2 year old hen with diarrhea (sp?) help

[calicokat]

Hello all, kinda new at this chicken stuff and hoping someone can help me out.

The background is, our neighbors had a chicken adopt their dog. It probably came from another neighbor, but they won't take it back. It was roosting in the back porch room and making a mess, because they leave the door ajar for the dog to come and go at night, etc. They dealt with this for about a month. My understanding is that it was sharing the dog's food and whatever she found free-ranging in the yard.

Anyway, we finished building our chicken house and I told them we'd take her off their hands if they wanted. We have two other hens we adopted to get us started -- so now there are three. This one had poop on her butt feathers just a little, and has had loose stools since she came here (about 2 weeks). I thought that after she ate regular laying food it might straighten up, but not so far. They do get treats a few times a day (carrots, strawberries, bread, cabbage & broccoli shreds, boiled egg, even yogurt one time) and I add egg shell to the food.

She is laying one egg a day, and I can't be sure, but I think she is the one who layed a double yolk egg last week.

Today her really watery, loose stool turned to flat out gross diarrhea. It was yellow looking too, not the usual dark color. So, what should I be doing to help her get better and what might be wrong in the first place?

Thanks for any help you can give me!
~kat

 

[Indiana hens]

wow! I am so sorry nobody replied to your posting. Yogurt or probiotics: poultry drench or power punch, etc. Then if no results maybe give a wormer, there are many Wazine is what I use.

 

[Glenda L Heywood]

I would say that she may have some type of E.coli

Some tips on treating this in your bird from a friend of mine

Nathalie Ross who as a vet tech learnd this treatment

First and foremost the thing to do is to feed her
the probiotic wet mash
E.coli is something chickens do get
Now, anytime you have any gut problems, the health of the beneficial bacteria that should naturally occur in the gut should be considered.

It's usually when the populations of those good
bacterial decrease that we see an INcreased in bad bacteria, thus gut illness. The good
bacteria literally crowd out bad bacteria, and some even secrete substances
that ward off over abundances of bad bacteria.

(1 So during illness, and really any time there is
stress, you'll want to increase the number of good bacteria in your bird's gut. You can do
this quite easily through the use of probiotics
available over the counter, and some even at the grocery store.

(2 In this case, with a
probability of E. coli, you'll want to find a
"probiotic" that contains live cultures of
Lactobacilus (most commonly lactobacilus
acidophilus) as well as B. bifidum.

Bifidum is one of those bacteria that secretes stuff to ward off bad bacteria, in this case it specifically wards off E.coli.

Third, nutrition during illness:
You can mix it up with boiled/mashed egg yolk for a combination of good high protein for healing,
super nutrition from the egg, and the good bacteria from the yogurt. Plus, this treat is soft and easily dissolved.

Fourth vitamin E.
Vitamin E acts specifically against overdoses of E.coli. I'd use the oil capsules. ONE 400 MG PEOPLE vIT e DAILY TILL HELAED.
You can put it in a small bit of food if you
KNOW that bit of food will be eaten entirely.

When birds are sick, their crops/gizzards slow down, so it's really easy for their crops to back up and get impacted.

If you don't think your bird will eat yogurt (some dont, some love it),

then you can hedge your bets and pick up a non-dairy human probiotic from the human health food store.
You'll find them in the remedies for yeast infections. Liquids are easiest to use, though
you can crush tablets if you absolutely have to do.

Be sure to read the label to see
that it says that it contains both acidophilus (aka lactobacilus) as well as bifidum.
Nathalie Ross provided this excerp

Glenda L Heywood
suggests
natural probiotic for one bird
3 tbsp of dry crumblesa
6 tbsp of any mind of milk
1 tbsp of yoguart
mix well and feed twice a day till bird is better

read Nathalies advise also as she knows the right way to go
you can email me PM for further help

 

[Glenda L Heywood]

if wormer is needed you can use cayanne pepper in the feed and it will keep birds from getting coccidiosis also
my first post is what I would try and also give the cayanne pepper in all the feed
2 qt of crumbles layer
2 tbsp of cayanne pepper

feed this at all times
and feed the
wet mash probiotic also

see if the ecoli treatment works

 

[calicokat]

Thanks so much for the answers, and a big thanks from Lillian too!!

She liked the yogurt the first time I fed it to them, so I'll get the probiotic kind and mixed with scrambled egg and she'll likely take that just fine. Any idea how long it might take to straighten her out? I'd like to give her tail end a little bath, but no sense doing that until it quits getting messed up!

With the vitamin E, do I just put the capsule in her food, or do I need to open it somehow?

Also, will it be bad for the other two girls to eat this? I can probably put them in the chicken house and feed her in the run, or visa versa - but if it's not bad for them, I wouldn't have to bother with that.

 

[Glenda L Heywood]

No just cut the end off the capsule of the vit E 400mg
if you bought the pill kind just take and crush it in tabsp
or in a cup with some thing solid
feed it to the rest of the chickens also as they will do okay with it
1 pill per chicken given the
wet mash probiotic

do this for several weeks and they will be fine
I would eventually give the wet mash probiotic once a week after they are well

 

[sammi]

you might want to take a fresh fecal sample to a vet for testing..
she could have worms, cocci, or as Miss Glenda posted..E-coli-
then you'd know for sure what the problem is.

do cut back on those veggies..

here's the mix I usually suggest:

this is amount for 1 day..divide into 3 feeds for the day.

1cooked chopped egg yolk
1 teaspoon honey
2 tablespoons plain active culture yogurt
2-4 tablespoons water cooked oatmeal
layer feed to make the mix puffy, not soupy or gummy.
have layer feed and water available as usual.

I'd consider getting some Sulmet or Sulfadimethoxine which treats cocci and some strains of E-coli and salmonella..
Corid, or amprol is good for cocci..

http://www.firststatevetsupply.com/store/index.php?cPath=21_29

(bacitracin on this page treats E-coli)