Chook with watery poo, any ideas on causes?

[Lucylou]

My poorly chook has improved quite a lot but she's still not back to normal. Thought I'd ask if anyone has any ideas on what else I could do.

Background is: - she's had very, very watery poo, very lethargic, loosing weight. So visit to vet, gave anti-biotics & analised the poo (what we could get) & no 'bugs'. Vet couldn't come up with anything obvious & ruled out all the major things.

She's been on the tablets for 10 days now, we've had to give her tempting food & she eats & drinks when given the chance, also has a good scratch around when I let her out on her own, so behaves normally, just does everything at a slow pace. She's the top bird & has got some of her mo-jo back, but nothing like as bossy as she usually is. But she still has the runny poo & can't be tempted to eat layers mash pr pellets.

The one symptom that seems odd is her crop seems to take a long time to empty.If its very full at night, its not empty by morning, but gradually goes down by the next evening, & that day she eats very little (of course) Also her runny poo is now greenish colour.
She's about 1 year old & doesn't lay (vet says her egg laying equipment is 'thinking' about it )

Anyone have experience of this,any ideas gratefully received.
thanks.

 

[foxy]

You could look at ways to improve gut health maybe. I am presumimg the tablets she is on is Baytril?
It does sound like something is a bit amiss with her digestive system, particulary if crop motility is slow.
I would firstly cut out all treats, no bread or yeast products especially. Ensure she has access to grit.
Supplement her drinking water with Apple cider vinegar and I like to use Oreg-Stim as well. A good specialist pro-biotic like Avi-pro may help too.

There is a possibility she may be crop bound, and have a little hard knot of grass that is partly blocking the entrance, slowing absorption and may account for the greenish, watery droppings.

Has she been wormed recently? A light worm load shouldn't cause problems, but if she is a bit light then maybe. Finally check very carefully for unwanted guests in the coop particulary the dreaded redmite.

 

[Lucylou]

Thanks Foxy. The anti-bios are Amoxycare (penicillin) They have ACV one week in four & garlic another week & she was wormed in feb with flubenvet.

I have had to temp her with food to get her to eat anything but although she's much better at eating now she still won't eat 'proper' food, its almost as if the texture is unpalatable to her. She does go mad for mealworms though! I'm just glad she'll eat something. She doesn't get anything wheat based.

I haven't got either Oreg-stim or Avi-pro but I've got Herban (don't know if it'll help) but I'll give her some & see if I can get some of the others you mentioned, where do you get them from?

On cleaning out the house today its obvious which are her droppings they're bright green, but its an improvement that they're not all water :?

Have looked for red mite & so far all clear but will inspect again. The other girls seem fine.

Any more ideas, my vet is on hols this week & I don't have much faith in the locum knowing about chooks so I'm hoping I can get her over the next hurdle with all your help No pressure then :lol:

 

[foxy]

Hello again!

I am just guessing that the feacals came back NAD so the vet has presumed gut infection and prescribed penicillin maybe? Maybe worth a break as a 10day course should have sorted, but penicillin hasn't a really broad activity.

I would go for supportive intervention right now, you could try Avipro here is some information you might find useful.

http://www.livefoods.co.uk/product_info.php?products_id=31

Sometimes antiobiotics can have a detrimental effect on the natural gut flora, and, if the problem lies in the gut a helping hand might be worthwhile.
Based on your reply, it seems that worms are not a problem, Fluvenvet is an effective wormer. Redmite it sounds like you would know about!

ACV is good at getting the PH favourable, try a more continuous regime 4 out of 5 on ACV and you could up it to 50ml per litre for week 1. Just my thoughts!

I like Oreg-stim, or similar, think I get mine on-line from Regency poultry.

 

[ncotb]

Always give mine vitamins for 7 days after a course of antibiotics. You could also try chopped up fresh oregano as this is good for the gut too. Hope she is a bit better.

 

[Lucylou]

Many thanks both of you for your suggestions. The additive I have in stock is an oregano base so I'm trying that also live yoghurt for the pro-bio's but she's just not getting better. I have ordered some of the other things suggested but not here yet.

It seems like she has something thats stopping absorbtion of anything nutricious (oops sp!) Really don't want to fear the worst but she's just not making that leap to getting better.

The poo is now less watery but green & yellow (yikes!) The crop was slowly going down but now its seems constantly half full. I've never had to deal with this although from advice on here I know what can be done (a few drops of olive oil & massage the crop I think is suggested) but don't know if this is a good thing to do.

Any further advice would be appreciated. Thanx

The only upside to all this is that the other chooks are benefitting from the supplements!

 

[Anonymous]

Hi,
I'm new to the forum and just came across this post whilst looking for help with my sick ex-battery hen. Basically symptoms are very similar to those described above. Out of the blue my chook became lethargic and stopped eating and drinking, although does if prompted - its almost as though she forgets. She's not interested in anything grain-based, although her favourite foods used to include pasta, rice, bread etc. Now the only thing she'll eat is iceberg lettuce, white cabbage, cucumber and a bit of cooked carrot. She won't have yoghurt, rice pudding, porridge etc.

