Hen with liquid diarrhea no other symptoms

[uisceros]

Hi all,

It’s been awhile since I had a sick chicken so I just want to make sure I’m doing all I can here. I have a year old Salmon Faverolle hen that had a tough molt. She was being picked on and had some mildly bloody feathers from that. As a result she was not wanting to go in the coop at night (staying in the run). I started watching her closely during this time.

Within the last week I noticed she seemed a bit off. Concerned about coccidiosis I treated her for 5 days using Tony’s treasure tabs (https://birdpalproducts.com/products/tonys-treasure-tablets). These are for bacteria and coccidia.

Her diarrhea is still present though. I needed to treat the flock for parasites anyway, so I just put out some moxivet plus. I figure if the diarrhea is from a parasite that would clear it up.

Anything else I should do? Probiotics (can I give them with the other stuff)? Vet?

Shes mostly acting normal otherwise (aside from not wanting to go in the henhouse at night). Hard to tell because she’s standoffish from the molt, but she’s definitely eating.

I had a very similar situation with a bird a year ago that ended up passing despite my best efforts. I don’t want that to happen here.

They eat a mix of Kalmbach Henhouse reserve, all flock, and currently feather fixer. They’re all molting so I haven’t gotten an egg from her in awhile. No swelling/dirty butt. One of my roosters has lice that I’m treating, but this girl doesn’t. No signs of worms or mites, and no blood in her poop that I’ve seen.

 

[Debbie292d]

Hi, and sorry about your hen.

It seems you're doing everything right for her.

As for the probiotics, those normally don't counter anything but antibiotics and that's just temporary so can be spaced out hours apart. That's a little difficult if both are mixed in water. I do fermented HHR and grains, or buy Greek yogurt when we get that and share it with the chickens. Probiotics of whatever kind could clear up her diarrhea.

For future lice or mites, permethrin powder is what most here use.

Maybe the Moxivet will show some improvement after a few days too.

 

[Eggcessive]

That tablet has enrofloxacin, doxycycline, ronidazole, and anti-coccidial, so definitely give probiotics. I’m not sure of the dosage or the strength, though. I prefer to give only one drug at a time for a specific disease. A spoonful of cottage cheese daily for a couple of days might also help the diarrhea.

 

[HollowOfWisps]

Yes you absolutely 100% need to gives probiotics if you use antibiotics. Antibiotics will make diarrhea worse because they kill both the good and bad gut bacteria. When the good bacteria is killed off from the gut it creates an imbalance in the microbiome which will actually cause the bad bacteria to come back with a vengeance because there is not enough good bacteria to keep it in check. This also can lead to immune system issues down the road. My vet, my cousin that is a retired vet even my children’s pediatrician, my doctor and my MIL who has taught at universities and writes for medical research journals say it is absolutely critical that you replenish good gut bacteria after using antibiotics. My doctor actually mentioned that from her research and some of the medical conferences she has been too that they are finding that not replenishing the good bacteria after antibiotics they are starting to believe is part of the cause for not just immune diseases that are on the rise, but also possibly plays a role in stomach cancers, colon cancer and even anxiety/depression. I encourage you to do your own research it’s actually something that needs to be taken more seriously in both humans and animals.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articl...ion of beneficial bacteria,Zhang & Chen, 2019).

 

[uisceros]

Hi, and sorry about your hen.

It seems you're doing everything right for her.

As for the probiotics, those normally don't counter anything but antibiotics and that's just temporary so can be spaced out hours apart. That's a little difficult if both are mixed in water. I do fermented HHR and grains, or buy Greek yogurt when we get that and share it with the chickens. Probiotics of whatever kind could clear up her diarrhea.

For future lice or mites, permethrin powder is what most here use.

Maybe the Moxivet will show some improvement after a few days too.

Sorry! I must have turned off post notifications - I didn’t see this until today!

Thanks so much - I stopped the antibiotics after 5 days as per bottle instructions. I did moxivet in the flocks water for a single day (also as per bottle instructions), and then did plain water for a few days before I switched to a vitamin/probiotic additive (https://www.chewy.com/strong-animals-chicken-e-lixir/dp/394597)

The chicken herself seems mostly normal - she was super interested in food after the single dose of moxivet. She still has intermittent watery diarrhea though, so I’m not sure if thats she antibiotic aftereffects, or the original illness. I’ll definitely do some Greek yogurt though! Can’t hurt, especially since it’s getting so cold here in New England!

As for the mites, I actually have permethrin, but I don’t want to use it. I have cats, and I get really nervous about the possible effects on them. I will probably buy some elector psp in the future, since it’s not a poison for cats!

 

[uisceros]

That tablet has enrofloxacin, doxycycline, ronidazole, and anti-coccidial, so definitely give probiotics. I’m not sure of the dosage or the strength, though. I prefer to give only one drug at a time for a specific disease. A spoonful of cottage cheese daily for a couple of days might also help the diarrhea.

I followed the directions on the bottle (which are for pigeons, not a 4lb chicken), so while it is a pretty intense all in one, based on weight I don't think it would have been an over-dosage.

I get it, I normally would be more conservative, but I tend to panic when it comes to my birds. My chickens are pets first, and while I do have a vet, I've also had no luck with vet treatment - it seems to me once a chicken is sick, no one really knows what to do and the bird eventually dies.

I started them on a probiotic/vitamin water additive, but the cottage cheese or yogurt is a good idea! I'll do that tomorrow.

 

[uisceros]

Yes you absolutely 100% need to gives probiotics if you use antibiotics. Antibiotics will make diarrhea worse because they kill both the good and bad gut bacteria. When the good bacteria is killed off from the gut it creates an imbalance in the microbiome which will actually cause the bad bacteria to come back with a vengeance because there is not enough good bacteria to keep it in check. This also can lead to immune system issues down the road. My vet, my cousin that is a retired vet even my children’s pediatrician, my doctor and my MIL who has taught at universities and writes for medical research journals say it is absolutely critical that you replenish good gut bacteria after using antibiotics. My doctor actually mentioned that from her research and some of the medical conferences she has been too that they are finding that not replenishing the good bacteria after antibiotics they are starting to believe is part of the cause for not just immune diseases that are on the rise, but also possibly plays a role in stomach cancers, colon cancer and even anxiety/depression. I encourage you to do your own research it’s actually something that needs to be taken more seriously in both humans and animals.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8756738/#:~:text=Antibiotic eradication of beneficial bacteria,Zhang & Chen, 2019).

Oh, I 100% agree! My masters is actually in medical microbiology (though human, not animal), so I'm super pro science and definitely pro probiotics (haha, say that three times fast!).

I've already started the flock on a probiotic/vitamin additive. I was mostly just not sure if the probiotics would interfere with treatment (sort of like how you don't want to give vitamins with corid). Despite my previous schooling I am still a relatively newbie with chickens (I've only had my flock for 2.5 years). I'm always looking to learn more.

Thanks for the article! I will definitely give it a read. I appreciate all the help that you (and everyone else) can give me.

The hen in question (Cora) seems mostly okay - she still doesn't want to go into the henhouse at night despite her feathers being fully grown back, and she still has intermittent diarrhea, but her mood is good and she still eats. I'm hoping that the probiotics will help clear this up!