Treating a severe case of coccidiosis

[agold23]

On August 2nd 2020 we noticed my silkie hen acting lethargic with her feathers puffed and not necessarily tending to her then 4ish week old chick. We treated the whole flock with Corid as we suspected coccidiosis and after 48 hours there were no improvements with her conditions so we stopped treatment. As time progressed her symptoms got worse and at the same time we were also dealing with a possible mite infestation so we thought that she was actually anemic from the mites. We made sure to syringe feed her high protein/high iron foods (egg yolks, blended chicken thighs and molasses) as well as monitoring her. August 7th/8th her condition quickly declined. Now she could barely walk and if she did she was stumbling constantly, she barely could open her eyes, she wouldn’t eat on her own and she had green poops which I was quickly informed was a sign of nutrient malabsorption. We continued syringe feeding her water with electrolytes, egg yolk and other high protein/high iron blends. After calling 4 vet clinics (2 of which could only take chickens) we were able to see a vet on August 10th. We were grateful that the hen gave us a fecal specimen in the box in the car on the way over as the vet thought he found a possible nematode egg but he was also convinced that she was suffering from a bad case of coccidiosis. There, they treated her with a single dose dewormer and we were given three syringes of 0.4ml Baycox coccidiocide to treat her for three days as well as continuing syringe feeding her glucose, iron and protein. He said that there was only so much we could do to treat her as her intestines were probably severely damaged and that’s why she had green poops and is so lifeless.

We were also told she’s malnourished and weighs around the same as her now 6 week old chick (around 565g if I’m remembering correctly) which makes sense because she lost an absurd amount of weight during her brood off of her already small and likely underweight body. It also seems now she is developing some kind of wry neck as well as she had a slightly impacted crop a few days ago which we resolved with olive oil and massages. From my understanding the vet doesn’t think it’s the end of the line for her and with proper supportive care she’ll make a full recovery. It’s certainly been a roller coaster of emotions and a will-she-won’t-she situation but I am so grateful we’ve gotten the help we so desperately need.

Right now she and her chick are in a dog kennel in the house. Her condition hasn’t improved but we didn’t expect her to “come back from the dead” overnight. Her supportive care right now consists of being syringe fed ~1ml water with electrolytes and ~1ml of various protein/glucose/iron rich foods every 1 hour or so from 6am-7pm. We don’t want to asphyxiate her because her neck is weird so we don’t give it all at once but she licks it up quickly. Her poops are small and green still, I don’t know how long it’ll take before we start our uphill journey back to normalcy.

 

[azygous]

Yes, she should make a full recovery with her current care. Yes, her intestines are likely very damaged from the secondary bacterial infection that often sets in early on with severe cases of coccidiosis.

I'm going to point out for others what I'm sure you've realized by now - that you need to treat coccidiosis early and with the full recommended regimen, not stopping after just a couple days when it appears it's not doing anything.

I'm treating a couple of chickens in my flock right now for coccidiosis. After a full week on the coccidiostat, two of my chickens are still struggling to recover from the intestinal bacterial infection part of the illness. One is still on an antibiotic as her poop is still sickly, although she's feeling better now. Next week, my entire flock will receive stage two of the coccidiostat treatment to get any coccidia that may have survived the first round. This is very important, and a step that many people neglect to do, risking a relapse of the illness.

What country are you from? You are very lucky to have a vet to help with this as it probably came very close to killing your Silkie.

 

[agold23]

We only treated for 48 hours because usually after the first 24-36 symptoms start to resolve/alleviate. We had a possible case of coccidiosis in another hen probably about 2 months ago and we did treat for a week and she healed well. The vet told us to call 4-5 days after the appointment just to plan next steps if she isn’t improving. Hindsight is 20/20 but she probably wasn’t even drinking much of the medicated water when we did treat them. Do you advise we treat the flock again with Corid for the full intended time even though none of them are showing any symptoms? It’s likely they have it aswell but are strong enough not to show symptoms.

We are in Canada, there are only 2 vets in my city who take chickens and this was our second choice. We called the other place twice and went to voicemail twice with no call back so we decided to bite the bullet and go there because she was near death. They said they had another chicken in about a month and a half ago and a quail in more recently.

It should be a simple enough treatment for basic cases but I feel so terrible that I allowed her to get this sick.

 

[azygous]

Don't beat yourself up over this. Each time we make a mistake, we learn something. Your hen should recover all right. Chickens can go right up to death's door step and turn around and be fine. in the last two weeks, I thought for sure I was going to lose two chickens from coccidiosis, and they're recovering splendidly now.

Yes, even though your flock is showing no symptoms, it's wise to treat a second time. On this forum, this summer, I've run across several cases where chickens have relapsed after a round of coccidiostat, and when I asked, they admitted to only doing the first round. It's very important to do two rounds.

 

[agold23]

This is my first flock, I got them at the end of April and it seems we’ve been bombarded with sickness and mites and possible upper respiratory infections. I’m grateful to have support from the woman who gave them to us who reassured me that this is all a learning curve and that “chickens favourite thing to do is just die for no apparent reason”. Because BB is an ornamental breed it may also be she is less resistant.

I will treat the rest of the flock starting tomorrow.