still got 5 although 2 are very poorly (pippin and popcorn) the vet did a post mortem on pootle and confirmed it is coccidiosis, i wasn't really ready for that and neither was pip, but we held on to our breakfasts, we were lucky enough to get refered to a vet that specialises in poultry in Barnard Castle, although he admitted he hadn't seen anything like our polands before, he has given them a drug called Baycox 2.5%, 3 mls in 1 litre of water, for 2 days, he said it was safe to use for 4 days but only licenced for 2 (whatever that means) he made no promises on recovery, as he doesn't know how much of the intestine has been damaged, but if another bird dies and the rest still seem poorly we are to take the dead one to a lab in Thirsk, where for a fixed fee they'll run more tests, if one dies and the rest seem to get better it means we didn't get the drug to it fast enough, we have to poo watch the rest of the birds outside (apparently the ex bats will have been vacinated for coccidiosis, but the vacine only last 12 months, i didn't know that) when i asked him how they'd got it he said from the enviroment, i found that hard to believe as they have never been beyond my bedroom, he gave us what was left of pootle to bring home (actually he's still in the car) and even showed me where to take the photo of the damaged bit of intsetine if anyone would like to see what it looks like,
thank you all for your support, keeping fingers and toes crossed,
pip eventually went to bed at five but left pootle on my bed where i laid on him, she left him wrapped in kitchen roll on the front seat of my car while she went to open the gate and then sat on him, he was a bit squashed by the time he got to the vet.