Three new hens with lethargy and loose droppings

ginnungagap

In the Brooder
Jul 1, 2015
15
0
22
Sweden
Hello!

About ten days ago I got a new group of five adult laying hens, and it's the first time I'm buying adult birds so I don't know what's common or not. I noticed at least one of them had watery dropping as soon as I let them inside the run, but I figured it was from not eating (they had spent half the day in a box being transported without any food)

The runny dropping didn't go away though, and now three of them have it. I'll call them 1, 2 and 3 since I haven't named them yet.

Hen 1 was the first one i noticed looking under the weather, her comb was the most pale and she spent most of her time puffed up and tired. She was still eating normally, and i noticed her droppings were watery. After a few days she got better, comb got more color to it. Her droppings are still runny, but she looks less sick now even though she still looks a bit "sleepy".

Hen 2 has gotten a lot more pale since two days back. She is molting (?) and feather pens have been growing out pretty fast. She is now the one exhibiting the most sickness behavior ad runny droppings, but she is still eating and drinking normally. Could the feather growth make her extra tired? I've never had a molting bird before.

Hen 3 has a bare bottom. She is not showing obvious signs, it's not until I sit down and watch them for a while I see her standing and dosing off with her feathers puffed up from time to time. She also has runny droppings.

1) What type of bird , age and weight (does the chicken seem or feel lighter or thinner than the others.)
Laying hybrid (Brown Lohman) about 9 months old.

2) What is the behavior, exactly.
Lethargy, puffed up feathers, looking tired with "sleepy" eyes, pale comb and wattles, watery droppings. Eating and drinking like normal, just a bit more tired than the others. None of them have layed a single egg yet, even the ones who aren't exhibiting sickness behavior. Is this normal after a move?

3) How long has the bird been exhibiting symptoms?
About a week.

4) Are other birds exhibiting the same symptoms?
Yes, three in total.

5) Is there any bleeding, injury, broken bones or other sign of trauma.
Hen 2 had a bare back when I got her and now there are feathers growing out. Hen 3 has a bare bottom, no signs of feathers growing out yet. I don't know if this is from overcrowding or molting.
All of them have scaly leg mites.


6) What happened, if anything that you know of, that may have caused the situation.
Stress from the move? Introduction to new soil bacteria/parasites? Picked something up from my resident birds? I have three chickens already.

7) What has the bird been eating and drinking, if at all.
Water and laying feed.

8) How does the poop look? Normal? Bloody? Runny? etc.
Runny and watery.

9) What has been the treatment you have administered so far?
ACV in the water

10 ) What is your intent as far as treatment? For example, do you want to treat completely yourself, or do you need help in stabilizing the bird til you can get to a vet?
Treating it myself. Where I live it's uncommon taking chickens to the vet. Diagnostics is made post-mortem, so you will have to send in a euthanized bird to see what illness it has so naturally this is a last resort for me. Of course I'll put them down if it doesn't get better, but I'm hoping someone more experienced than me can give me some input. The last thing I want is my girls to suffer, and yes I will treat the leg mites but I'm unsure if it's a good idea to do that now while they're already compromised?

11) If you have a picture of the wound or condition, please post it. It may help.



Pictures of the droppings. Looks like solid chunks in "water", I haven't seen any blood or anything else abnormal.



I can try to provide with better pictures of the hens if needed.


12) Describe the housing/bedding in use
A temporary quarantine home which is a box about 2.5x1x1 meter. Wood shavings about used as bedding.

Is this something stress-related from the move and something I can wait out? Mild case of cocci? I've had that before in birds living in the same quarantine area, but that was last june and I've scrubbed out the coop twice since then. Cocci is obviously present in the soil here, but it exists everywhere doesn't it?

Would I have to euthanize them so it doesn't spread? I'm keeping them quarantined from my resident chickens. I really, really don't want to do this, I've been so unlucky and lost a total of 12 chooks to predators, cocci and vent gleet before and I've only been keeping them for less than a year :( it's been a very frustrating so far.

Thanks for reading!
 
all you are doing good quarantining them watery droppings occasionally happen if the hen drinks too much water, but the puffed up appearance isn't normal (obviously you know this already), I would but some ACV in the water with the "mother" it will help with the droppings, but you can talk to eggcessive or casportpony to see if it is something that meds could fix.
 
Hello!

About ten days ago I got a new group of five adult laying hens, and it's the first time I'm buying adult birds so I don't know what's common or not. I noticed at least one of them had watery dropping as soon as I let them inside the run, but I figured it was from not eating (they had spent half the day in a box being transported without any food)

The runny dropping didn't go away though, and now three of them have it. I'll call them 1, 2 and 3 since I haven't named them yet.

Hen 1 was the first one i noticed looking under the weather, her comb was the most pale and she spent most of her time puffed up and tired. She was still eating normally, and i noticed her droppings were watery. After a few days she got better, comb got more color to it. Her droppings are still runny, but she looks less sick now even though she still looks a bit "sleepy".

Hen 2 has gotten a lot more pale since two days back. She is molting (?) and feather pens have been growing out pretty fast. She is now the one exhibiting the most sickness behavior ad runny droppings, but she is still eating and drinking normally. Could the feather growth make her extra tired? I've never had a molting bird before.

Hen 3 has a bare bottom. She is not showing obvious signs, it's not until I sit down and watch them for a while I see her standing and dosing off with her feathers puffed up from time to time. She also has runny droppings.

1) What type of bird , age and weight (does the chicken seem or feel lighter or thinner than the others.)
Laying hybrid (Brown Lohman) about 9 months old.

