# Enteritis, causes and symptoms



## AndreiS (Jul 28, 2013)

Can you give information about enteritis, if there are particular symptoms for this kind of manifestation function of the pathogen that causes it? That is, can we say based on symptoms, that one or other kind of enteritis is caused by canker, or by coccidiosis, or by bacteria or worms?


----------



## hamlet (Oct 26, 2004)

Hello. To be funny: we can say yes, but are we vets? You may know that enteritis along with smelly poop is very likely to be salmonella infection. But i, like you am not sure. Also, the combination of ailments pose more difficulties in visually diagnosis. So which route to take is the question for me: to treat half knowingly or not to take a chance at creating a worse world for others to come/be in. Fe: superbugs; stronger forms of the same bug which we can not fight with the same medicine as before. I choose Nature. Thank, you.


----------



## John_D (Jan 24, 2002)

If you are just looking at 'bad poops' that isn't necessarily due to enteritis. As with any possible illness, we need to look at other, concurrent symptoms. 

But. the most common causes of enteritis are Salmonellosis (the most common form is enteric, rather than joint swellings or 'stargazing'), E.coli infection, Hexamita and Coccidia infection. It is an irritation or infection in the intestines.

All these can, of course, be tested for in poops, given a few days worth (Salmonella is excreted sporadically, so one day of poops is not sufficient to test for that). It is not that easy to differentiate between Salmonellosis and E.coli infections, if you just have bad poops and lethargy, and different meds would ideally be used for each.


----------



## AndreiS (Jul 28, 2013)

Each of these diseases come in many forms, depending of strain, location in bird's body and other factors. I've read that some forms of Salmonellosis are acute, they appear and progress fast leading to death if unthreated. Other forms are chronical.

I thought that for both e.coli and salmonella the best drug is enrofloxacine (Baytril). Is any other better for e.coli? I once tried Colistin but proved toxic and inefficient.

Also, is the advanced form of Coccidiosis manifested through a transparent liquid with some small solid parts in it?

I had several pigeons that probably got Coccidiosis (environment is infested), showing the big mucous poop that we know. I treated them only for two days and the typical symptoms disappeared but few days later appeared that transparent liquid enteritis. One pigeon is now with such enteritis. I've treated for like 4 days with both metronidazole (in the morning) and Baytril (in the evening) and after these days the droppings became worse, voluminous pools of transparent liquid even after feeding, when before, after feeding was making firmer droppings.

So I stopped the metro + enrofloxacine and gave for two days Coccistop. Also yesterday I gave a dewormer. Now for the first time she stopped drinking the enormous ammounts of water and the droppings are partly liquid (especially as the food in crop is consumed) but way smaller and looking better. I'm not sure if Coccistop or the dewormer did this thing, I tend to think Coccistop. I will continue with it after three days pause.


In last few months I had several pigeons that died by enteritis, either gettind deadly dehydrated or by suffocation with water following crop (candida) complications. This unknown (for me) disease didn't appear to produce fever and retrospectively, I tend to think was coccidiosis. Once I had a pigeon that started to make big water-like droppings and he was having a feverish aspect. I saved him with three Lincospectin shot. The vet said it was salmonellosis, but he has no experience with birds.


----------



## John_D (Jan 24, 2002)

Amoxicillin is often preferred to Baytril for E.coli infection. The problem is that bacterial infections may not necessarily always succumb to a specific antibiotic. If one suspects Salmonella or E.coli are responsible, then it's more important to find what the actual bacteria in the patient are most susceptible to, hence the poop analysis. No doubt Baytril is a start, being as it is broad spectrum, but it may not always work great in a particular case. Similar with Amoxicillin, Doxycycline or other possibilities.


----------



## AndreiS (Jul 28, 2013)

E coli, at least here in Romania, became very resistent. Following years of tests at Romvac labs (one of main vet drugs producers) they found out that treatment of E coli must be carried out using "synergic treatment" with several drugs (don't know what they mean by this). Here is the page in Romanian:
http://www.porumbei.ro/terapia-cu-antibiotice-la-porumbei-si-antibiorezistenta/


And a table that shows that the most efficient antibiotic, that creates no resistence, is Fosfomycin (branded here under the name Fosbac):


S means sensible
MS means moderately sensible
R means resistent


----------



## John_D (Jan 24, 2002)

Thanks for that info - it is an interesting table. Never heard of Fosfomycin, but looking it up it indeed appears effective for E.coli. The info I found relates to use in humans.


----------



## CBL (May 13, 2014)

Andrei means S means susceptible or sensitive to meaning the drug will kill that particular bacteria. Thanks for the chart, good thing to have when you want to know which drug will work better.


----------



## AndreiS (Jul 28, 2013)

The table refers to the situation in Romania. Over larger geographical distances, there may be some variation between strains, especialy across the ocean. 

Fosfomycin is like ten times more expensive than Baytril. I bought and used it. It proved effective at two pigeons with bacterial artritis, that could not fly before treatment. The author of the same page, dr. Tudoran, says that for bacterial artritis, Fosfomycin is best as has the smallest molecule capable to pass through the cartilage of the articular capsule. I used Fosfomycin too for some other issues and it didn't seem very good. Problem is that it only can be put in water and is harder to control the drug amount a sick bird will get. Lincospectin is very good (from my experience) in advanced stages of of salmonellosis, in adenocoli attacks and in infected wounds. But is not good in incipient bacterial infections, where enrofloxacine was more efficient. 



On the page from the link it says that these combinations of drugs should be used (rotating between the groups from time to time):

- Enrofloxacin + Colistin

- Lincomycin + Spectinomycin (Lincospectin combines the two)

- Amoxicillin + Colistin

- Fosfomycin + Tylosin

- Doxycyclin + Tylosin


----------



## CBL (May 13, 2014)

Thanks Andrei, I saved this info to ipad


----------

