7.5 week old pullet: Coccidiosis? MG? Please offer insight!

K2goatsandducks

Songster
Aug 30, 2020
69
171
116
Sacramento, CA, USA
Good morning!
I got 3 (hopefully) pullets ten days ago. They have been settling in wonderfully; they had some bloody poops after arrival, so I put them on Corid water for a week and that seemed to clear everything up last week.
They had their last Corid treatment on Sunday, and they all appeared lively and healthy yesterday.
I was shocked when I went to get everyone out and one of the pullets suddenly was sick this morning. She was hunched in the pen with her eyes sealed shut. She has considerable discharge from her eyes when she can open them, and she has some mucus from her beak. She also had diarrhea with what looked like tons of intestinal shedding (they've gone 24+ hours since their last Corid treatment).
I'm wondering if you have any recommendations for treatment? I'd hate to lose her, and she seemed to be doing great up until this morning.
Do you think I should restart the Corid? Or should I prioritize treating what looks to be Mycoplasma? I don't want to hit her with too many things at once, but she's definitely feeling very awful. I did get her to drink some water with electrolytes and probiotics this morning, but she shows no interest in eating now.

I'm not terribly concerned about the fact that if it is MG, she (and the rest of the flock) will be carriers. I suspect our birds might already have been exposed, as we let them wander our acre and we have lots of wild birds that come through. It's a fact we're willing to live with.

Mostly, I just want to try to help this pullet pull through. I don't want to ignore a possible cocci flare up, but I also want to treat the MG if needed. (I can't mix the solutions in their water, so I think I have to pick one to prioritize, right?)

Thank you!
 
Have you ever seen any respiratory symptoms in your own birds before? Some feed stores sell Tylan 50 injectable, which can be given orally 0.25 ml 3 times daily for 3-5 days. Some use injectable oxytetracycline, such as LA 200, a medicine that is injected into the breast muscle once and again in 3 days. The maximum dosage of Corid is 2 tsp of the liquid, or 1.5 tsp of the powder per gallon of water for 5-7 days. Then you can reduce the dosage to 1/3 of that for an additional 5 days if they are still sick. Some strains of coccidiosis can be resistant to Corid, so other drugs may be given. Those include sulfadimethoxine or toltrazuril. Do you have a vet who might be of help?
 
Have you ever seen any respiratory symptoms in your own birds before? Some feed stores sell Tylan 50 injectable, which can be given orally 0.25 ml 3 times daily for 3-5 days. Some use injectable oxytetracycline, such as LA 200, a medicine that is injected into the breast muscle once and again in 3 days. The maximum dosage of Corid is 2 tsp of the liquid, or 1.5 tsp of the powder per gallon of water for 5-7 days. Then you can reduce the dosage to 1/3 of that for an additional 5 days if they are still sick. Some strains of coccidiosis can be resistant to Corid, so other drugs may be given. Those include sulfadimethoxine or toltrazuril. Do you have a vet who might be of help?
We lost a hen several months ago to an unknown illness. She had mild sneezes and labored breathing and stopped eating and finally died of what seemed to be a heart attack.
We have a rooster and two other hens remaining, so that's why we got these three new pullets.
We also have ten ducks and two geese, and the ducks did go through a strange cycle where some of them lost their voices for a couple weeks, but everyone is back to their loud, boisterous selves.

We don't have an avian vet nearby, but I am in contact with the breeder who recommended treating the cocci again and pushing fluids and electrolytes. I can also reach out to a vet tech friend who has a connection for some meds and antibiotics.

Should I treat the suspected MG, or focus on the cocci for now?
I gave her a small drench dose of Corid (.02 mL) and wiped her eyes and cleaned her face, and she ate a bunch and drank water as well.
Her poor little face is just so swollen with mucus, and she's so sad being separated from her sisters. :(

If it is MG, do you know how long until we might see improvement? (Assuming she can fight it off on her own...)
 
UPDATE:

I restarted her on the Corid water (9.8 mL/gallon) and focused on cleaning her eyes and face to try to give her as much comfort as possible.
Throughout the day her face swelled and her eyes kept trying to seal shut. I kept wiping the eyes clear, and gave her a dose of Terramycin cream in each eye.
We covered her for the night and hoped for the best.

This morning she was up and perky, eating and drinking. Poops look healthy and normal, and one side of her face looks normal with an open, clear eye and little drainage. The other side is still quite swollen, though that eye is less inflamed than yesterday.

At this point it looks more like either Coryza or maybe just an inflamed immune response? (Her improvement seems almost too immediate for a serious infection, but we'll see how she does over the next few days.) Still no sign of similar symptoms in the rest of the flock, though I did separate her as quickly as possible and tried to spray everything with a diluted bleach mixture.

Fingers crossed that she continues on this route. I'll update as changes/improvements occur in case anyone else is looking for information.

I can upload pictures if it helps, too.
 
Update #2

Well she went downhill again.
At this point I don’t know if she’ll make it. She still eats and drinks tiny bits, but her poops are small and seem on the dry side.
She is fairly unresponsive; she just stands fluffed and hunched up. Sometimes she lays down and rests her beak on the floor of the crate.

I’ve seen her pick at her food but I don’t know how much she is getting.

I’m going to try to give her a syringe of sugar water followed by another Corid drench. Her poops still had some red mucus in them.

Her facial swelling is much better, but she keeps her eyes closed most of the time. 😞

I was really optimistic on Wednesday, but yesterday she really regressed.

Does anyone have any other input or ideas? Does it sometimes take this long to see an improvement? I’m so disheartened at this point.
 

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