The vet gave her antibiotics although didn't have any idea what was wrong with her. Her crop feels weird and squidgy, not fluid and gurgly like when she had sour crop a couple of months ago. I've tried giving her olive oil and massaging it, also the vet 'flushed' her crop but said nothing much came out.

The other two chickens seem fine and are running around the garden causing trouble as usual. Its so sad that the poorly one is so lethargic, she barely has the energy to stand at the moment.

Is it coincidence that this has happened as the weather got really warm this last week?

 

[Lucylou]

Hi Bobble.

The symptoms you describe seem very similar. Mine is very lethargic this morning, won't come down the ramp out of the house but is sitting in the doorway quite alert but no energy & exactly as you descride its almost as if she forgets to eat. She also won't touch grain but has eaten a few very small beakfuls of porridge & soft fruits. Her crop is still quite full but feels hard rather than soft.

I wonder what they're suffering from? My lovely vet who has sorted previous chook illnesses can't shed any light on this either, I'd take her back to him again but he's still away till monday, don't know if she will hang on. I just think the other vet will be a waste of money as she isnt so experienced with chooks, I think I've already had more advice from foxy & ncotb.

Perhaps someone will have more advice for us. Hope she pulls through.

 

[Tim]

Hi,

A couple of thoughts...I read that you feed lettuce. Can you stop feeding lettuce for a week and see if there is any improvement? Lettuce is full of water and can cause diarrhea.

I know you have wormed with Flubenvet in Feb. but has the vet definitely run a worm count on the faeces? You can also get one done by post quite cheaply if he hasn't (see Worming FAQ in chickens health).

If there is a high infection pressure (usually if your birds are on the same bit of ground for a while), you sometimes need to repeat the worming before the prepatent period (about 3 to 4 weeks for most common worms). Imagine worms laying eggs by the thousand and many pass out onto the ground and some get eaten by intermediate hosts like earthworms / slugs / snails. You worm your birds. All worms and eggs are killed in the bird but the eggs on the ground and in the intermediate hosts start to get picked up and hatch again in the gut. You need to worm again to kill these before they in turn lay eggs. This as I say is usually 3 to 4 weeks to break the cycle.

If the area in which they are kept is large, or they are moved around frequently, the infection pressure is likely to be low - but confirming a worm count has been done would at least rule worms out. I'm sure the vet has run this test but I would double check.

 

[Lucylou]

Hi Tim.

Thanks for the suggestions. I've just been reading all the articles you've written on the main Poultry Keeper site related to digestive problems again. I noticed that often after a course of anti-biotics they can get sour crop & this seems like it could have happened. She was improving & then the slowing down of the crop emptying started, now its constantly full but doesn't seem to be soft, (don't want to upset her & sqeeze too hard) Haven't noticed a smell though.

I also read the symptoms of Pullorum, some of those symptoms sound the same too. Hope not, but dry looking comb, lethargic, not laying (never has) Think I might phone the vet, she may not be as experienced with chickens as my usual one but she's a vet so must have an idea!! Don't want my poor chook to starve to death.

And I thought this hobby would be easy :?

 

[Anonymous]

Hi,
Well she's still hanging on but barely. I bought some live maggots as our local poultry shop told us they can wriggle around in the crop and help clear any blockage. She wasn't really interested but ate 4 or 5 (however the other two gobbled loads up). I also tried her with dried mealworms and made a kind of mealworm soup which she picked at during the day, so at least she's getting some fluids and a little food. Yesterday she suddenly showed an interest in a few bits of corn and layers pellets, but needs constant encouragement to eat as she dozes off between each peck.

This morning though she was back to absolute lethargy and wouldn't touch anything except a few bits of lettuce and cucumber. Her poo is still very watery but does at least have some 'normal' green/black colouring whereas it has just been water. Her crop this morning was very sludgy again - neither watery like sour crop nor hard and full like impacted crop (from my very limited experience of these conditions). She's still on the antibiotics (can't remember name, begins with B) and is on day 5 of 7.

I've wormed the chickens fairly recently with Verm-X, the other two seem absolutely fine and are eating normally. This weekend I thoroughly disinfected the coop and house, and checked for signs of mites but didn't find any.

I'm still at a total loss what to do, but just doing what I can to encourage her to eat anything she can

 

[ncotb]

As Tim suggested, cut out the lettuce as this can cause diarhoea. Did your vet do a worm count? If not there a few labs about that you can send your samples direct to, it costs £12 to get my pony checked.

I would imagine the vet has given you a course of baytril for 7 days. Try ACV in the water everyday & when the antibiotics are finished give a vitamin supplement (dont do this until day after the AB course has finished).

try giving her some runny porridge/ready brek with some poultry spice in or hard boiled egg chopped up. Hope she has picked up a bit.