Washingtonians

[Chickielady]

I really don't think this is Cocci. In my experience Adult birds seldomly come down with those symptoms. Did you feel her abdomen? soft? firm?

I agree.

 

[Chickielady]

Some more birds I have for sale, Orloff X Ameraucanas...so they are EEs and laying a minty green to blue egg.













This one is a blue EE...lays a nice minty green almost olive egg.
Also have 4-5 Olive egger pullets at POL for sale, which are Cuckoo.

 

[Rainwolf]

Well I finally got what's coming to me by bringing in new birds. Tilda is sick. I think it's Cocci even though I don't have solid proof; nothing else makes sense. She's huddled and weak and can barely walk, when she leans forward to eat or drink she falls on her face. Or rather, that's how she was last night. I was up late syringe feeding her medicated amprollium water mixed with Pedialyte. She also hadn't eaten in a long time, her crop was empty so I fed her a scrambled egg and a mash of her feed with the medicated water. Didn't want to overdo that though so we finally went to bed. She woke up at 8am thirsty and I gave her another cup full of medicated water; she drank 6 ounces of water and won't eat her mash or egg yet. She is now standing and drinking out of a cup without falling down, and occasionally she talks quietly to me. Her poops were yellow water with a tiny bit of black solids in there. She's breathing about half the time heavily with her mouth open. I suck. I know I should quarantine but I just don't have the setup. This is final for me now, no more new birds, except day-olds and hatching eggs! Grr. I think she'll recover I'm just mad at myself. If she doesn't recover, those will be two expensive new chickens!

The only thing that doesn't make sense is that "incubation" period for new cocci strains is supposed to be 5 days, and she'd only been exposed for 3.5 at the most by the time I found her. OK we're doing school now and I'm wasting time. Gotta go check my peeper (she's in a crate on the table) and finish up with John.

What ever it is did not come from the new birds and the days is way to short for anything to pass and activate in your birds and I saw the birds you have just a few days before you picked them up. I know for a fact that they were healthy birds.

Information about Cocci

http://www.daff.qld.gov.au/27_2736.htm
http://msucares.com/poultry/diseases/disproto.htm

"Coccidiosis is transmitted by direct or indirect contact with droppings of infected birds. When a bird ingests coccidia, the organisms invade the lining of the intestine and produce tissue damage as the undergo reproduction. Within a week after infection, the coccidia shed immature descendants that are referred to as oocysts. The oocysts shed in the droppings are not capable of infecting another bird unless they pass through a maturation process (sporulation) in the litter. This sporulation occurs within a one to three day period if the litter is warm and damp but can take much longer if the conditions are cool and dry. After sporulation the coccidia are infective if consumed by a new host bird.

So the Host bird has to be infected for over a week, then the droppings need a warm moist environment for fast acting but in cool dry it just takes longer to create the sporulation. Then the new bird needs to ingest these cells in enough quantity to infect their cells and a week + later they start to show symptoms.

So if it is Cocci it is not from the new birds.
BTW Cocci can come from wild birds as well as other chickens as well as just develop in your own flock.

The most likely reason for the plucked area in and around the vent of the new birds is that some chickens only pull out the feathers when they are perching at night, so it is very hard to catch them at it, but it does explain why your chickens look to be 'plucked' in certain areas - it's where the offender can reach at night. The Blue Kote should stop that as well as they have been rehomed most likely away from the offender. The bright red skin is sunburned... I have 2 hens molting that are bright flame red due to sunburned in this sunny weather. the sunburned skin takes longer to re-feather but it will and then that sunburn look goes away. again the Blue Kote helps this by coating for sun protection.

Just a heads up... Quarantine needs to be so that no one has access to each other... I have a fence in between my normal area and my quarantine area. there should be no way either group can contact each other in any way except maybe sight.

 

[FirewifeJess]

Quote:
Thanks you two. Any speculations for me? I could use the help. She's open mouth heavy breathing; huddled, wings droopy, tail down. When she lays down her feet are curled up. She can walk very slowly and stay on her feet today, but she's really weak and wobbly. I just keep trying to get food and water into her; the water is half pedialyte half water. Just stopped the Corid since you say that's likely not it. No other birds have symptoms yet, she's been isolated since evening yesterday. Poop is yellowy water with a tiny bit of solids. Abdomen is soft.

