No energy and bright green poop!

Hey everyone, I have a red/golden comet that's having some issues. I was told she's about 11 mos old, but I can't be totally sure. We've had her since Sept and haven't had any problems up until the last 2 weeks. She layed a really soft shelled egg, with some kind of yellow goo on it, and that was her last egg. Now she's been just really lazy. She's always been my spunky, really curious hen. As soon as the back door opens, she comes running to see what we have for them. The past week, not at all. She just kind of sits in the middle of the yard, or lays down and stays there for an hour or so before she'll get up, walk around a bit, then sit back down. I fed everyone else and she didn't even move from where she was laying in the yard. I've noticed Bright green poop...if that's what we want to call it...in the coop. It's not really clumped at all, its more like someone dropped green dye onto the pine shavings. I can only assume its from Lucy, because everyone else seems fine. She doesn't have an impacted crop, and isn't egg bound. I couldn't find any mites anywhere either. She hasn't eaten anything from my hand, but my son said he's seen her eating food from the feeder. She has been drinking ok as far as I can tell. What I'm wondering is What is going on with her?! And can my other hens get it too? I don't have another coop to put her in, so I'm not sure how to seperate her, but I can figure something out if everyone else is going to get sick. Any help and responses would be helpful. We've only had our chickens since this past August, so we're really new to this! Thank you

I have no idea what could be wrong, but I will pass along the link to the "poop chart" so you can reference it if you don't have it. Good luck!

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

We have the exact same situation with one of our barred rocks. Her abdomen just seemed to be gently heaving back&forth so at first we thought she might be egg bound. I found her in odd place in yard and she was just super lethargic. I read online some last night and it sounded like she 'undernourished' from not eating lately (unbeknownst to us). My sweet husband got her out of coop last night after dark...she didn't put up a fuss at all. We put her in separate cage in basement after I held her on my lap and fed her. She WAS quite hungry and seems much better now this morning. She is happy on roost in this basement cage so we'll keep her there for awhile longer, along with me prodding her to eat by holding bowl up to her beak. Giving her mashed up boiled egg, some corn, and some chick starter we have around for young ones. She's eating it all, though not much. And drinking. I'm going to try buttermilk, which I just read about. I tried the yogurt but she wasn't too interested (stupid question but ...flavored? plain? does it matter?). Maybe it's my imagination but it seems the heaving of her abdomen has slowed down. And we're watching her poop for improvement. I checked out the URL of chicken poop but there isn't a picture that accurately conveys the LIME GREEN POOP we're seeing -- just as you describe.

We feel so bad b/c we had two hens die from these same symptoms last summer and we just assumed they must have gotten into something since they were always chumming together. If all we had to do was catch it earlier and entice them with special foods -- makes me feel bad and sad. We love our girls -- all 25 of them (and 2 roosters)!

I hope your hen improves and soon.

Sadly, we lost this hen after three days. After reading more online, we are thinking e-coli got the upper hand on her system and was just too much to overcome. We separated her from flock on TH evening, kept her indoors Fri, Sat, Sun... but she died on Sunday evening. Very sad. I found the "recipe" of yogurt, buttermilk, crushed pellets, plus VitE and VitB (topped with applesauce) which she did eat, though never much at one time. I put a touch of apple cider vinegar in her water also. So, we made a gallant effort and perhaps may have saved her if we had started all of this sooner.:-( We will definitely watch and act sooner if we see the bright green poop on any other hens in future.

We had had a recent multi-night scare with some type of predator (that did kill three hens), so we're wondering if the stress of that perhaps caused the e-coli to get out-of-control..?...I read that all chickens have e-coli in their systems but that different things can cause it to get out of control -- stress being one of them...?

I know this post is a couple months old but i'm trying anyway... I just noticed the same color poop in the shavings as you described. The one pooing like this I haven't figured out yet, there are 4 hens in the coop at this time. Two are acting slow today after hanging out under the porch yesterday with this heat, and I didn't think it was really that hot... anyway you said it was ecoli that your hen had? was it diagnosed or a guess? did any of the others get the same illness? Sorry for all the questions but i'm really trying to find an answer before all the 9 week old chicks might catch something.

