Chicken acting odd, diarrhea.

Proverb31mama

Songster
8 Years
May 15, 2015
120
14
139
Allen County, IN
Background: We had a flock of 11 LF hens that we got about 6 weeks ago. They are around 1 yr old. 1.5 weeks ago we noticed that one of the hens was acting odd. She wasn't interested in food, she was very listless, hunched up, going off by herself. We didn't think about it that night (Friday night) so we didn't quarantine her. She did sleep that night on the roosts with the other hens. Saturday morning she was still acting odd and I noticed that there was diarrhea on the roosting bar where she had been the night before. After doing some research I thought maybe she was egg-bound, so I gloved up and checked her. I didn't find an egg, but I did find more diarrhea :/. We quarantined her in the garage. Oh, I forgot, earlier that week, maybe Tuesday or Wednesday I found a super weird egg in the coop. It was just a membrane around a hard jello/gummy egg shaped mass, it was light pink I think. I don't know if that is related. Anyways, we quarantined her on Saturday and she was not doing well. She just stood there, didn't even turn around or lay down for a long time. I didn't see her eat or drink anything. We squirted some water in her mouth that night. she stayed in the crate in the same condition until she died sometime on Tuesday. She did not at any point exhibit any respiratory symptoms. Her comb and wattle stayed bright red the whole time. Oh and the hen that died was a buff Orpington. We did not do a necroscopy because it would cost us $120 in our state (Indiana) and we could replace the entire flock for that price. Someone told us that it was probably coccidiosis so we treated the rest of the flock with corid in there water, but they are free roam in our backyard so I don't know how much they got. I also put DE in their coop and a few of their favorite dust bath areas in case they had lice or mites.

We also just introduced some new chickens to the flock. But they were still in quarantine when the first hen died. They were quarantined in their own coop/run that is, umm probably at least 30-50 feet away from the closest fenced in area that the original chickens roam in. So I don't think they could have given them anything. And the new chickens are not exhibiting any symptoms.

Current Problem: we have another chicken who is acting a little odd, hunched up, with diarrhea, not really interested in treats. She is a lot more active than the other one was right now. We caught her and gave her some corid in her beak and quarantined her. Again there are no respiratory symptoms and her comb and wattle are bright red. And right now she is moving around a decent amount in the quarantine pen (an 8x4 summer coop/run).
But she does definitely have diarrhea. Oh and she is an Isa brown. Around 30 min before she started acting weird she was acting fine joining in with everyone eating a cracked corn treat.

Does anyone have any ideas of what could be wrong?
 
I'm sorry to hear that.

I'm not sure what it is, but here are some possibilities:

It could be worms (worms are different then coccidia), something toxic they ate, the hot weather, or a broken egg inside of them. Egg laying hybrids can be more prone to Water Belly also.

I hope this helps. Best of luck!
 
Thanks! I looked up water belly and it is possible that may be what the first hen died of. I forgot to mention that she did have a soft red protrusion on her underside and several feathers had been plucked out around her vent. I will have to check this chicken tomorrow.

I gave her some homemade electrolyte water with corid and put that same water in with her fermented feed too. She seemed to be a bit more perky and did drink most of a cereal bowl full of the water.

We just transitioned the new chickens in on Saturday (it was a super easy transition but I'm sure still stressful for a chicken) and the weather has been fluctuating a bit with a really hot day today. And I think we stressed her out a bit by staring at her and then chasing her around trying to catch her (she did not want to be caught). That would explain her acting odd. Can stress or hot weather cause a chicken to have diarrhea?
 
A soft, red protrusion from the vent is a prolapse. We had that with a hen before, so what you do is wash off the prolapse and carefully push it back inside. Let her rest for a while, a day or so, and then let her out and she should get better. It can prolapse again, but you can push it back in. Get to it before other hens peck at it or it dries out or becomes infected.

Stress and the heat can cause diarrhea.
 
It wasn't hanging out the vent it was, umm I don't know chicken anatomy well, probably between the vent and her legs I think. It was bigger too, I think it was bigger than an egg. I wonder if sh had periontitis (sp?) where the egg gets into the abdomen, or one thread I read suggested those symptoms might be one of her ovaries was passed like an egg. But anyways, that is the chicken that died, so I can't do anything about it now.

The chicken acting up now just has diarrhea and is acting oddly. I am wondering do most people quarantine for diarrhea? Or it considered normal for chickens? I assumed it meant she was sick. We are so new at this, we are just learning. And we are extra nervous and cautious because of the one who died.
 
It sounds like it could have been egg yolk peritonitis, water belly or it could have been a hernia.
Diarrhea is pretty common in chickens, mine have runny droppings all the time, for whatever reason. However, they remain healthy, alert, and go back to normal droppings quickly.
 
Don't worry, being cautious and quick to act is what saves our animals lives. It was probably a wise choice.
smile.png
 
Just for future reference I would not add Chickens to an existing flock while there is a problem in the flock. If you take one out she will not be able to resume her original position in the flock if the flock has had to redo the pecking order without her to allow for the new chickens to have a position. Second many Chicken illnesses can be transferred in the poo. scratched up with dropped food or even in the soil itself someone pooed in the water now everyone gets it kind of thing. So figure out what is causing the problem then when everyone is healthy make the move.

Where abouts are you on the map is it hotter than normal or are you in a winter period right now? If it is hot make sure they have plenty of water with electrolytes and Shade some extra pans of water to wet their feet in helps. Do they look like they are panting during the day that is a sign of heat stress you need to cool them.

in your research you are probably aware that Chicken poop tells its own story. If you post a pic of what you are calling diarrhea you may find someone who can read that story for you.
Many of the prognosis here are things I have never heard of and egg issues are not contagious, I don't think, Maybe genetic but you are dealing with different breeds same symptoms.

It is possible that the original move may have caused some stress and that they need to find a balance again. I do believe if you have a vet near you they could test a poo sample to let you know if you are facing a crisis or just a heat issue.

The more pics the better idea people will have even vent pictures and where you think you see the problem to be. What does *acting oddly* mean? is she wagging her tail or ordering on Amazon? Silly but you get the idea right?

Check out this link it is a general story of chicken poop and might be able to help you determine what you are looking at http://chat.allotment-garden.org/index.php?topic=17568.0



Good luck with your Girls!
 
We didn't think there was a problem anymore. Everyone was acting fine. And we treated both sets of chickens with corid just to be safe.

We are in northern Indiana and we have e had some fluctuations in weather the last couple weeks. Lots of rain and days going from cool to hot. yesterday was a hotter day, maybe in the upper 80s or 90s. So not horribly hot like some places have had but hot enough I didn't want to work outside during the hottest part.

I didn't get a picture this time but I will next time. The first one I noticed was some solids and a lot of water. The water soaked into the ground really fast, if I hadn't been watching her I wouldn't have seen it. Then she let out several really loose wet stools while my husband was holding her when we were giving her the corid and moving her out front. Those news were white. One of the looked kinda gelly.

Oddly meant she was hunched over holding her tail in and didn't join in when we were throwing treats to the chickens. She just stood off to the side with her tail in. That was after we had chased her a bit trying to catch her. Earlier she had caught my eye because she was laying alone in the dirt under a bench with her back hunched.

There was no panting that I saw.

I think she is ok. I have come to the conclusion that I may have been too hasty because I was still worried because of the chicken who died. I think I may have just been seeing normal things for her being warm, but since I am so new at this and I am on alert after the other hen died I didn't know it was normal. She was acting totally fine this morning so I put her back out with the rest of the flock.

Thanks for your help!
 

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