[Elaine J]

Our 4yr old Sussex has started doing runny poo and the white bit is yellow, not white.  
She stopped laying about 6 months ago, so no eggs for a while. She's recently lost quite a bit of weight, and stays in the coop much longer than usual.
Their coop has always been kept clean, and is sanitised with Poultry Shield & Total Mite Kill Spray at regular intervals. And the hens were last wormed in November. They're free-rangers, so have the run of our garden, and the adjoining woodland.

Now I'm not sure if this is linked, but we recently lost one of our ex-batts who was of similar age. She appeared totally normal, other than suddenly stopping laying, and her weight dropping off her rapidly. We came back from work one day, and she'd gone off her legs, so my husband did the kind thing and despatched her with his .410.

I know it's not worms or mites, so we have gone down the Coccidiosis route, and are currently admininstering Coxoid to all 5 of our girls... but after 4 days of treatment there is no change in her poo whatsoever!

Worried whatever it is might be contagious, and spread to our other girls,
Elaine.  

[Elaine J]

I meant to add that the hens are being kept inside a run at the mo, so we can be sure that they're only eating & drinking what we give to them (organic layers pellets, a bit of corn, and the water treated with Coxoid).

Fingers crossed,
Elaine. 

[Elaine J]

Well, after 7 days of Coxoid her poo is back to normal. 

Elaine. 

[joyfull]

thats good news 

[bantam novice]

Good news Lotus Elaine 

[Elaine J]

Yeah, it's brilliant news.     

I'm not technically Lotus Elaine now though... After 10 happy Lotus owning years, we admitted we weren't using the Exige anywhere near enough (6yrs old and only 7,000 miles on its clock), so we sold it last May.

I'd like my username changed to Elaine J, but it says I haven't got enough posts to send messages, so I can't contact admin...


Elaine. 

[joyfull]

I'll get in touch with Aunty for you 

[penninehillbilly]

Wasn't the .410 a little drastic?

[hillfooter]

Unusual dropping are fairly common with chickens and don't always mean an illness.  At this time of year with wet unfoot conditions such occurances are common in my experience.  I doubt the coxoid made any diference.  I suspect it just righted itself.
HF

[Elaine J]

Thanks, Joyfull. 


Penninehillbilly, By the time I'd got back from milking the cows that ex-batt was all but dead. She was lying in the garden, limp & lifeless, and the sub minus cold had got to her.    We've used the .410 for despatching for years, it's very quick & clean. 



Hillfooter, The Sussex went lethargic as well, we really didn't think she was going to get better, but after 7 days of Coxoid she did. It might be a coincidence, but I'd have thought the Coxoid would have made her worse if it wasn't parasite related? (seeing as it strips the hens of their vitamins).  I s'pose we'll never know.
We're just glad she's gaining weight, and back to her normal strutting self. 
They're on a strong solution of Liquid Tonic with Seaweed to replace their lost vitamins now. 

Have a nice Sunday all,
Elaine. 

[hillfooter]

That's the problem with treatments if they get better we swear by the treatment.  It's a strong instinct with all animals and particularly us humans.  It's the basis of all quack cures and superstition generally.  If we are wearing our "lucky" red jumper when our football team win then even  though we know it's nonsence we still have a strong compulsion to wear it again to matches.  We also place much more significance on one seemingly positive result than we do on many negative results.  So it only has to appear to work once for us to be inclined to believe it despite possibly many unsuccessful outcomes.

There was an interesting tidbit on QI last night which mentioned some research done on pigeons which found they performed the same behaviour down to preening the same feathers prior to feed time.  This was postulated to be because they associated the actions they performed with being fed and in fact causing it.  Our cat certainly has a  well worn routine when she wants to be fed.  We tend to assume a causal relationship between actions and effects which are in fact just coincident in time.

Maybe the coxoid was effective, we will never know as you say.  However if it happens again and coxoid seems to work again there might be some evidence building that it helps.  To do it scientifically you need a trial group and control group which doesn't get treated.  If they are statisically large enough groups (or number of trials) then the evidence maybe strong enough to generate conclusions.  There's a big debate in the medical profession right now about homeopahic treatments being granted licenses without the same strength of trial evidence as other conventional medicines.
HF

[Elaine J]

Oh, I know what you're saying. The dairy farm where I work is organic, and we use homeopathic treatments on the girls that need a bit of a boost before/after calving, have foot problems, or a high cell count. When the vet first suggested that we try the homeopathic sprays, Phil (the farmer) was a bit sceptical, but we said we'd give them a go anyway...
And they do seem to work very well on most of the cows, but others do go on to need a course of anti-biotics and we have to dump their milk.
Like you say, unless we run clincally strict trials we'll never know if it's actually the homepathic treatments making a difference, or just nature running it's course. But the sprays aren't expensive, and they're easy to apply (one squirt into the cow's vulva at milking time), so we'll carry on using them, unless they're proven to be rubbish.

E.  

[hillfooter]

If you have an interest in this area then I recommend Ben Goldacres amusing and very readable book "Bad Science" which examines the scientific evidence for many claims made for supplements and medications in advertising and the gurus who are making a fortune from selling miracle cures.  It discusses modern day quackery and such issues as the MMR scare.

Simply having a Vet vouch for a medication isn't a guarentee of it's efficacy.  Global Herbs is a company which no doubt is making millions for it's vet founder yet whose claims must stretch the credulity of it's most ardent believers.
HF

[Elaine J]

I do have an interest in it, but not enough to read a book.    I leave that to Phil, he's pretty on the ball with that side of it.
Being organic to Soil Association standard, we have to try all the natural remedies we can though, because the cows are only allowed a maximum of 2 courses of antibiotics per year (during which time they're milked into a Dump Bucket.... unlike the non-organic which are given antibiotics, etc, routinely, and their milk is sold).

A few work PICS.
E.