Black watery poo- any ideas?

[learycow]

I have a pekin hen, roughly 1 year old, who has black, watery poop.
She has been like this for a week now and none of the others penned with her seem to have it.
It is so bad that it is all over the feathers surrounding her butt (almost like pastey butt on a chick). However, her appetite and behavior are normal.

Any ideas as to what this could be and what I can do for her?

 

[Amiga]

Does it smell really rank, moreso than usual? Sometimes black watery stuff indicates some internal bleeding, sometimes not.

Here are my thoughts, for what they're worth...

Worst case, if it's blood, it could be coming from an infection or possibly parasites, in which case antibiotics or anti parasitic might help. But I am not keen on just tossing those kinds of medicines down a duck's throat.

Just something to keep in mind.

Or, it could be an imbalance with her internal flora, or something she ate.

For the imbalance, I would go with probiotics. I'd go with that in any case, actually, thinking about it. Maybe electrolytes, too (ACV or powdered with vitamins).

Activated charcoal's another supplement that will do no harm, and it absorbs toxins. So if it were my duck, I would give her activated charcoal in her daytime drinking water, and vitamins with probiotics and electrolytes overnight for a couple of days and see how it goes.

I would also give her a bath and see if her poo showed any signs of blood.

I think you know this, but activated charcoal is a supplement, food grade, not the briquettes for grilling.... one of my neurotic fears is that someone will grind up a petroleum-laden briquette and then blame me for sickening their duck.