My broody hen has diarrhea bad.

[Dondo]

My Buff Orpington hen has a nasty foul smelling diarrhea lately. Today I got a hold of her and cleaned old feces that was crusted around her vent, and also some new fresh stuff. Two days ago when I went into the coop where she is sitting on 13 eggs, she had just gotten off them and dropped a load of what can only be described as "two month old baby poop" (being a greenish/brown pile highly reminiscent of that young stage of a child's life). Today she shot out a stream that was sort of a greenish/clear liquid approximately 3 or 4 tablespoons. She is alone in the coop (the others have the run area with a secondary nesting area), so she isn't being bothered by the other hens, and I have seen her down eating and drinking. She has eaten food and cracked corn that I put onto a coffee can lid for her to eat without having to leave the nest, but quit once I figured that she'd gotten good and broody. She didn't much appreciated the cleaning, but short of pulling out rear end feathers, I think I've gotten it relatively clean. What can I do about the diarrhea though? I thought about going with some boiled rice as this is what we give the dogs when they are having an issue. She is eating Dumor layer pellets and what is called Scratch from Wal-Mart, but appears to be nothing more than cracked corn. It is from a company in the US, so at least it isn't from China like most pet foods are at Wal-Mart. I'd appreciate any advice you all can offer. Thanks, Don

 

[ChickenCanoe]

My Buff Orpington hen has a nasty foul smelling diarrhea lately. Today I got a hold of her and cleaned old feces that was crusted around her vent, and also some new fresh stuff. Two days ago when I went into the coop where she is sitting on 13 eggs, she had just gotten off them and dropped a load of what can only be described as "two month old baby poop" (being a greenish/brown pile highly reminiscent of that young stage of a child's life). Today she shot out a stream that was sort of a greenish/clear liquid approximately 3 or 4 tablespoons. She is alone in the coop (the others have the run area with a secondary nesting area), so she isn't being bothered by the other hens, and I have seen her down eating and drinking. She has eaten food and cracked corn that I put onto a coffee can lid for her to eat without having to leave the nest, but quit once I figured that she'd gotten good and broody. She didn't much appreciated the cleaning, but short of pulling out rear end feathers, I think I've gotten it relatively clean. What can I do about the diarrhea though? I thought about going with some boiled rice as this is what we give the dogs when they are having an issue. She is eating Dumor layer pellets and what is called Scratch from Wal-Mart, but appears to be nothing more than cracked corn. It is from a company in the US, so at least it isn't from China like most pet foods are at Wal-Mart. I'd appreciate any advice you all can offer. Thanks, Don

All broody feces is extremely smelly. That's from holding it for 24 hours. That isn't a concern.
What is a concern is if it is liquid.
Scratch is just a treat to satisfy their need to scratch for food. Don't give it to broody hens. It is way too low in protein and deficient in vitamins/minerals.
With setters, just stick with chicken feed that is complete. She's not laying eggs so shouldn't be eating layer feed.
Preferable would be starter, grower or all flock feed.
Probiotics should help the diarrhea. I use Gro2Max for all my birds.

 

[Dondo]

Thanks. I'll try dropping the scratch. Just trying to us it up anyhow as it is. Will look into the probiotics. Will see if TSC carries it. The liquid state of today's drop really did concern me, but have noticed that a few of the hens are a little loose in the stool. Everyone seems to be healthy and all. A little stressed because we've got two roosters now and have had to fence off the older of the two because he has taken to trying to fight with his son every chance he gets. Appreciate the advice. Don

 

[as110]

I was feeding my hen treats (oats), scrambled eggs, and left over veggies and food thinking she needed the calories. She had liquid green poop on day 4-6. I stopped giving her treats and changed her food back to layer pellets as treats and chicken starter as the main food, and apple sauce because I knew she had it before and it didn't cause upsets. I also read that being confined in the nest can stress them out and cause liquid poop. She pooped on the eggs on day 4 when she could not get off the nest because I covered it. The next day she started to have liquid poops. I don't think it is diarrhea because she would have no bowel control then, but she does. She poops only when off the nest and not uncontrolled, just liquid. The smell also never changed. I let her off the nest twice a day now and I wait until she gets off and I let her go back on the nest. I also listen to her sounds; when she talks I know she is alert and ready to get off the nest and I let her get off if she wNts to. So simplifying her feed and letting her control her time off the nest and back helped. The second day we changed things, her poop started to firm up, and today on the third day she is back to pooping a solid mound. Even yesterday when things were still runny, she didn't poop every time she got off the nest, just once per day, and she does not always get off when I open the nest. I think liquid poop in broody hen is stress related.

 

[MINDANAO DAVE]

Quit putting the food close to her. This way she will get off the nest to eat and drink and she will also take her poo away from the nest.

 

[rebrascora]

Corn and scratch can cause a lot of potentially very serious health issues in larger birds like Orps and should be kept to an absolute minimum. I would be inclined to feed her chick crumbs or perhaps ferment them for her to improve her gut flora. Have you had some warmer wet weather recently. If so it might be a slight overgrowth of coccidia since other members of the flock are showing loose stools too. If she doesn't firm up with just regular food, you might want to start a round of Corid or perhaps have a faecal sample checked for coccidia first. Most vets should be able to perform this simple check even if they know little about chickens. A livestock vet would probably be your best bet both knowledge wise and economically.

Have you checked her crop? Broodies can suffer slow and impacted crops due to their lengthy periods of inactivity, especially if she has had quite a bit of corn which is less easily digested. You might want to check her crop first thing before she gets up for her broody break. Impacted crops often cause the bird to drink more than usual but also the impaction prevents solid or lumpy food from passing down the digestive tract, so most of what goes through is liquids and therefore the same comes out the other end. She might benefit from a multivit poultry supplement like NutriDrench or Poultry Cell. A treat of some scrambled egg or a bit of meat or liver or fish would probably do her good. Does she have access to grit?

 

[dawg53]

Applesauce acts as a mild laxative in chickens. I recommend buttermilk and plain boiled white rice mixed in her feed to stop diarrhea. Do this for several days.

 

[The chicken girl 555]

Hii,
I also had this problem she has been sitting in her nest for 6 days wothout getting up for food water pooping or dust bathing I pick her up multiple times far away from her nest to get her to poop and eat but she just bites me and runs back to her nest today i had to hold her outide for a while and she had a huge dirihyea first it was brownish with green stuff in it, then i kept her outside for a while and she did 3 more huge normal poops wich stinked but i know thats normal for a broody hen, Anyway after she pooped i put food by her and she did not want to eat she just yelled and yelled i let her go back to her nest and put some food in my hand and she ate from my hand only because she was sitting on her eggs, so thats how its been, i hand feed her or she wont eat! i still taker her out multiple times to see if she would poop or eat by herself but i guess it just not her way of being broody, but i will do whatever i can for these 14 days that are left!!