Two weeks diarrhea, antibiotics won't work! Help PLEASE!!

[azygous]

Betty the two year old Brahma came down with jello-green diarrhea two weeks ago. She almost died, but I pulled her back from the brink with some amoxicillin. The diarrhea changed color from green to dark blackish brown, but it's still watery.

She only has regained some appetite in the last couple days, and her ornery disposition has returned. She's been isolated all this time, but I let her visit her mates from an adjacent enclosure and it was touching to see them all greet her with a touching of beaks and murmurs.

She has occasional solid poops, but they've been rare. Should I keep on with the amoxicillin or can someone suggest something better?

No sign of worms or mites and Betty looks great otherwise. Help, please!

 

[Catstar68]

Antibiotics can affect the natural gut flora. Take her off the amoxicillin and start her on some yogurt. Remember, not all bacteria are sensitive to amoxicillin, in fact, we are seeing more and more nasty bugs that are resistant.
good luck!

 

[azygous]

That's a wonderful suggestion! I had been giving her yogurt all through this ordeal, but she quit eating it. I wonder if it might have been responsible for the few normal poops she's had! I'll introduce it again - maybe she'll eat it! I bet that's it!

 

[Beekissed]

You might also place unpastuerized ACV in her water to also restore bowel cultures and give her the good vitamins that she may now be needing. Wouldn't be a bad idea to do that for your whole flock now and again to avoid future illness.

 

[dawg53]

Quote:
I agree with Beekissed. You can also add poultry nutri drench to her water, it's loaded with vitamins and minerals. I'd remove it after 4 days though, it can cause diarrhea. If she wont eat the yogurt, mix buttermilk with boiled plain white rice (cooled) and give it to her.

 

[pips&peeps]

Quote:
Is it possible she has cocci? Adult birds can get it too.

 

[azygous]

I thought about cocci, but at no point did she appear to have any blood in her stools.

She ate her yogurt once I gave some to the others. Eating is a communal thing, I guess.

But here's a really shocking ending to this episode. I may post this in the "Behaviors" thread.

After Betty ate her yogurt, I opened the pen to the general population and she went inside. Immediately she was attacked by one-year old Wyandotte Lilith! Betty reared up and gave Lilith as good as she got! But Lilith refused to back down and give Betty back her original pecking order position.

Over the course of forty-five minutes, Lilith tormented Betty, and I could see Betty losing psychological ground. I was watering the garden and stepped away from the pen for a bit. When I came back, Betty was wedged under the coop with her head down. It scared me something awful because she didn't react when I poked her. Her head was loose like a dead hen! I hollered at her and poked her harder! She lifted her head, but her eyes were at half mast!

I went into the pen and prodded her out from under the coop with a rake, and I picked her up. Then I gathered her two Brahma brooder mates with her in my lap for a group cuddle. Then I got the idea of putting Betty into the pen area where the twelve week-olds and six-week olds segregate themselves in safety from the adult birds. She perked right up!

She's been eating non-stop for the past hour and seems to have completely changed her mind about dying. And there's little doubt in my mind she would have died had I not been monitoring things as closely as I was this morning!

 

[pips&peeps]

There is not always blood in the stool when a bird has cocci. I would treat with amprolium.

 

[silkiechicken]

pips&peeps :

There is not always blood in the stool when a bird has cocci. I would treat with amprolium.

+1

Only ONE strain of cocci results in blood in the stools. She could also have worms. You won't know what she has or the variety without a fecal float test. That said, antibiotics are rarely the answer when "you don't know", the only thing it can do is supress secondary infections, with side effects being making the drug not useful the second time around due to resistance and disrupting the good bacteria (the first to die). Green poop is bile due to not eating.

And any time you separate a hen, she loses her pecking order spot and will have to fight to get it back. Normal.​