2) What is the behavior, exactly.
Lethargy, puffed up feathers, looking tired with "sleepy" eyes, pale comb and wattles, watery droppings. Eating and drinking like normal, just a bit more tired than the others. None of them have layed a single egg yet, even the ones who aren't exhibiting sickness behavior. Is this normal after a move?

3) How long has the bird been exhibiting symptoms?
About a week.

4) Are other birds exhibiting the same symptoms?
Yes, three in total.

5) Is there any bleeding, injury, broken bones or other sign of trauma.
Hen 2 had a bare back when I got her and now there are feathers growing out. Hen 3 has a bare bottom, no signs of feathers growing out yet. I don't know if this is from overcrowding or molting.
All of them have scaly leg mites.


6) What happened, if anything that you know of, that may have caused the situation.
Stress from the move? Introduction to new soil bacteria/parasites? Picked something up from my resident birds? I have three chickens already.

7) What has the bird been eating and drinking, if at all.
Water and laying feed.

8) How does the poop look? Normal? Bloody? Runny? etc.
Runny and watery.

9) What has been the treatment you have administered so far?
ACV in the water

10 ) What is your intent as far as treatment? For example, do you want to treat completely yourself, or do you need help in stabilizing the bird til you can get to a vet?
Treating it myself. Where I live it's uncommon taking chickens to the vet. Diagnostics is made post-mortem, so you will have to send in a euthanized bird to see what illness it has so naturally this is a last resort for me. Of course I'll put them down if it doesn't get better, but I'm hoping someone more experienced than me can give me some input. The last thing I want is my girls to suffer, and yes I will treat the leg mites but I'm unsure if it's a good idea to do that now while they're already compromised?

11) If you have a picture of the wound or condition, please post it. It may help.



Pictures of the droppings. Looks like solid chunks in "water", I haven't seen any blood or anything else abnormal.



I can try to provide with better pictures of the hens if needed.


12) Describe the housing/bedding in use
A temporary quarantine home which is a box about 2.5x1x1 meter. Wood shavings about used as bedding.

Is this something stress-related from the move and something I can wait out? Mild case of cocci? I've had that before in birds living in the same quarantine area, but that was last june and I've scrubbed out the coop twice since then. Cocci is obviously present in the soil here, but it exists everywhere doesn't it?

Would I have to euthanize them so it doesn't spread? I'm keeping them quarantined from my resident chickens. I really, really don't want to do this, I've been so unlucky and lost a total of 12 chooks to predators, cocci and vent gleet before and I've only been keeping them for less than a year :( it's been a very frustrating so far.

Thanks for reading!
How long have you had them? Have you weighed them?
 
I just saw hen 3 'vomiting' after she was drinking - she bent down to eat some grass and a bit of water came up. Is this something that can happen normally or is it another sickness indicator? Her droppings are still really watery and look like the pictures :(
She's still the most alert of them and doesn't appear to be sick, no lethargy today. Hen 2 is getting more feather growth, the feather pins have little tufts coming out today. She's the most lethargic of them all, but I didn't catch her pooping so I dunno how her dropping look.

Is there a risk that whatever they are having, they can be carriers of even if they recover? Do I dare to put them together with my resident birds after they recover?

Still no eggs either, either from them or the two pekin bantams I got at the same time (they are quarantined in a different place inside my house and have no sickness behavior or weird poop - only leg mites which I am treating)

Is that normal after a move?? Does it take a while for them to start laying again because they need to settle in or something?

Should I keep treating with ACV in the water? Can I give them human probiotics too?

Sorry for the newbie questions.
 
I just saw hen 3 'vomiting' after she was drinking - she bent down to eat some grass and a bit of water came up. Is this something that can happen normally or is it another sickness indicator? Her droppings are still really watery and look like the pictures :(chickens cannot vomit, so it was probable that she drank too much and it ran out when she bent over sometimes if chicks are held too tightly or upside down(don't let little kids hold the chicks without supervision)
She's still the most alert of them and doesn't appear to be sick, no lethargy today. Hen 2 is getting more feather growth, the feather pins have little tufts coming out today. She's the most lethargic of them all, but I didn't catch her pooping so I dunno how her dropping look.
extra protein can help get those feathers coming in faster
Is there a risk that whatever they are having, they can be carriers of even if they recover? Do I dare to put them together with my resident birds after they recover?
yes there are some diseases that can make the birds carriers for life
Still no eggs either, either from them or the two pekin bantams I got at the same time (they are quarantined in a different place inside my house and have no sickness behavior or weird poop - only leg mites which I am treating)
chickens are very sensitive they don't like getting moved from one home to another, sometimes they will go on strike if you even change up their feed.
Is that normal after a move?? Does it take a while for them to start laying again because they need to settle in or something?
yes as stated above the don't like change they sometimes will go on strike for a week, sometimes it can be a couple months
Should I keep treating with ACV in the water? Can I give them human probiotics too?
yes keep giving ACV , I don't know about human probiotics but yogurt is good for them
Sorry for the newbie questions.
It's ok everyone was a newbie at some time or another


you might still check with eggcessive or casportpony to see if they can suggest anything more to help or even try to determine what the illness is.
 
You may consider coccidiosis as a possible problem, since they are on new soil and they may not be immune to some strains of cooci in the new environment. Corid in the water for 5 days is a good and safe treatment. With hens who are molting, giving them probiotics and a little extra protein may help. I like to add vitamins a couple of days a week. A vet can check a collection of fresh droppings for worms and coccidia.
 

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