sick hen, 13 weeks old, lethargic, black poop, weak, DOING BETTER!!!

Mad Hatter (EE, 13 weeks old) who is usually pretty flightly, not easily caught has been very quiet today. She lets us walk right up to her, which is not usual. I felt her crop,l and cannot feel anything. She is eating and drinking, just acting very slow. When I put yogurt out this morning, she went right over to eat, but although she ate and seemed to enjoy it, she ate *slowly*. She has been resting quite a bit, will sit down and just rest. I checked her vent, and she had some yellowish soft poop stuck to her feathers around her vent. We cleaned her off, and didn't see anything otherwise unusual with her - eyes and skin seem fine. She just seems very tired. If my daughter puts feed in her hand then she will eat it out of her hand, and she did have yogurt with some garlic in it this afternoon. She is drinking water, pecking at the grass (when she is not resting) and will go up to the feeder and waterer as well.
Just awhile ago, when cleaning out the coop and run, I saw her make that expression they all make when they poop and ran over to see if it was diarrhea, or anything unusual and it is black and tarry looking. Actually looks like dark, dark green, almost black.
Thoughts as to how to treat her would be greatly appreciated as we are very worried about her.

I thought perhaps GSE (Grapefruit Seed Extract) but was unsure of dosage (how much, how often, and in what?)
I did give her garlic and some cod liver oil in the yogurt that I gave her.
I have cayenne pepper at the ready, if that would help, but didn't want to irritate her if that wouldn't be of any use.


This is Mad Hatter, not looking like her usual perky self.


Mad Hatter in the middle.. I thought her comb might be paler than the other chickens', but hers has never been very bright, so I am not sure if it is, or I am just thinking that, now:


Black Poop - the first one was solid, 3 1/2" long, no other colors, but it got stepped on. The next time she went, I got this, and her stools are looser, now:





Thanks for any advice

There is a poop page somewhere to see what it could be..
Do a search on poop and ithink it will come up.
I dont know what could be wrong with her, could be alot of things I am sure.
She could have ate soemthing cross and its making her sick.
I hope she gets better tho, she looks sweet

Thanks, she is a sweetie, and while it's so nice that she's cuddly right now, she's just not herself.
I did check the poop chart and didn't see any like what she is doing... i know berries can do that, but they haven't had any berries, cherries, etc.
She just stands still a lot, closes her eyes and dozes, sometimes, and then she'll perk up a bit and peck at grass or go eat. When I was holding her awhile ago, she apparently got fed up and started to wiggle around and cluck at me, which is much more like her usual self - but then went back to being very quiet and tired.

I don't want to treat with an antibiotic unless it's really warranted, but am also not wanting to wait too long.

When was the last time you wormed them?
Some general support measures:
> a bit of ACV in the waterer
> a general supplement such as aviacharge 2000 or a Rooster Booster general supplement (they have several so look for the general on > aviacharge 2000 is onlyavailable online from McMurry or Strombergs)> you can add it to a bit of cooked oatmeal and then mix that thru their feed (just enough to make it clump together)
> check the run and coop for any forgotten grains that might have spoiled

Thanks for the reply, dlhunicorn. I have never wormed them. There is ACV in the water. Today I cleaned the whole coop and run and tried to take anything out that might have spoiled or been contaminated, and raked it well.

Last night she slept on the roost...tonight she is in a nest box.

Update this morning, she left black poop in the nest box where she slept, but is up and about with the other girls. She feels *very* light this morning and her chest bone feels prominent, like there isn't much fat around it.

She is still eating and drinking water.

She is still on chick starter, and they free range in their run. There is free choice grit on hand, as well. They eat oatmeal, yogurt, dry steel cut oats, and vegetables as well as their feed.

None of the other girls are acting sick in any way.

Does anyone have any thoughts???

any cherries she has gotten into? (pits)

Not that I am aware of. The kids had cherries last week, but ate them inside, and I don't believe anyone took any of the pits outside.

There is what, cyanide in cherry pits? We have given them leftover apples on occasion, but not recently.. I know the apple seeds have cyanide, as well.. what would be the treatment for something like that?

Sue, if you want to try some vitamins for her I have a bottle of PolyViSol left over from Songbird. I could run it over to you today, if you like.

I hope you can figure out what's going on with her...I don't really have much more to offer than what I've already emailed you.

I have a rooster suffering from same... from the info I found amyl nitrate (inhalation) though I am unsure if this is applicable to birds (some things are very different for birds than for mammals) and until I get it sorted I am unable to do anything (my vet >non-avian was unsure> I have sent off an email to another (avian) vet but he is on vacation) same with the poultry specialist vet > on vacation... their collegues were unable to answer one way or the other.
Here is the link I have for antidote info poisons:
http://www.abvt.org/public/docs/reviewofveterinaryantidotes.pdf