2 year old hen. Persistent loose poop and pasty butt. Did not respond to Nyastin. More details and pics in post.

[TropicalChickies]

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Well, after 7 days of acidified copper sulphate and then a week with probiotic water, Butchie still has runny poo. Sigh. But she has improved in other ways. There's no more white gunk stuck to her vent area. She doesn't have a cheesy smell anymore. I've been treating the white flaky fungus on her face, comb, and wattles with antifungal drops twice a day and definitely winning that battle. Her skin is really clearing up. Her poo is not foamy or green or bloody, it's just loose and muddy.

She's still eating very well, active and bossy, no breathing problems. But now she's finishing up her molt and has been sitting to lay an egg for the past five days. She sits for two hours or so and then gives up. She looks sad about it, poor thing. There's nothing wrong with the coop or nest, she just hasn't put her egg yet (I hope). She has a deep red color flushing her face so I know she's ready, but no egg. So I guess this is the test to see if she is getting better slowly or has reproductive issue.

I'm glad to hear Butchie is still hanging in there!
She's looking good.
Hopefully she's not having reproductive problems and is just now getting into the swing of things.

It's great the the antifungal drops are taking care of the skin on her face, it looks much better!

You've done a wonderful job devoting time and care for her. I'm rooting for her

How is Cleo doing?

 

[TropicalChickies]

I'm glad to hear Butchie is still hanging in there!
She's looking good.
Hopefully she's not having reproductive problems and is just now getting into the swing of things.

It's great the the antifungal drops are taking care of the skin on her face, it looks much better!

You've done a wonderful job devoting time and care for her. I'm rooting for her

How is Cleo doing?

Cleo is amazing. It's like she was never sick. Her only problem is a persistent bumble she's had forever. Every two months or so we excuse the scab and take out a kernel-- that's why she's wearing a "shoe" here. But we keep it from getting too bad although we've never been able to get rid of it completely. But other than that, she's great. Thanks for asking!

 

[TropicalChickies]

I'm glad to hear Butchie is still hanging in there!
She's looking good.
Hopefully she's not having reproductive problems and is just now getting into the swing of things.

It's great the the antifungal drops are taking care of the skin on her face, it looks much better!

You've done a wonderful job devoting time and care for her. I'm rooting for her

How is Cleo doing?

Butchie update! Well, she's still with us and seems to still be improving little by little. Her poop is still yellowish and gunky, but much better than the white water she was pooping before. At least it has solids. She eats well and doesn't drink excessive water anymore. She's off her roost early in the morning and asking for food. More than anything, I'm happy that she doesn't have a pained expression. I guess a lot of people might not think chickens have facial expressions, but I swear when Butchie was very sick her eyes were scrunched up and she looked peevish. She didn't want to be touched. Now her sweet little face looks peaceful and her eyes are clear and wide.

But she still has an "off" smell about her much of the time. Cheesy for sure. And while her crop is empty in the morning, later in the day it has a doughy feeling. When I press on her crop, it doesn't feel squishy with water, more like there's air or gas inside. So I've been trying to keep her system acidified with ACV and every few days I give her a little peppermint simethicone and she really likes that. She expels a little air -- from both ends!-- and then she's super happy and starts cooing and chatting.

The skin around her vent area has a strange color too, a greenish purple, but not all the time. Sometimes it's a healthy pink but them other times when I clean her butt it looks like the pic I attached.

So something is off in her system. Something is giving her gas and making her a host for some yeast I would guess that hasn't responded to anti fungal creams. The acidified copper sulphate I gave her a few months ago seemed to help. Maybe she needs more than one round? Or an anti-fungal pill? I've worked so hard to get her better, and she's come so far. Is there anything else I can try?

Thanks so much for your help.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

I don't see a photo of her vent.

Butchie Update!!!

I'm glad to hear she's improving and seems to be brighter and more comfortable.

If she responded well to the Acidified Copper Sulphate, then you may want to give that another go and see what happens.

 

[TropicalChickies]

 

[TropicalChickies]

View attachment 3394386View attachment 3394387

I don't see a photo of her vent.

Butchie Update!!!

I'm glad to hear she's improving and seems to be brighter and more comfortable.

If she responded well to the Acidified Copper Sulphate, then you may want to give that another go and see what happens.

Here's a pic of the skin around her back end. It's purplish greenish not right around the vent, but more in between her belly and vent.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Oh, I see what you mean. Not sure what's going on there.

 

[TropicalChickies]

Oh, I see what you mean. Not sure what's going on there.

I've searched and can't find any conclusive information about it. It doesn't look like any of the pictures that turned up of necrosis. Butchie's skin looks more bruised, like a muscle pull. I don't know. Maybe there was bruising all that time she was straining to defecate. I'll just keep looking after her. Thank you.

 

[TropicalChickies]

Butchie update! For anyone with a chick with vent gleet or crop issues -- my goodness, please be careful what she eats!

So after my last post here in early February, I carefully administered another round of ACS and Butchie improved -- a lot this time! The distension around her vent went down, her butt became firmer, pink, and healthy looking, the funky cheese smell went away, and her comb stood straight up for the first time in months! Hooray.

