rick
Active member
I wondered if you all had any thoughts on this problem that I've been having with Bonnie the Orpington:
At the end of June Bonnie was 3.4kg. I can't remember exactly when it started but it was some time after we returned from holiday in August that she started leaving rather wet dropping on the poop mat overnight. It coincided with them all starting their moult.
I was shocked to find that she was 2.3kg before last weekend. I thought she had lost some weight but not that much. It came around 4 months since the last worming and the pullets have passed 17 weeks so I wormed them all but through that there was no change in the looseness of the poops.
Went to the vet on Sunday and she ruled out Marek's (which obviously she wouldn't have survived for all this time)
Possibly kidneys but seemed unlikely, again ongoing for too long
Possibly diet - they have been on growers and then 50/50 growers and layers pellets as the pullets have got older. I've ordered a new sack of layers as the pullets are not at POL but are 20 weeks now.
Have looked at poop under the microscope - nothing.
The vet said that it may be an excess of protein - but they have been moulting and only Bonnie has had this ongoing thing. She seems well in all other regards. Has been very apposed to being picked up but I put that down to the moult. Her keel is way too sharp for an Orpington.
She is eating and drinking but it does appear that the food is going through without being digested.
Linden is his absolutely reliable 1kg (you could use that bird as a standard measure!) (sablepoot bantam cock)
Aerial is a very comfortable 2.4kg (blacktail)
It's just Bonnie.
Can't catch the CLBs to weigh them in the daylight but they are as big as Aerial now.
... her crop isn't full - i fact she never seems to have much in it although she is second in the pecking order and gets stuck in. This all coincided also with stopping laying but then it's Autumn and she moulted so I put it down to that and being a pure bred though young at roughly just under a year old I think - maybe 9 months?
There does seem to have been a lot of feather cases in the poop and the pullets have been shedding them like snow. I'm exhausting the evidence now!
Unfortunately she did undergo some stress before I introduced two main perches - Aerial was not a good perch mate but is now queen of the top perch and Bonnie seems to be boss of the lower one with the CLBs and Linden (who would happily share the top with Aerial in the general scheme but isn't very nimble for the jump with his feathered feet.) Bonnie's pecked patches, mostly the fault of Aerial) have gone now.
At the end of June Bonnie was 3.4kg. I can't remember exactly when it started but it was some time after we returned from holiday in August that she started leaving rather wet dropping on the poop mat overnight. It coincided with them all starting their moult.
I was shocked to find that she was 2.3kg before last weekend. I thought she had lost some weight but not that much. It came around 4 months since the last worming and the pullets have passed 17 weeks so I wormed them all but through that there was no change in the looseness of the poops.
Went to the vet on Sunday and she ruled out Marek's (which obviously she wouldn't have survived for all this time)
Possibly kidneys but seemed unlikely, again ongoing for too long
Possibly diet - they have been on growers and then 50/50 growers and layers pellets as the pullets have got older. I've ordered a new sack of layers as the pullets are not at POL but are 20 weeks now.
Have looked at poop under the microscope - nothing.
The vet said that it may be an excess of protein - but they have been moulting and only Bonnie has had this ongoing thing. She seems well in all other regards. Has been very apposed to being picked up but I put that down to the moult. Her keel is way too sharp for an Orpington.
She is eating and drinking but it does appear that the food is going through without being digested.
Linden is his absolutely reliable 1kg (you could use that bird as a standard measure!) (sablepoot bantam cock)
Aerial is a very comfortable 2.4kg (blacktail)
It's just Bonnie.
Can't catch the CLBs to weigh them in the daylight but they are as big as Aerial now.
... her crop isn't full - i fact she never seems to have much in it although she is second in the pecking order and gets stuck in. This all coincided also with stopping laying but then it's Autumn and she moulted so I put it down to that and being a pure bred though young at roughly just under a year old I think - maybe 9 months?
There does seem to have been a lot of feather cases in the poop and the pullets have been shedding them like snow. I'm exhausting the evidence now!
Unfortunately she did undergo some stress before I introduced two main perches - Aerial was not a good perch mate but is now queen of the top perch and Bonnie seems to be boss of the lower one with the CLBs and Linden (who would happily share the top with Aerial in the general scheme but isn't very nimble for the jump with his feathered feet.) Bonnie's pecked patches, mostly the fault of Aerial) have gone now.
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