Runny white fluid

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smudger28

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Hi guys

I have some battery hens which we have had since August last year. In the last 3 weeks we seem to be losing one a week. The hens seem to have a runny white fluid coming out of their vents which the other chickens go mad for and peck the poor blighters until they bleed. The chickens get separated but do not live no longer than 48 hrs.

I don't think it's vent gleet as there is no smell to the fluid. It's not a broken egg inside because that would be too much of a coincidence for this to happen to 4 chickens in a row.

All the chickens seem healthy the day before?

The chickens have ACV in their water. The coop gets dusted regularly with mite powder. They eat regular layer pellets. They have a small amount of mixed corn for a treat.

I'm at a loss...

Is it because the hens have laid their last eggs and just given up?
 
However much it seems like too much of a co-incidence, I can't think of anything else that would attract them other than egg. Once blood is drawn, that is also a big attraction and a lot of damage can be done in a very short time.

The non option here is is that they've just laid their last eggs and given up.

I'm afraid I'm at a loss and unable to offer any worthwhile advice. I'd go on seperating them as soon as possible after blood is drawn and even before when you first see the white discharge. What they are dying from is probably shock caused by the trauma.
 
You say it would be too much of a coincidence for this to happen to 4 hens in a row. But it's possible that if they were all sisters from the same battery farm, and are now 3 years old, they have all reached the end of the line at about the same time, having been bred for intensive egg production for 2years before slaughter. At least you have given them a year of freedom and loving care, they are lucky girls.
 
Really sorry to hear about your hens. :( It is peculiar that all of your poorly hens seem to have the same problems. White, watery droppings suggest high urine and urate content which can indicate a kidney problem, but it could be more complicated than that, such as a metabolic syndrome due to other physiological changes which possibly could have been brought on by an infection of some sort or even stress which have a profound impact on their immune system.

What are you feeding them on? Do they free range and if not what sort of base do they have in their run?

At the end of the day, you may want to consider taking one in for an exam by a vet specialising in poultry, it is very difficult for anyone to give an accurate diagnosis with the sort of symptoms you are describing.
 
Hi guys

Thanks for all your replies. Unfortunately I think this next chicken will not see out the night :(

I have separated her from the rest of the chickens.

I'm hoping that it is just the fact they have given up and not some serious disease. Do any of you think it could be Coccidiosis? I read somewhere that battery hens are susceptible to this disease as they don't live in their droppings and therefore do not build up immunity to it. Now I'm letting them live in an ark they are exposed to them! We clean the girls out regularly (every other day). They get fresh wood shavings in their coop with mite powder mixed in. They also get fresh straw outside.

We only have 3 battery hens left. The other 4 hens I bought in.

Well at least we gave them a better quality of life....
 
I agree with Chuck and think it's egg white. The only thing that would attract hens to another hens vent, apart from blood. I have heard that exbatts are prone to soft shelled eggs but I am wondering if their diet is deficient in Calcium all of a sudden. I'm know you are feeding layers pellets Smudger but is it remotely possible that a batch has gone out with the Calcium component missing ? Did this start happening after you opened a new batch? It's not Coccidiosis.

And it is possible that all being from the same origin and the same environment they may all have the same congenital problem arising at approximately the same time.
 
smudger28 said:
Hi guys

We only have 3 battery hens left. The other 4 hens I bought in.

Well at least we gave them a better quality of life....
Click to expand...

Do you mean you have 4 other hens from a different source that are not affected? If so it would point to something like age-related problems in the ex-batts, rather than anything in the food or in your current setup. If you've had the ex-batts nearly a year they've had plenty of time to acclimatise to life outside.
 
chrismahon said:
I agree with Chuck and think it's egg white. The only thing that would attract hens to another hens vent, apart from blood. I have heard that exbatts are prone to soft shelled eggs but I am wondering if their diet is deficient in Calcium all of a sudden. I'm know you are feeding layers pellets Smudger but is it remotely possible that a batch has gone out with the Calcium component missing ? Did this start happening after you opened a new batch? It's not Coccidiosis.
Click to expand...

Hi This has happened with with various feed. I was using one brand and have switched to another which a friend regularly uses. I also give oyster shell as well.
 
Marigold said:
Do you mean you have 4 other hens from a different source that are not affected? If so it would point to something like age-related problems in the ex-batts, rather than anything in the food or in your current setup. If you've had the ex-batts nearly a year they've had plenty of time to acclimatise to life outside.
Click to expand...

We have only had the 4 hens for about 3 weeks. They are from a different source.
 
Re. battery hens not building up resistance to coccidiosis - they don't go into cages until they are five months old. Until that time they are usually reared in big sheds where they would build up resistance. Battery houses are not sterile environments and the atmosphere is loaded with pathogens.
 
So you've had the new hens for 3 weeks, and during this time, the ex batts have begun to drop, one by one?
I think it's possible that stress is a factor here, maybe bringing on health problems which in any case are very common, almost inevitable, in 3- year-old ex batts. They may have appeared to be OK with 4 new girls sharing (and thus reducing) their space, but the arrival of newbies always takes it out if the resident hens as well as the newcomers. We tend to forget this, when so often it's the newbies being bullied that we are concerned about. You didn't mention whether the new ones were separated from the ex batts and I'm wondering if you perhaps just put them all straight in together? If so, even if all seemed reasonably calm, this will have been a major shock for the old ones, and may have lowered their immune systems so they succumbed to what may have been imminent problems anyway for them.
 
Marigold said:
So you've had the new hens for 3 weeks, and during this time, the ex batts have begun to drop, one by one?
I think it's possible that stress is a factor here, maybe bringing on health problems which in any case are very common, almost inevitable, in 3- year-old ex batts. They may have appeared to be OK with 4 new girls sharing (and thus reducing) their space, but the arrival of newbies always takes it out if the resident hens as well as the newcomers. We tend to forget this, when so often it's the newbies being bullied that we are concerned about. You didn't mention whether the new ones were separated from the ex batts and I'm wondering if you perhaps just put them all straight in together? If so, even if all seemed reasonably calm, this will have been a major shock for the old ones, and may have lowered their immune systems so they succumbed to what may have been imminent problems anyway for them.
Click to expand...

If this is the case smudger, then this increases the likelihood of an infection or dormant illness brought on by stress affecting the ex-batts.

Are all your birds in a run together? The exbatts and your new hens? Sorry for all the questions, we are just building up a picture and eliminating some of the more obvious causes. I agree though with Chuck, unlikely to be coccidiosis.
 
I agree that the new hens are the trigger for this problem. Most likely to be a stress induced latent problem rather than infection. They do make bonds between each other so when they start to go missing it triggers another to be ill. Ex-batts are not the hardiest of hens due to their abuse in the first year and yours have done well to get to three years old.
 
Hi guys

Thanks for all the replies!

The hens are all in the same pen. Sadly we lost the poorly hen in the night. We are left with 3 ex bats and the 4 new girls. Thinking about it logically I probably caused a stir in the pecking order when I introduced the new girls. All this squabbling has probably affected the ex bats.

So when introducing new birds what is the most effective method?

Thanks
 
Hi Smudger, sorry to hear she died. Have a look at the main Poultrykeeper site at www.poultrykeeper.com -there's a link at the bottom of the Board Index page on the forum. Lots of useful info on there including about introductions, and also if you look back there are quite a few threads about it as well, it's something we keep on nattering about.
 
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