Red gel-like things in poop

[A05951]

I had posted recently about my lone chicken because she has been off her food, losing weight, sitting around a lot, having some loose poops, shaking her head a lot, yawning with her neck stretched out and most alarmingly had foam coming out of both eyes last Friday. Fortunately, the foam stopped, but the following morning I brought her in for observation and because the temps were going to take a dive below zero and stay there for about 72 hours. Here is a link to my previous post: https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...ng-foam-from-eyes-loose-poop-not-eating-a-lot

She has been inside for 4 days now and she still is not eating a lot. She gets about a tablespoon of shredded cheddar cheese as a treat because it's about all she'll eat enthusiastically. She pecks at her crumble occasionally and will eat some Feather Fixer pellets. She will chow down sunflower seeds too. Her crop was pretty small last night, but she had three smaller formed poops overnight.

Today I had her out of her dog crate and decided it was time to Vaseline up her feet because a few of the scales were raised. She had a flockmate (died last June from internally laying) who had scaly leg mights, so I try to Vaseline up this chickens legs when I get a chance. After I put her back on the newspaper in her dog crate, she pooped a loose poop which had three gel-like red things in it, each about 2-4 mm long. I isolated them from the poop with a toothpick dragging them across the newspaper, and they didn't fall apart or get punctured. I really had to poke them with the toothpick to get through the gel-like outer coating. They didn't really look like blood or intestinal lining, and I can't find any pictures of worm eggs that look like them.

She was treated for roundworms (visible in poop) mid to late August this year. I treated with Safeguard followed in 10 days by Valbazen. Saw several dead roundworms in her poop, so it was effective. After that, we had a nice fall, so she was outside and had access to eating earth worms and whatever else may carry worms that are bad for chickens. She went directly into a molt in September and took about 2 1/2 months to molt. She is just growing back the last of her head feathers. She lost lots of weight during the molt but then put most of it back on once she was feeling better.

It's just been lately that she is off her food (about 2-3 weeks) with occasional loose poop, as well as the other symptoms listed above. I have posted pictures below of the red things as well as the whole poop with the red things in it. I'm wondering if she doesn't have capillary worms with the head shaking, yawning and now these red things, but who knows. It's been cold here most of the month of December, and she hasn't seen any outside time. Certainly the earthworms and other critters have been gone for several weeks now anyways. She has a huge enclosed sand covered run and a roomy chicken house for at night that sits within the covered run.


2 to 3 red things near the lower glob of poop and 1 on top of the upper glob


I was able to drag them out of the poop and they stayed pretty much intact.

Any ideas on what these may be and whether they are related to her symptoms. I think she is about 2 1/2 years old. I adopted her in September of 2015 and was told she was probably 1 at that time. She didn't have a big molt last fall, certainly not likely this one, so I'm guessing her age is pretty accurate.

 

[rebrascora]

Hi

I was expecting these to be clumps of shed intestinal lining until I saw the photos, but I've never seen intestinal lining look like that....it's more pink and fleshy. they almost look like jelly bean material. Did you cut/break any of them open and was it liquid inside?
The only thing I have seen remotely similar inside a chicken were pictures of ovarian cists. I will be interested to hear what others think of them.

Cheddar cheese is quite salty which is not good for them. Try soaking her pellets in hot water to make a warm mash....make sure it is not too hot when you give her it. You could also make some scrambled egg and mix it into the warm mash. I would give her moist food rather than dry pellets until she is eating well again. Perhaps try tempting her with a pouch of cat food rather than the cheese if she won't eat even a warm chicken feed mash.
The bubbles in the eyes are a symptom of respiratory disease/infection, so I doubt that will be related to these objects in her poop.

 

[A05951]

I did try to break them open, and was able to kind of squish/poke them and stretch out the material. It's very stretching and rather shiny with almost a coating on the outside that makes it pretty easy to wipe the poop off of. Maybe the picture is not representative of the color. They are pretty red and glossy looking. However, the material under magnification looks reddish-clear, maybe giving them a pinkish look.

This is one strange chicken in that she doesn't like warm, watered down crumble, warm oatmeal, scrambled eggs or cat food, all of which I tried when she was going through her major molt this fall and was not eating much of anything. I did recently try both the warm crumble and warm oatmeal and she just shook her head at it. She will eat a few mealworms, sunflower seeds, and feather fixer now, and, of course, cheese. I cut out the fruit (kiwi and pomegranite) treats last week to see if she would eat more of her crumble - no luck.

Fortunately the eye foaming is over with. I sent the pictures of the red things to my vet, and she suggested looking at a stool sample tomorrow to see if there are any parasites before starting another worming cycle. She's concerned there is an inflammation of her GI tract for some reason, hopefully not a secondary infection from something else.

Any other thoughts would be appreciated.

 

[A05951]

I was able to get a stool sample to my vet today, and she saw no parasites under the microscope. No fecal float done. She says the red things are clotted blood and thinks she has inflammation of her intestinal tract from something. I had mentioned to the vet when I called her with the foamy eyes that the chicken was also eating a lot of sand for some reason. I only have seen one other chicken do this, and she was also sick at the time and undernourished. I will make sure she has grit in her hospital crate. The vet suggests just watching and waiting to see if her appetite picks up and she keeps defecating.

 

[rebrascora]

Thanks for updating. I will be following with interest and keeping my fingers crossed for her.

 

[Teila]

Howdy A05951

I am definitely not an expert when it comes to what ails chickens but agree that it does not look like intestinal lining to me.

I was thinking maybe Coccidiosis

I have a couple of poop charts bookmarked which have come in handy many times:

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

http://www.the-chicken-chick.com/2012/02/whats-scoop-on-chicken-poop-digestive.html

 

[A05951]

I suppose it could be cocci. I've never dealt with that. I did get this chicken from a family who was moving, and it is the offspring of their own chickens, so I doubt they vaccinated but hopefully they fed it medicated chick starter. I have no way of verifying that. I have a message in to my vet asking her thoughts on whether it could be coccidiosis. She didn't do a fecal float, and it sounds like that's the only way to verify. Maybe starting on Corid just to be safe wouldn't be a bad idea. I'll wait to hear back from her.

 

[Isaac 0]

Agree with the above.Intestinal lining is usually not in globs.Intestinal lining is usually stringy .

 

[azygous]

Too bad the vet didn't do the fecal float test. It may have turned up coccidiosis parasites. No matter. It's such a simple and harmless thing to do a round of Corid. Do the entire flock, and repeat once more.

With all the other symptoms, though, it's possible this hen had a compromised immune system and she has other infections also. I would do the Corid and then see how she responds. Those red clumps are not intestinal lining, but look like blood clots from intestines being corroded by parasites. It's possible she may have worms. Worming is the next thing I would try.

 

[A05951]

I heard back from my vet who said she didn't see any evidence of cocci in the poop sample, but there was some newspaper debris included which may have hid some of the cocci. She thought it would be worth trying to treat for cocci anyways. I bought the Corid liquid 9.6% and mixed up a quart with 1/4 tsp. I also syringed in .3 ml directly as she isn't a big drinker of the water. I have a PM into @casportpony to ask whether I do the syringe dosing for 5 days, similar to the dosing in the water. I came across one of her posts which mentioned giving .2 ml for 2.2 pounds of bird, and mine weighs 3.7 or so. I just didn't know if you can syringe it in for five days in a row or if the syringed dose was just to get them a boost of Corid at the beginning, especially if they aren't drinking. If anyone knows about giving the syringed dose for 5 or 7 days as well as in the water, let me know.