My young peafowl are having some sort of illness and the treatments I've tried so far aren't working on the worst affected.
At first, I thought they were suffering with the cold. For the past while we have had a very cold spell here and it seems to have been hard on my 2 year olds. It's interestingly similar to this recent thread from @DukesDucks. The older birds were totally unaffected but a lot of the younger ones were lethargic and huddled, especially the peacocks more so than the peahens. I also noticed some watery droppings so I wormed them with Fenbendazole for 5 days (even though they only recently had their routine worming in October).
The two worst affected have had drooping wings and started sleeping on the ground. I gave them a deep bed of straw and I treated the entire flock with Tylan. Since finishing the Tylan, the droppings have returned to normal. The majority of the flock are acting normal again but the temperatures are normal again so I don't know if it's just that or something more.
The two sickest still haven't recovered. I have no idea what's wrong with them so I decided to trial treating both of them with Toltrazuril and just the sickest one with Metronidazole to see if either would work.
The one who only had the Toltrazuril has started roosting up high again but still has drooping wings and is keeping to himself for a lot of the day. The one who has had both Toltrazuril and Metronidazole is showing no improvement at all and we currently have him isolated. He's had 3 doses of Metronidazole so far and is due his fourth today. His weight is only 2.9kg and now he seems to have stopped eating. I have a camera on him and I can see he's just waking up to drink a few times a day. He's been gradually eating less each day. He looks at the food bowls and decides not to eat. He has a variety of extra foods - chick starter, grains, peanuts, wet mash with peanut butter, scrambled egg and fresh greens.
I'm concerned that the Metronidazole has put him off eating because I've read it can cause severe nausea and he was eating on his own before we started him on it. I also wonder if it's worth continuing to treat with it since there's no improvement so far. Should I be seeing a difference by now if it was something that Metronidazole was going to treat?
I'm also concerned about the question of potential poisoning after losing another peacock a couple of months ago. I posted his necropsy in this thread and @KsKingBee mentioned poisoning as a possibility but we never got to the bottom of it and don't know what else to look for. Either way, I wonder if his death is related to this new illness even though the symptoms and speed of progression of illness are very different?
If you have any idea what I might be dealing with, please let me know. My current plan is to start the rest of the flock on a probiotic and to start tube feeding the sickest one today but I'm not sure if I should discontinue his Metronidazole or not? Or if there is anything else I can do?
At first, I thought they were suffering with the cold. For the past while we have had a very cold spell here and it seems to have been hard on my 2 year olds. It's interestingly similar to this recent thread from @DukesDucks. The older birds were totally unaffected but a lot of the younger ones were lethargic and huddled, especially the peacocks more so than the peahens. I also noticed some watery droppings so I wormed them with Fenbendazole for 5 days (even though they only recently had their routine worming in October).
The two worst affected have had drooping wings and started sleeping on the ground. I gave them a deep bed of straw and I treated the entire flock with Tylan. Since finishing the Tylan, the droppings have returned to normal. The majority of the flock are acting normal again but the temperatures are normal again so I don't know if it's just that or something more.
The two sickest still haven't recovered. I have no idea what's wrong with them so I decided to trial treating both of them with Toltrazuril and just the sickest one with Metronidazole to see if either would work.
The one who only had the Toltrazuril has started roosting up high again but still has drooping wings and is keeping to himself for a lot of the day. The one who has had both Toltrazuril and Metronidazole is showing no improvement at all and we currently have him isolated. He's had 3 doses of Metronidazole so far and is due his fourth today. His weight is only 2.9kg and now he seems to have stopped eating. I have a camera on him and I can see he's just waking up to drink a few times a day. He's been gradually eating less each day. He looks at the food bowls and decides not to eat. He has a variety of extra foods - chick starter, grains, peanuts, wet mash with peanut butter, scrambled egg and fresh greens.
I'm concerned that the Metronidazole has put him off eating because I've read it can cause severe nausea and he was eating on his own before we started him on it. I also wonder if it's worth continuing to treat with it since there's no improvement so far. Should I be seeing a difference by now if it was something that Metronidazole was going to treat?
I'm also concerned about the question of potential poisoning after losing another peacock a couple of months ago. I posted his necropsy in this thread and @KsKingBee mentioned poisoning as a possibility but we never got to the bottom of it and don't know what else to look for. Either way, I wonder if his death is related to this new illness even though the symptoms and speed of progression of illness are very different?
If you have any idea what I might be dealing with, please let me know. My current plan is to start the rest of the flock on a probiotic and to start tube feeding the sickest one today but I'm not sure if I should discontinue his Metronidazole or not? Or if there is anything else I can do?