Yellow poop Whats up?

[Bator Babies]

Okay, I thought it might be. Did you know that ivermectin is not an effective poultry wormer? I would worm with Valbazen or Safeguard instead.

From: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2816174
Ivermectin as a bird anthelmintic--trials with naturally infected domestic fowl.

Oksanen A, Nikander S.
Abstract

To evaluate the use of ivermectin as a bird anthelmintic, 29 White Leghorn hens naturally infected with Ascaridia spp., Heterakis spp. and Capillaria spp. were treated with 0.2, 2 or 6 mg/kg intramuscularly or 0.2 or 0.8 mg/kg orally. Faecal samples were collected before treatment and at autopsy, 2, 6, or 16 days after treatment, when the intestines were also examined for helminths. None of the treatments gave satisfactory anthelmintic results.

I read somewhere that pumpkin is a natural wormer. do you know if that is true?

 

[casportpony]

I read somewhere that pumpkin is a natural wormer. do you know if that is true?

I've never seen a properly documented study on it, just what people on forums say, so I wouldn't bet the life of my birds on it, but that's just me.

When dealing with blackhead (Histomoniasis) I rely on metronidazole for the actual blackhead protozoa (Histomonas meleagridis), Safeguard for the cecal worm (Heterakis gallinarum), Clavamox or Baytril for the probable secondary e. Coli infection and Nystatin or fluconazole for possible secondary fungal infections. Then there's tube feeding, lol, and the supplies that go with it!

-Kathy

 

[Bator Babies]

Sounds like either you have a weaker strain of blackhead, or stronger birds with some natural immunity, or, worst case scenario, you have a chronic long-lasting strain of blackhead. They can relapse indefinitely.

If they're getting less yellow poops all on their own, chances are they're naturally immune to some degree. They may handle it themselves. In my experience, direct siblings from the same upbringing can include some which die, some which never show symptoms, and some which get mildly sick then recover unaided. Individual strengths and weaknesses.

Isolating the bird is useless as a preventative for blackhead. They most common method of transmission is via soil contamination. The only reason to isolate her would be to make sure she receives her medication without the others taking it, but it seems this isn't going to be necessary in this case. Still, even if one seems sick and the rest seem healthy, they've all been exposed and you may run into a weak case or two in future. Might be best to cull those that are weak to it, judging by my experiences, since they can and do develop some kind of immunity against it, and it's fairly heritable.

I would lime all the soils around your place to help clean them of the contamination. Hydrated agricultural lime destroys many diseases, parasite eggs, and other issues.

Best wishes.

the poop from the isolated one is firm now with a small amount of yellow. she has a really good appetite.
stepping in yellow poop does not spread blackhead?
where do you buy agricultural lime?
the soil here will be frozen for months starting soon. would it do any good to lime frozen ground?

 

[chooks4life]

Quote: Yes, it's true. Works for humans and poultry. You can probably find the info online, it's been proven. It's pretty gentle though and I wouldn't use pumpkin seeds to try to speedily remove a large tapeworm. I'd use cayenne pepper or tabasco for that. Raw carrots are also gentle natural wormers.
Quote: You should read up on the lifecycle of blackhead. As far as I've read, no, stepping in the poop doesn't spread it.
Quote: Any produce store or feedbarn or similar ought to have it. You can buy it online too. Anything agriculturally oriented has this lime.
Quote: I believe so. Many diseases and so forth can survive freezing, but burning, not so much. The lime will burn anything that can cope with freezing. It's a good precaution.

Best wishes.

 

[casportpony]

Source: http://www.thepoultrysite.com/artic...d-organic-poultry-blackhead-in-turkeys-part-1

• Ingestion of soil or earthworms containing eggs of the caecal worm Heterakis gallinarum, infected with H. meleagridis
• Uptake of H. meleagridis directly into the lower digestive tract through the process of 'cloacal drinking'
• Oral ingestion of live H. meleagridis protozoa when stomach is not acidic enough to kill the pathogen.

"Cloacal drinking is the reflexive intake of fluids through the cloaca in order to inoculate the young bird’s immune system with the microbial fl ora of the surrounding environment."


More:
http://www.aaapjournals.info/doi/abs/10.1637/7420-081005R.1?journalCode=avdi

-Kathy

 

[chooks4life]

There you go, lol. Thanks to Kathy with the helpful links.

I forgot those two alternative methods of contracting BH because I basically dismissed them as they're so unlikely. For me, anyway, since my birds aren't kept under the necessary circumstances and on the necessary diet for these two methods to represent a valid threat:
Quote:
Once I found a treatment that worked, I dismissed the threat of BH, lol, always a rather silly thing to do under most circumstances. Always a new strain working to dominate.

Best wishes.

 

[Bator Babies]

thank you both for all the info and help. I still have my girl separated from the others. She is improving every day. She is thin with an appetite. her feathers are smooth and she is active. most times the poop has no yellow. put her in with the others this am but everyone got into the pecking order thing. I felt it would be bad to leave her there. I will either try putting her with the others tonight after dark or little by little when I am around.

 

[casportpony]

If she still has yellow poop I'd be worried, they can linger for a long time before dying. Have you weighed her? At her age she should be gaining weight, not staying the same.

-Kathy

 

[chooks4life]

I agree with Kathy, they can linger on for a long time; it's almost always a bad sign if they linger and do not improve in a more permanent fashion. BH tends to be over and done with pretty rapidly in the majority of success cases.

There must be improvement, not stasis; when you say she's improving, do you mean gaining weight? Or is it just a reference to her appetite? Unfortunately, this long into the episode, I would expect her to either have fully recovered if she was going to, or to be a future casualty if not. I hope this is not the case for you though. Long term patients sometimes do recover.

One hen I had lingered on for quite a while, always stayed a healthy weight, but was always a bit "off" and of course her poops regularly had yellow in them, but not always... Her appetite was fine, but sure enough, a year down the track she worsened and died.

In future I won't bother with such a chronic case like that. Her full brother was completely immune, her other siblings only showed tinges of temporary blackhead and recovered, but she went down like a ton of bricks. She was the last one I bred that showed such weakness to it, thankfully, I then bred on with the stronger ones and it's been basically immune generations from then onwards. But I wasted a lot of time trying to heal her.

There is a slight chance this is some other problem, not BH. Some liver diseases, injuries, or similar, even damaged kidneys, can produce yellowed poops. There's a couple of ways that color can be excreted asides from BH. It may be worth getting her raw or dried dandelion or milkthistle to see if they help. It could be a few things.

Best wishes.