3 YO Plymouth Rock Hen Lethargic with Dark Green & Watery Poops… AGAIN!

[Rachel_liz15]

Before I start, I had posted a thread about this poor girl, Blanche back in July. Here is the link for the back story: Original Post from July 2024
Back in July she and the rest of the flock was treated for both worms and Coccidia because I had no idea what else to do.

Blanche is have the same issue again. I am currently sitting on my living room floor with her on my lap. I just gave her an epsom salt soak and got all the poop if her bum. Her poop is extremely watery, dark green, looks like there’s grass in it, white urates. The picture I attached below might not be the best because I started to wipe in up before realizing I should take a picture of that, so it was a lot more watery than shown. I gave her a little crop massage and I intend on checking that in the morning. I did give her some Greek yogurt and water with ACV which she ate/drank a bit of. She is still lethargic though, standing, but eyes closed (it is also 11 PM now).

In the OG post I mentioned one of my RI reds had passed. All I noticed was she was little lethargic the night before her death. But after Blanche got sick over the Summer, my other RI red got sick and by the time I caught it, she was too far gone. I was checking her for egg binding when she violently died in my lap, a truly horrifying experience. I was so upset and frustrated I got an autopsy done on her. Come to find out I did not kill her when checking for egg binding thank God. She had fatty liver disease and her liver had ruptured. I did tons of research and found that corn was a big contributor (they free range every afternoon/evening and pretty much every weekend) so I went nuts and cut out all corn from their diet. They get a corn and soy free food from Chewy. The brand is Bar Ale. I haven’t had any other issues until now.

We are located in RI. We just rebuilt their coop and run over the Summer. The run has a roof over it now and my ducks and geese are in their own coop now and the run is sectioned off with fencing so the chickens can fly over if they really want to but they seldom do. The coop is not drafty. We clean the poop under their roosts and give fresh water every single day. The run is nice and dry and we have wood chips on the ground in there and pine shavings on the floor of the coop.

Thank you for reading my novel. Any insight or other experiences with this would be greatly appreciated!!!

*WARNING POOP PHOTO*

 

[Debbie292d]

Hi, and sorry Blanche isn't well again. You're already doing probiotics, which is my go-to for so many things, and maybe she'll show some improvement from that.

She had fatty liver disease and her liver had ruptured. I did tons of research and found that corn was a big contributor

I wish more people knew this as it's surprising how many think they're doing their chickens a favor in the winter by feeding them corn. But since you had stopped feeding her corn since then, one would think she should get better, not worse, nor have a recurrence.

I'm wondering if she'd need to be rewormed again since it has been about six months. I personally have never wormed mine in eight years but since you did back in July, and it helped, maybe that's what's going on again perhaps.

Is she still laying eggs?

 

[Rachel_liz15]

Hi, and sorry Blanche isn't well again. You're already doing probiotics, which is my go-to for so many things, and maybe she'll show some improvement from that.


I wish more people knew this as it's surprising how many think they're doing their chickens a favor in the winter by feeding them corn. But since you had stopped feeding her corn since then, one would think she should get better, not worse, nor have a recurrence.

I'm wondering if she'd need to be rewormed again since it has been about six months. I personally have never wormed mine in eight years but since you did back in July, and it helped, maybe that's what's going on again perhaps.

Is she still laying eggs?

I don’t think so but it’s hard to tell when she’s in the general population. She has not laid any inside this time or last time. I think it’s an impacted crop. It should be empty, but it feels like a golf ball. I’ve never dealt with it before so I’m going to look it up right now, but from my previous reading it the crop should be flat when it’s empty. It could’ve been that this was the case with her last time and I didn’t know it. I did massage her crop a bit last time and maybe that cleared it up then. I attempted to take a picture to post but it did not work. It literally feels just a golf ball.

Will update. Thank you!!

