Help! Silkie with white chunks in poo!

[Alex7174]

Hi, please bear with me if I make any mistakes as this is my first time starting a thread and I also have 9 very energetic little chicks on the bed with me while I type this on my kindle......talk about giving myself a challenge lol. Ok here we go.....
Last October/November we had HORRIBLE weather (rainy and cold...did I mention rainy?) and we ended up with a nasty worm outbreak with my silkies, that hit so fast and hard it took 2 of my pullets practically before they even showed any signs that we could catch in time to identify...not a good week for me....thankfully though, my 4 roosters (silkies) and 6 large hens (who were in a separate pen on the other side of the house) didn't have any problems and I was finally able to get wormer for them. My last silkie girl was able to recover from the brink and has been doing great staying inside with me. Can we say she's now a spoiled baby? Yes. Yes, we can. (I have kept her in cause all my other hens are full sized Rhode island reds and black sex links and my other silkies are all boys so......yeah....supervised visits only lol) So on to my problem...after I wormed Dixie (the silkie) she pooped these odd little whitish fleshy pieces once in a while for a few days and then stopped....gross as all fudge nuggets but we (my mom and i) figured it was the worms, so no need to panic. The wormer we used was safeguard liquid goat wormer. All was good and she was slowly putting her weight back on. That went on till about the end of December/beginning of January when suddenly she started to loose weight again and had a couple more of those odd poos... so we thought ok...maybe the infestation was worse than we thought. We looked all over online to see if maybe someone else had this problem too, but couldn't find anything. So we made the decision worm her again. White chunkies disappeared and weight slowly came up. Took awhile cause she got very used to wet food and scrambled eggs and yogurt....she doesn't want regular dry feed now she wants wet feed... *heavy sigh* anyway I finally have her at a decent weight and while her poo hasn't been truly solid since this all started (most likely due to her having wet feed as a staple...spoiled picky baby) its at least been in the ok range all things considered. Well, a few days ago she had another one. And this time it was HUGE. Followed by smaller ones over the next day or 2. She seems healthy other than that to me, but after all this, mom and I decided enough was enough. Time for some outside help. If anyone has any idea what this is or can tell us what to do, i could really use the help!! Thank you!! I can't get my kindle to cooperate with me to put up pictures, so I'm going to try to put the links to the album I have on my profile on here called 'to put on posts' sorry!
(Took 3 days but I finally got the photos to show up! So I came back and fixed it!)

This is Dixie

First HUGE chunk

First smaller chunk

Second smaller chunk

 

[Eggcessive]

I would have to agree with Wyorp Rock that she is passing lash eggs, which are solidified pus chunks as a result of inflammation of her oviduct. It's a condition called salpingitis. The pale yellow in her stool is probably egg yolk material or a bacterial infection of E.coli or other bacteria. You can try treating her with strong antibiotics such as Baytril (enrofloxacin) or similar to try and prolong her life. I would keep her comfy, spoil her, and enjoy her company. This unfortunately is very common in hens, and doesn't have a good outcome. Here is one more link to read: http://www.merckvetmanual.com/mvm/p...uctive_system/egg_peritonitis_in_poultry.html

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Welcome to BYC!

That is odd.
What exactly do you feed her/
Does she lay any eggs?
The only thing I can think it looks similar to is Salpingitis or lash eggs. It looks like the partial beginning of one or several. Whatever it is, it could be caused by some type of infection. Can you take a sample to the vet to have tested?
Hopefully someone else will see this and have a better idea.

http://www.the-chicken-chick.com/2014/12/salpingitis-lash-eggs-in-backyard.html
http://www.the-chicken-chick.com/2015/03/causes-of-lash-eggs-salpingitis-by.html
http://www.merckvetmanual.com/mvm/p...ingitis_in_poultry.html?qt=salpingitis&alt=sh
http://www.thepoultrysite.com/diseaseinfo/134/salpingitis/
http://www.merckvetmanual.com/mvm/p...illosis_in_poultry.html?qt=salpingitis&alt=sh

 

[Alex7174]

Welcome to BYC!

That is odd.
What exactly do you feed her/
Does she lay any eggs?
The only thing I can think it looks similar to is Salpingitis or lash eggs. It looks like the partial beginning of one or several. Whatever it is, it could be caused by some type of infection. Can you take a sample to the vet to have tested?
Hopefully someone else will see this and have a better idea.

http://www.the-chicken-chick.com/2014/12/salpingitis-lash-eggs-in-backyard.html
http://www.the-chicken-chick.com/2015/03/causes-of-lash-eggs-salpingitis-by.html
http://www.merckvetmanual.com/mvm/p...ingitis_in_poultry.html?qt=salpingitis&alt=sh
http://www.thepoultrysite.com/diseaseinfo/134/salpingitis/
http://www.merckvetmanual.com/mvm/p...illosis_in_poultry.html?qt=salpingitis&alt=sh