 

[FirewifeJess]

The most likely reason for the plucked area in and around the vent of the new birds is that some chickens only pull out the feathers when they are perching at night, so it is very hard to catch them at it, but it does explain why your chickens look to be 'plucked' in certain areas - it's where the offender can reach at night. The Blue Kote should stop that as well as they have been rehomed most likely away from the offender. The bright red skin is sunburned... I have 2 hens molting that are bright flame red due to sunburned in this sunny weather. the sunburned skin takes longer to re-feather but it will and then that sunburn look goes away. again the Blue Kote helps this by coating for sun protection.

Just a heads up... Quarantine needs to be so that no one has access to each other... I have a fence in between my normal area and my quarantine area. there should be no way either group can contact each other in any way except maybe sight.

I agree with everything. I also think the new birds were healthy and that their bottoms were being plucked by someone else. I don't have any current feather pickers so hopefully they'll get those back in soon and the redness will go away; I am going to keep reapplying BluKote every couple days but they're hard to catch since they don't know me well yet.

I didn't quarantine. I KNOW! Don't flame me. I have no means to quarantine properly in any way, unfortunately. But I think you're right that this illness didn't come from the new birds, although I think stress of new flockmates *could* have triggered something she already had. Poor little lady. Thanks for all your great insight!

 

[VelvettFog]

Quote:
Thanks you two. Any speculations for me? I could use the help. She's open mouth heavy breathing; huddled, wings droopy, tail down. When she lays down her feet are curled up. She can walk very slowly and stay on her feet today, but she's really weak and wobbly. I just keep trying to get food and water into her; the water is half pedialyte half water. Just stopped the Corid since you say that's likely not it. No other birds have symptoms yet, she's been isolated since evening yesterday. Poop is yellowy water with a tiny bit of solids. Abdomen is soft.

Nostrils are clean? Any rattles in breathing? Sneezing? Wounds?

Oh .. I just thought of this ... any chance the bird got injured? Kicked, stepped on? Hugged too hard?

 

[FirewifeJess]

Quote:
Thanks you two. Any speculations for me? I could use the help. She's open mouth heavy breathing; huddled, wings droopy, tail down. When she lays down her feet are curled up. She can walk very slowly and stay on her feet today, but she's really weak and wobbly. I just keep trying to get food and water into her; the water is half pedialyte half water. Just stopped the Corid since you say that's likely not it. No other birds have symptoms yet, she's been isolated since evening yesterday. Poop is yellowy water with a tiny bit of solids. Abdomen is soft.

Nostrils are clean? Any rattles in breathing? Sneezing? Wounds?

Oh .. I just thought of this ... any chance the bird got injured? Kicked, stepped on? Hugged too hard?
My girls almost never have clean nostrils. It's weird. They always breathe just fine though, no rattles or sneezing. As for wounds, I see nothing. No bleeding, no sores, nothing swelling or abnormal in my novice eyes. The kids were inside with me all day yesterday and never got near the birds at all before I saw her huddled in the yard. I hadn't thought of that though.

With her open mouth breathing I do wonder if it's respiratory, though I know chickens can do that simply if they're stressed as well.

 

[Chickielady]

Thanks you two. Any speculations for me? I could use the help. She's open mouth heavy breathing; huddled, wings droopy, tail down. When she lays down her feet are curled up. She can walk very slowly and stay on her feet today, but she's really weak and wobbly. I just keep trying to get food and water into her; the water is half pedialyte half water. Just stopped the Corid since you say that's likely not it. No other birds have symptoms yet, she's been isolated since evening yesterday. Poop is yellowy water with a tiny bit of solids. Abdomen is soft.

Seems to sound like a CRD issue, as in airsacculitis rather than cocci.
Stress can bring that on...and it can "come" right out of thin air transmitted by song birds or migrating wild fowl.

 

[Chickielady]

My girls almost never have clean nostrils. It's weird. They always breathe just fine though, no rattles or sneezing. As for wounds, I see nothing. No bleeding, no sores, nothing swelling or abnormal in my novice eyes. The kids were inside with me all day yesterday and never got near the birds at all before I saw her huddled in the yard. I hadn't thought of that though.

With her open mouth breathing I do wonder if it's respiratory, though I know chickens can do that simply if they're stressed as well.

What about has she maybe eaten something harmful ?

 

[Chickielady]

Lyda Rose 4 weeks ago:




Anthony had to pose !




Lyda Rose today:










Grew like a weed after butching it back !
(unknown rose to the left, forground)




Feeding beezzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz here a dark bee~~~




Bee burrowed in~~~~~~~~~~



A light bee~~~~~~~~~~~




Sea Holly~




It's crazy with bees here !