 

[Eggcessive]

The time to check her crop to see if it is emptying is first thing in the morning when she has gone without food and water for 10 hours. It should be flat. If it is still full and firm or doughy, then it may be impacted. If it is full and squishy or puffy, it may be going sour. Smell her breath for a bad odor. If her crop is still round and firm, give her 1-2 tsp of chilled coconut oil cut into pieces to peck. Then you can massage her crop several times a day to break up the impaction. Worms can cause some crop or intestinal problems, but so can reproductive infections or salpingitis, cancer, and water belly due to the pressure on organs inside the abdomen. Let us know what you feel. Worming would be one thing I would go ahead and do. Here is a good article about different crop problems:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...w-to-know-which-one-youre-dealing-with.73607/

 

[Rachel_liz15]

The time to check her crop to see if it is emptying is first thing in the morning when she has gone without food and water for 10 hours. It should be flat. If it is still full and firm or doughy, then it may be impacted. If it is full and squishy or puffy, it may be going sour. Smell her breath for a bad odor. If her crop is still round and firm, give her 1-2 tsp of chilled coconut oil cut into pieces to peck. Then you can massage her crop several times a day to break up the impaction. Worms can cause some crop or intestinal problems, but so can reproductive infections or salpingitis, cancer, and water belly due to the pressure on organs inside the abdomen. Let us know what you feel. Worming would be one thing I would go ahead and do. Here is a good article about different crop problems:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...w-to-know-which-one-youre-dealing-with.73607/

Yes, this morning was when it felt almost exactly like a golf ball. I would like to have her stool sample sent out before I treat her for worms again simply because I need to know the root of the issue, especially because this is the second time with her and also to know if I need to treat the whole flock. Someone on here posted a link to a lab you mail in samples to and it’s a lot cheaper than having it done at the vet. So Monday I can start treating for worms if she’s still the same or worse. That way I can collect a fresh sample that morning without any drugs in her system.
For tonight I am giving her a scrambled egg with about a teaspoon of olive oil in it. I tried mixing the oil with yogurt and with applesauce to no avail. I thought the egg would be safer than risking her aspirating the oil by force feeding it to her. Once she’s done eating and drinking I will massage her crop and hopefully there’s some movement after that.

Thank you for the advice! Will update.

Here is the link for that lab in case anyone was wondering. I’ll let you know how it works out for me. https://www.midamericaagresearch.net/instructions.php

Most recent pic:

*POOP WARNING* from last night:

 

[Eggcessive]

I think most fecal floats are done on the freshest droppings. I don’t know how accurate any of the mail in places are in finding worms. If I wanted to get a fecal float on my chicken, I would think about taking in one of my pet dogs or cats who needed a checkup or vaccines, and take in a sample of the chicken’s poo to my regular vet. Mine would do that, but others may not. Let us know if you get results. One of the worm checkers I used to recommend on Amazon had a lot of bad reviews. Some people also get an in expensive microscope and learn to do decals themselves.

 

[Rachel_liz15]

I think most fecal floats are done on the freshest droppings. I don’t know how accurate any of the mail in places are in finding worms. If I wanted to get a fecal float on my chicken, I would think about taking in one of my pet dogs or cats who needed a checkup or vaccines, and take in a sample of the chicken’s poo to my regular vet. Mine would do that, but others may not. Let us know if you get results. One of the worm checkers I used to recommend on Amazon had a lot of bad reviews. Some people also get an in expensive microscope and learn to do decals themselves.

Unfortunately my vet doesn’t do fecal floats on chickens . I thought about getting my own microscope before but I don’t know, I’m afraid of misdiagnosing things.

This morning she still has that goofball sized lump. I kind of got pictures. Her poop hasn’t changed and she’s still meek. I am correct in saying that the crop shouldn’t be noticeable before any food right? I read to give a stool softener if absolutely needed so I want to be as sure as I can before I give her that.

Thank you

 

[Rachel_liz15]

Okay, now I’m kind of at a loss here. I hope someone can help me out. Blanche seems to be improving, I believe whatever crop blockage she had has passed. She is pooping more normally and seems more energetic. She did have a couple poops with a lot of tiny pieces of gravel in it (from our driveway) which I think was a big part of the issue. She is eating her regular feed in mash form and drinking all on her own. I did send out her fecal sample to the lab today as well, so hopefully I get the results back no later than Thursday. BUT when I checked up on her this afternoon, I saw this in her crate:

In case you can't tell from the photo, it is very small, maybe the size of my pinky fingernail. I am assuming it is a deformed egg of some sort. My fiancé told me he saw another one of those about 2 weeks ago under where she normally roosts (I wish he would have told me about it when he saw it, but that's another story). I'm not really sure what this could mean? I tried to find images of deformed eggs on Google, but didn't really see anything that matched this.

Anybody have any ideas?