i taught myself this thru online reading i will tell you this same thing happend to me green poop no energy lost 1 silkie and a miniture mixed breed i saved my seabright and male silkie i went to my tractor supply and got some{ liquid tylan 50 100ml } USE FOR 4 DAYS only tylan 50!!! it says exactly that on the bottle and also says for cattle and swine only in small print but its great for saving our babies!!! keep looking you dont need a script i used a diabetic needdle i got at a mom and pop pharmacy cuz wal mart wouldnt sell them to me but every mom and pop would??? get a diabetic needle they are sold in bags of 5 and 10 ask for 1/2 cc 12.7 mm 30 gauge ok so 1/2 cc thats the volume it will hold{ it has numbers on it from 0-50} and 12.7 mm thats the legnth and 30 gauge thats the roundness of the needle...the middle number can vary slightly as its just the legnth ...the dose is 5 for smaller birds and 8 for grown hens this cured the ones i was able to dose you find the middle of the breast and go to the birds left side into the breast meat i had to study a chicken we got at the store to eat at first cuz i was scared...only 1/4 inch into skin pull back on plunger just a little not much if no blood push plunger in if blood comes inside needle start over but its very rare for blood to show. theres sites and videos showing how to inject birds i did this IT WAS A LAST RESORT TO SAVE MY BABIES AND IT WORKED I WAS HAPPY I DONT KNOW THE CAUSE OF GREEN POOP BUT I KNOW THIS WORKS FOR MANY ILLNESSES IN MY BIRDS...NOW NOTE:: you may find ur bird is so sick it has NO BREAST MEAT this was my case the bird almost dead i injected in the leg meat what little there was it worked shes still slowly recovering... i have tried to tell yall exactly everything YOU CAN DO THIS!!!! WHEN I WAS TOLD OF GIVING SHOTS I SAID HELL NO I CANT DO THAT BUT TO SAVE MY SILKIE I DID IT I SAVED HIM....RESEARCH ONLINE IF YOU WANT I HAVE A COLLECTION OF MEDS THAT VETS USUALLY PERSCRIBE BUT THE TRACTOR SUPPLY SELLS THEM..

I SHOULD NOTE::: I TRIED EVERY VET IN A 100 MILE DISTANCE AND THEY BASICALLY LAUGHED AT ME WANTING HELP WITH A CHICKEN THEY DONT HAVE THE ABILITY TO HELP THESE BIRDS SO I DID IT MYSELF...SO BEFOR ANY NEG. COMMENTS COME OUT SOMETIMES WE CANT ALL GO RUNNING TO THE VET!!! THE TYLAN 50 WAS ONLY 11 DOLLARS AND THE NEEDLES WAS 3 SO I SAVED MY SILKIES FOR UNDER 15$$$$$$$ WE DO WHAT WE GOTA DO SOMETIMES A VET WILL DO EXACTLY WHAT WE DO, THEY WILL GO TO THE INTERNET !

I have had this sitaution as well. In fact my MayMay is going through it right now. Seems like about every 6 months or so she does that too. I have lost two hens to the 'bright green poo' and lethargic. I did think she had gotten into something and did wonder about ecoli as well on the other two, but I dont think so on MayMay. The swollen belly makes you wonder if she has build up of either eggs or fluid.

MayMay gets a swollen belly, doesnt want to really eat, drinks ok. She is older (3-5, not sure as she was a rescue) and does not lay. BUT I have been able to pull her through it each time. I too used the Tylan50 subcutaneously at .5cc once a day for 5 days. She has pulled through it both times. Do to the Tylan? who knows, but I do know she is alive and doing ok. It is hard on their systems - dehydrates them a lot. Takes a lot of work to keep the littly 'booty' clean. I also used baby parot mix from the pet store to keep extra nutrients in her and give her a boost. That seems to really help.


It's a long hard battle - has taken up to 2 months to pull through completely, but it's worth it.

I have a link to the Mereck Vet manual on my favorites tab. It's a great resource. My vet uses it and reccomended it to me. I cant afford a vet visit most of the time, and they have assured me that they would be pretty much doing the same thing for her. It is free to call and ask them!

Bright green usually means they are not eating or food is not being processed. It's bile. I see it in the final stages of hens with internal laying/egg yolk peritonitis or ovarian cancer all the time. Hybrid layers are very much prone to EYP and internal laying.

a cochin in my coop died suddenly- no symptoms other than a few days prior i noticed same bright green poops in my coop....assuming it was the bird who passed as i have not noticed any since... She never had any egg issues and was only a year old... RIP Beedle very sad.