Thank you so much for responding so fast!
She has not started laying yet and is a month or 2 under a year old. Right now she's on chick starter/grower feed and has been for a few months (she was on layer crumbles like the other hens but when she started to loose weight again I figured the more protein feed would be better and I figured since she wasn't laying yet there was no need for a feed with extra calcium) if I should change it I can? I also throw in a pinch of mealworms as a treat now and again. I Dont really have a way to find a vet at the moment because I am visiting my grandma in Virginia and even if I was home (Manchester Georgia) there's only 1 vet in the whole county and I have no idea if he does that or not......he's the county vet so he does all the surrounding farms and whatnot so I'd think he would but....he's in Georgia and I'm in Virginia so......no joy for me. Like I said she seems good otherwise and her weight is 1 lb 4 3/4 oz. she also has an appetite like a horse when it comes to things she like lol normal/good with things shes just ok with. I'm really at a loss.....she my baby girl and I'm pulling my hair out trying to think of what it could be....thank you again for all advise and help!! Sorry if I seem like a bit of a spaz....

 

[Alex7174]

Thank you for responding so fast!!
She is not laying yet (doesn't seem like she will any time soon either) and is a couple months under a year (end of May I think). I have been feeding her chick starter/grower since the last time she started to lose a lot of weight because I thought that the extra protein would be better for her than the extra calcium, but I can change if needed? Her weight now is 1 lb 4 3/4 oz. I also throw in a pinch or 2 of mealworms or scrambled/hard boiled eggs as a treat now and again. She eats very well when I wet her feed down but just picks and throws it when it's dry.....I'm trying to slowly get it dryer and dryer but she a stubborn little girl lol. I have no vet nearby that I know of as I am currently visiting my grandma in Virginia and our vet at home (Manchester Georgia) is the only vet in the county so what with all the farms in our area I would think he would but I'm not sure. And she's here with me so.....no joy....there is a tractor supply close so I can get what I need when needed for the most part. She's my baby girl and it's driving my bonkers trying to figure this out. My mom is Google queen but neither she nor I have been able to find ANYTHING close..... Thank you again so much for all advise and help!!!!! Sorry if I seem a bit of a spazz here.....

 

[Alex7174]

Well fooey.....it put the first one up after all.... It said it wasn't going to.......sorry or the double post

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Well fooey.....it put the first one up after all.... It said it wasn't going to.......sorry or the double post

Happens quite often.

You can leave her on the chick crumble is she isn't laying, that is generally no problem.
A lot of people just use an all flock type of food all the time and offer oyster shells for those that are laying, so chick starter won't hurt.
The "unknown object" is really a mystery. Does look like hardened pus, but not sure where from.

 

[Alex7174]

Happens quite often.

You can leave her on the chick crumble is she isn't laying, that is generally no problem.
A lot of people just use an all flock type of food all the time and offer oyster shells for those that are laying, so chick starter won't hurt.
The "unknown object" is really a mystery. Does look like hardened pus, but not sure where from.

Our farm and garden store at home only recently started having anything more than layer chick and scratch feeds lol. It has a little of everything and not much of anything and focuses on garden stuff. Good store though. The first couple times this happened the pieces weren't quite so whole and looked more diced up. Should I try some antibiotics? Though I don't know how I'd know if they worked as whatever this is, is intermittent.... Oh....nuggets.....I just remembered something! And I feel silly now for not thinking this might have a chance of being related. Once in a blue moon, I have felt a.....lump or something in her crop. And now that I think about it they were kinda similar in size and shape though they seemed bigger and harder in her crop....though I didn't feel around too much as I didn't want to hurt her. That and she kept giving me weird looks like 'MA!.....excuse me! what exactly are you doing?!' lol. I always thought maybe she just ate something on one of her outside visits, like maybe some grass bits that caught up together or....something (I always give her chick grit when I do that). After a bit they would disappear and I didn't think about it again since it never seemed to bother her.....but could it be related???? If it is I think I'll just go wack my head on the wall.....

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Can you think of anything that shape she may have had access to when she was free ranging?
Any chance she ate any styrofoam?
What do the chunks feel like, waxy, soft, hard, etc?

 

[Alex7174]

Can you think of anything that shape she may have had access to when she was free ranging?
Any chance she ate any styrofoam?
What do the chunks feel like, waxy, soft, hard, etc?

I can't think of anything. No styrofoam or anything like that....just grass.... When I let her out to visit the big hens (who treat her very nice, interestingly enough, she toddles right along after them ^_^) and the boys (all silkies and they are with the hens who mostly ignore them, poor boys lol), I stay with her the whole time (our boys are a bit....uh....enthusiastic lol) The chunks feel...fleshy is the best I can think of....like a hardboiled egg maybe but a tiny smidge firmer....? You can easily squish it in your fingers....and yes that was reeeaallllyyyy gross when I did that. Yick. And sometimes there's a tiny trace of blood in it. It's what initially made us think worms, like maybe it was their blood but now.....no clue. I think there's some in the picture of the big chunk.
Also the chunks in her crop felt a good bit stiffer than the ones in her poo.