What antibiotic should I use for chronic diarrhea?

[casportpony]

Can you post a picture of his poop?

-Kathy

 

[Knock Kneed Hen]

Can you post a picture of his poop?

-Kathy

Yes, here it is. Not as runny as before, but still nowhere near normal. Also, when he defecates, he spreads his legs and emits a squealing sound. The lab that did the fecal recommended doing a cloacal swab to determine if it's a bacterial or fungal infection. I would think that his cage mate would also be affected if it were either of those.

 

[dawg53]

Quote:
You're right. If it were bacterial or fungal, it would be in the feces and it would be possible the cage mate may eventually get infected. However, that doesnt look like ecoli bacterial infection. Ecoli bacterial infection usually presents yellow/green watery diarhhea. I've never dealt with a fungus that would cause diarhhea, but I believe it would look like vent gleet. Actually, the feces in the pic looks normal.

 

[casportpony]

Have you wormed him yet?

If he were mine I'd want to rule out capillary worms. I know you had a float done, but those can be false negatives. Valbazen would treat capillary worms with just one dose at .2ml per 2.2 pounds, but Safeguard would require 3-5 days treatment.

Call your small animal vet and ask them if they could do a fecal smear, they'd be able to tell you if it's yeast or bacterial and that shouldn't cost more than a fecal float.

-Kathy

 

[casportpony]

If it's a bacterial infection the antibiotics I would use are Baytril, Cipro, Clavamox, Augmentin or Amoxicillin. With the exception of Clavamox, you can get all of them online without a prescription. Baytril could also be used to treat dogs and cats, so that's probably what I would buy.

If he has a yeast infection, antibiotics will probably make it worse. I treat yeast infections with Fluconazole, which you can also buy online without a prescription.

-Kathy

 

[Knock Kneed Hen]

Thanks dawg53 and casportpony

I did give him a pea size amount of Safeguard yesterday. Are you saying that I should give him another dose today and then another dose the following day casportpony?

His stools ARE looking better, but he's not having any regularly formed stools. He continues to almost strain when he goes.

When this all started my first suspect was a yeast infection. I read up here on BYC and took their advice by giving him ACV in the water and yogurt , then treated the vent area with Povidone-iodine (otherwise known as Betadine). After the course of Betadine I decided to try the monistat cream.

 

[casportpony]

I prefer worming based on weight as a pea sized amount is too subjective. Paste or liquid, doesn't matter, the *volume* is the same, 1ml of either has 100mg, trust me, lol. Everything I have read says that capillary worms can be treated with Safeguard, but one must do it several days in a row. The most conservative dose for capillary worms I have seen documented is 20mg/kg for 5 days, that's .2ml of paste or liquid Safeguard or Panacur.

If you're dealing with a yeast infection you need to treat it orally with an anti fungal, monistat won't work if applied to the vent of inside the vent as the yeast could be in his entire digestive tract.

-Kathy

 

[casportpony]

This link has info on worming with paste:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/812128/worming-with-horse-wormer

 

[Knock Kneed Hen]

Okay...here's what's happened since my last post. I decided to treat with safeguard because I had it on hand and I live out of town. I gave a large dose two both the rooster and his cagemate for 5 days. I fed them egg with buttermilk and slowly am putting them back on crumble. The hen's stools are firming up, but the roosters aren't.

I called the vet that did the fecal and they quoted me $100-150 for a fecal float.

I don't want to make it worse so I plan on getting some over the counter fluconazole difulcan to treat him orally. If that doesn't work then I plan on trying Baytril,
although, I still believe that if it was fungal or bacterial that the hen he's lived with this whole time would also be affected.

I thank everyone who is helping me sort this out. Any additional information is appreciated.

casportpony , you've provided some very helpful links.

 

[casportpony]

If I were you I'd treat with Baytril first since It's very possible that doing so could cause a yeast infection. If you need help finding either online just send me a PM.

-Kathy