sick chicken green smelly poo

I have a sick chicken her rear end is plastered with green poo, her vent seems to be retracting. She is not really eating and a bit wobbly on her feet, I have put her in a box filled with straw in the laundry, as when I have had a sick chook a few months back she was thrown out of the henhouse by the other chooks. She drinks if I hold it up to her and her tummys gurgling when she does! What should I try to feed a sick chook and what could be wrong with her? Any help appreciated.

I don't know but i'm sure someone will come along soon!

Could just be a dirty hen, but sounds like more than that. If the vent is scabby could be vent gleet (think a type of viral infection of the vent)

Have you cleaned her up? Getting the poop off her is a good idea. It can burn the skin. You can also trim the feathers around the vent. If you can see anything post a pix.

Also I'll attach a link to the poop page. Green smelly poop can be normal/cecal poop.

http://www.chat.allotment.org.uk/index.php?topic=17568.0

You could try feeding her yogurt with probiotics. might help with digestive issues.

Good luck
Imp

Thanks for your help guys Ill try the yoghurt, I wasnt sure weather to wash her as its pretty cold here in Tassie right now, Ill give her a trim though.

Gurgling noises may be a sign of sour crop - do a search on this site for sour crop and see if the definition fits your bird.

Green poo and drunkenness (in the chicken !!!) can be a sign of under nourishment, we usually force feed mashed up boiled eggs (sometimes adding honey for a quick sugar boost), there's no point letting them eat on their own as they probably won't eat enough - three days of force feeding usually brings them round to be able to eat normal food by themselves.

Check out 'Sour Crop' before progressing though.

Chook is still sick but not dead been force feeding her mixed with yoghurt, another chook died as well, her crop does actually feel soft, could gurgling just be a very empty tummy because shes not eating by herself. See if she recovers. Thanks again guys!

Quote:
When you force feed a sick chook how do you do it I have been using spoons from McCaffe which are a bit thinner but it seems to make a big mess, anyway the old girl isnt looking to good despite me trying your remedy she is looking like she might not see the night out, poor thing. Ill keep you posted.

I've never heard gurgling from an 'empty' chicken, but I guess it's possible - have you tried the sour crop turning upside-down technique to check?
Feeding yogurt & mushed up egg will give them a squishy/soft crop.

Force Feeding -
It's quiet easy but you need to be firm.

Hold them firmly against your body or the groove between your legs.
Hold both sides of their beak and you'll find the top beak sits over the bottom one.
Sort of (this is hard to describe) push the top beak up with one finger and the bottom one down with another (on the same hand). If you can't get the beak open like this use your other hand to lift the tip of top beak up until you can get your fingers in at the sides of the beak.
When their mouth is open, push in the food with your other hand (three hands can better sometimes).
The further to the back of the mouth you push it, the more of it they will eat.
Keep going until you see the crop swelling up.

Repeat when you see the crop reduce to half the size it is after feeding. (no need to feed in the hours of darkness)

I think everyone has different 'force feed' foods but I prefer boiled/scrambled/souffled egg. It's full of protein and fat in a quick to digest form - grains and the like take longer to digest so while being good food aren't so good for a sickly chicken. Sometimes I add honey or sugar initially to give them that extra little boost but reduce the amount of sugar as they improve.

To give water, either put a drip on your finger and touch it to the end of the beak they usually drink it up.
You can also try filling a bottle cap with water and dipping their beak in it.
You can force feed small bits of bread dipped in water (as above)
As a last resort you can use a syringe (minus the needle) or eye dropper and drip water directly into their mouths. This runs the risk of flooding their mouths and causing them to inhale water into their lungs but done carefully is actually the best way to get a lot of water into them.

Thankyou all for your help, I checked this today and saw your response oven ready, unfortunately she died yesterday, she is the second chook in two weeks, poor thing. I tried the sour crop method and I was able to get her mouth open in this way, my biggest worry was pushing the food down her throat and her inhaling some of it, your information will come in handy later though as there is another one looking sickly, with the same poo plastered rear. I have phoned a local feed store as well as a vet.The guy in the feed store said maybe its bacterial and to try collodial silver drops in their water. Have you heard of this? The vet well the reception girl said maybe I should send dead chook off to laboratory and get tested. Unfortunately when she rang me back I had just buried her! I hope I will work it out soon, its good to be able to ask othes about all this.