still have her isolated (in the house in a large dog crate) because she has diarrhea. I would like to see that cleared up before I put her back out with the other girls. But it doesn't seem to be getting better. Every now and again, there's a small solid poop, but most of the time it's very watery.

I'm wondering if I should treat her for worms? Or give her some probiotics? She is now eating layer crumble, grit and oyster shells, and her water has vitamins in it. Is there something else I should add/do?

Thank you for your help. Monique is very special, I really want to see her feel better.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Probiotics should straighten her out.
Any avian beneficial bacterial powder would work or even plain yogurt. I use this which is formulated for chickens.
http://www.gro2max.com/
She's not laying so doesn't need oyster shell. You could even switch her to a higher protein grower feed until she starts laying again.

 

[broodybird]

Perfect, I actually have a package of Grow2Max in my chicken medicine cabinet. Will try that right away, thank you so very much

 

[casportpony]

Can you post a picture of her poop?

-Kathy

 

[broodybird]

Kathy, I'm so sorry. I just saw this today. Somehow I must have disabled notifications for thread updates. All fixed now. But there wouldn't have been much to take a pic for anyway because the poop was SO runny, it just looked like water.

Ok, UPDATE....

After about a week, Monique's diarrhea hadn't improved. So I sent a sample to the vet for a float test. She turned up positive for heterakis, which is what was causing the diarrhea. They gave me medication but basically warned me that it may not work. Apparently, heterakis is "manageable," but not usually treatable. In the vet's words, "The goal is not to completely eradicate heterakis, but to manage the symptoms."

According my vet, heterakis is common among commercial farms and backyard flocks, and it's not usually addressed because the parasite itself does not hurt the birds. What hurts the birds is the symptoms that heterakis brings with it, and some birds have no symptoms at all.

I asked the vet if she thought I should notify the breeder from which I got Monique, and she said "You can, but they'll probably respond to you with a 'yeah, so what?' attitude. Apparently, heterakis is THAT common that no one bothers addressing it. I am an unusually dedicated

As for Monique, she'd doing better and back out with her flock. The diarrhea is not completely gone, but it's not as watery as it was. I give her a little Pedialyte to help with dehydration. At this stage, I think I've done all I can.

 

[casportpony]

Did they say she had cecal worms or blackhead (histomoniasis)? What medication did they give you?

-Kathy

 

[broodybird]

The vet specifically said she had "heterakis," which I believe is the same as cecal worms. She said heterakis is more commonly treated among turkeys and geese than chickens, although I didn't fully understand why.

The med is Panacur, administered orally as a one-time dose. She did say I can give her another dose after two weeks, but I haven't done that yet because her poop is starting to look a little more solid. She warned me not to eat eggs for 6 weeks after dose, so I'm being conservative.

 

[casportpony]

I turkeys and peafowl one worries about them getting blackhead from it, which is treated with metronidazole in addition to the fenbendazole (Panacur or Safeguard). Haven't heard about cecal worms being an issue in geese, but I'm curious, so will look into it.

-Kathy

 

[casportpony]

You will want to do a second dose to treat and of the worms that hatched since the first dose.

-Kathy

 

[broodybird]

Good point. Although, she did specifically say it's a single dose treatment and that even a second dose is no guarantee to get rid of all the worms. She said some birds are just more susceptible to heterakis than others, and there's a good chance it's in her genes. So a second dose may not do any good anyway. Poor girl