I followed with probiotics. Her poop was still not quite firm, but the urates were at least separate and visible and it was less yellowish, getting more brown. The flaky skin on her face was really clearing up. Everything was going great. Her appetite and energy were good, not drinking excessive water. She seemed bright eyed and content.

Then wham. Three nights ago, I noticed her crop was a little boggy at bedtime. Weather has been hot, steamy and wet so I made a note to check it in the morning. First thing the next day, she went straight for the water bowl and starting drinking. Then she staggers a few steps with yellow liquid coming out of her beak. I scoop her up and without even thinking about it, pointed her upside down so the slimy liquid could spill out. I never vomited a chicken before. It was pure instinct. I set her down and she shook it off and caught her breath. Her crop was big and I could feel a lot more liquid gurgling inside and she was shaking her head trying to clear it. So I watched a video really quickly on how to "correctly" empty her crop and did it, gently massaging her crop upward and giving her breaks to clear her throat and breathe. It seemed really necessary and an amazing amount of dark yellow goo came out with chunks of some dark green stuff. I put her in a cool shady place to rest and went to investigate.

All the poop in the coop was weird, orange and green... I ran to the compost pile, remembering I had baked a big squash (orange with green skin) the previous day for lunch. Sure enough, the chicks had gotten in and eaten the "guts" and the scooped out shells. Ive read that pumpkin and acorn squash is good for them cooked, but obviously not raw and rotting in the compost. Anyway, after they pooped, Cleo and everybody else was perfectly fine and still is. But poor Butchie didn't look good and her comb and wattles were that dark cherry red color that tells you something is wrong.

I checked on her throughout the day. My husband was in the city and I was on the farm by myself. I gave her a little coconut oil, which is all I had. By the afternoon, she had perked up, but the crop still filled up. When she put her head down to drink water, fluid dribbled out. I made her vomit again at 6pm and put her in the hospital for the night. I didn't want her gurgling to death in the coop where I couldn't hear her. I couldn't sleep from worry so at 1am I checked in on her. She was gurgling and I figured that was it. If she was still alive when it got light out, I would put her down. But I sat with her and massaged her crop and abdomen for awhile, telling her how much we loved her. She seemed to be breathing easier when I went to bed, but I wasn't hopeful.

The next morning (this was Friday) I found her standing up in the hospital, alert, and wanting to get away from the huge mess of grassy slimy poop she made overnight. I let her out and she promptly pecked my at my ankle, asking for food, and started walking around pecking at grass. No liquid came out. Her crop was completely flat and her abdomen a little bloated but not very much. My stars. These chickens do not go gently into that good night.

Ok, I said, you're not giving up, so I won't either. My husband had returned home in the evening with Epsom salts and a tube of Clotrimazol (the easiest thing for him to find.) I gave her a 8ml of saline flush, little by little, massaged the crop and belly and waited. Tem minutes later, she expelled most of it, along with more slimy pumpkin/feed/grass mess and then I started her on Clotrimazol, a morning and evening dose.

Question: I have two new four month old chicks mixing with the flock right now, a rooster and a pullet, and I'm wary of putting ACS in the water. So I'm trying Clotrimazol for Butchie instead of ACS. Is there a way to dose individually with ACS? I can syringe the solution into her beak, but how much?

I gave her half of a boiled egg later in the day (Saturday). She was famished. No more liquid collected in the crop. Her color was red and healthy. She spent the day being active with the flock. The pics I shared are from Saturday, one day after I had to vomit her. She looked great!

On Sunday, (yesterday) I gave her boiled egg for breakfast again, no problem.

The bad news
At lunch time she was so hungry I gave her 2 TBSP of damp chick starter feed. She gobbled it. By the evening her crop was squishy again and her head smelled like vinegar. This morning, she's exactly the same -- squishy crop about the size of a tennis ball and smelly. I guess I rushed feeding her normal food. I have her in the workshop because she's hungry and trying to eat grass, which I don't think will help.

Im feeling frustrated because before this episode, she had a really good six weeks. She was living like a normal chicken. She loves sunbathing and her "spa treatments" for her skin. I was so proud and happy to see her happy.

As long as her quality of life is good and her crop keeps working -- even if it needs some help now and then -- I'll do what I can. At this point, I've accepted that she must have an underlying issue. After all, the other chicks gorged on rotten squash skins, got the runs, and were fine. Only Butchie couldn't handle it, so that tells me she's delicate.

She hasn't laid an egg since she first got sick in September 2022 (seven months ago). The last eggs she laid were very white, pebbly and irregularly shaped. It's possible she contracted Infectious Bronchitis when she was younger and became symptomatic later. The original group of hens I got from a (bad) neighbor were all sick and sneezing with rales when we got them over 3 years ago, so she would have been exposed to it. Or she has tumors. But it's interesting that she was actually much much sicker in September and October -- pooping water, not eating, barely moving -- and she's actually improved so much since then. With cancer, I figure she would really decline. But even with the crop issues, she's so much better than she was back then.

So who knows. Without any real diagnosis, I'm just doing what I can to give her a good life in whatever time she has left. Thank you everyone who has followed and helped especially @Wyorp Rock