Calling all poop experts! How would you treat this?

[azygous]

@Saaniya you are going to make a very fine vet one day. It won't be long and you will probably be sporting an BYC Educator badge.

@Shadrach those pics helped tremendously. I do believe we can include "Ethel" poop in the normal poop category.

My vet ran the float on probably the only chicken poop he's ever had in his clinic. No worm eggs were seen. Ethel is perfectly healthy. I'm very glad I was able to rule that out.

What I believe is happening with Ethel is she's normally high strung, but she's a real basket case now that she's in a full, hard molt. The others have always intimidated her, but these days, she won't even try to approach the food dishes when another chicken is there or she will run away if another chicken approaches while she's eating. It's a wonder she hasn't lost all her body weight.

Tonight I gave her a food dish in a restricted area so she could eat in peace. She spent so long eating, I now believe I've identified the problem with her poop. She's starving, simply stated. We can fix that easily. She will be getting my bully victim treatment, and I am betting her poop firms up in no time. And maybe a vacation from flock competition will soothe her poor nerves.

Thanks everyone for all the great help and support!

 

[Saaniya]

@Saaniya you are going to make a very fine vet one day. It won't be long and you will probably be sporting an BYC Educator badge.

@Shadrach those pics helped tremendously. I do believe we can include "Ethel" poop in the normal poop category.

My vet ran the float on probably the only chicken poop he's ever had in his clinic. No worm eggs were seen. Ethel is perfectly healthy. I'm very glad I was able to rule that out.

What I believe is happening with Ethel is she's normally high strung, but she's a real basket case now that she's in a full, hard molt. The others have always intimidated her, but these days, she won't even try to approach the food dishes when another chicken is there or she will run away if another chicken approaches while she's eating. It's a wonder she hasn't lost all her body weight.

Tonight I gave her a food dish in a restricted area so she could eat in peace. She spent so long eating, I now believe I've identified the problem with her poop. She's starving, simply stated. We can fix that easily. She will be getting my bully victim treatment, and I am betting her poop firms up in no time. And maybe a vacation from flock competition will soothe her poor nerves.

Thanks everyone for all the great help and support!

Hhhe awwww
I hope I help all the chickens

 

[micstrachan]

Glad to hear Ethel is well and you’ve figured it out!

 

[Shadrach]

Good. I'm glad Ethel is okay. It sounds as if she would get on well with Dink here who is also a bit 'strange'. I

@Saaniya you are going to make a very fine vet one day. It won't be long and you will probably be sporting an BYC Educator badge.

@Shadrach those pics helped tremendously. I do believe we can include "Ethel" poop in the normal poop category.

My vet ran the float on probably the only chicken poop he's ever had in his clinic. No worm eggs were seen. Ethel is perfectly healthy. I'm very glad I was able to rule that out.

What I believe is happening with Ethel is she's normally high strung, but she's a real basket case now that she's in a full, hard molt. The others have always intimidated her, but these days, she won't even try to approach the food dishes when another chicken is there or she will run away if another chicken approaches while she's eating. It's a wonder she hasn't lost all her body weight.

Tonight I gave her a food dish in a restricted area so she could eat in peace. She spent so long eating, I now believe I've identified the problem with her poop. She's starving, simply stated. We can fix that easily. She will be getting my bully victim treatment, and I am betting her poop firms up in no time. And maybe a vacation from flock competition will soothe her poor nerves.

Thanks everyone for all the great help and support!

I’m glad Ethel doesn’t have a medical problem. I’ve got a couple of Divas here.
Even with free ranging I get a couple of hens and one rooster who need careful watching with regard to making sure they get as much to eat as the others.
I got a bit worried when I first joined here and read about how much various chickens weighed and even more worried when I read some of the medical advice here. It was a post by @Saaniya that jolted me into reality when she mentioned on some thread that the weight and sternum feel test didn’t really apply to the chickens in India who tend to carry much less weight. The chickens here are more like the Indian chicken standard. I’ve got a couple of big girls but in general the hens are, well, svelte is a polite way of putting it.
The medication and broody advice is also rather different here. In the US there seems to be a tendency to use strong medication for every complaint and isolate sick or broody chickens. Here, unless dealing with a contagious disease my vet and the majority of the local chickens keepers will tell you isolating a chicken from the main flock is about the worst thing you can do.
It’s a bit like the change in human medical care. Until comparatively recently if you were sick you got put in hospital and if you were lucky, allowed visitors much like a prisoner. Finally the medical profession realised that people tended to recover more quickly when they had regular contact with family and friends. The more progressive hospitals now have an open visit policy and some even provide beds for visitors who stay with the patient 24/7.
My experience with injured and sick chickens has shown that chickens don’t like being separated from the flock and get depressed when incarcerated for long periods. I keep the sick and injured in my house and in the last few years I’ve kept the door open in daylight hours and the chicken is free to come and go as they wish. Interestingly the last two injured hens I’ve had in the house stayed in the house until they thought they were fit enough to venture out. They also get visits from their rooster who would come and check on them from time to time and had brief contact with the various groups that come by on a daily basis.I’ve yet to have a problem with other chickens picking on an injured chickens. Interestingly, they will pick on a sick chicken. Maybe they know more than we give them credit for.
A point that may be helpful in your case is a number of studies have shown that chickens tend to eat more when eating in the company of other chickens. I hand feed the divas here while the others eat. Of course, the others come over in case the diva is getting something they’re not but once they see its the same food the more senior take a bit just to prove a point and wander off. I can’t leave food down here because of the rats and wild birds.
One other point that may seem stupid but I’ve found it is relevant here; chickens have different pecking forces. Generally they would much rather eat off the ground than from a container with a hard base. One of the Divas here will happily eat if I put her food in a small pot with earth at the bottom. Talking to a friend here who also keeps chickens we rather randomly decided it was a bit like the difference for a human runner. Running on pavement stresses the joints while running on grass is not so stressful for the joints. Given the number of ‘strikes’ a chicken makes during feeding maybe they have a similar problem to the pavement runner.

 

[azygous]

I think Ethel's poop was a little bit firmer, or it at least had about half that was firmer stuff. Do we fixate on poop here, or what.

I am a firm believer in keeping all the flock together except in extreme situations where I have a strong concern about safety. I have a "jail" enclosure in one area of my large run. It's open most of the time, but it's handy to place a recovering chicken or a bullying victim in, and I even brood baby chicks in it, all in direct proximity to the flock and fully visible to one another. I can't overstate the value of such an enclosure.

Ethel is happily eating in it right now.

 

[casportpony]

I think Ethel's poop was a little bit firmer, or it at least had about half that was firmer stuff. Do we fixate on poop here, or what.

I would want to know why it's abnormal. Have you weighed her yet?

 

[azygous]

Her weight appears to be stable at around two pounds. She's a petite EE. Her poop appears no different than a couple other chickens this morning.

 

[casportpony]

Her weight appears to be stable at around two pounds. She's a petite EE. Her poop appears no different than a couple other chickens this morning.

So no more mucus? Less urates? What does her cecal poop look like?

 

[azygous]

I have not seen any cecal poop from her. I have been a little concerned about that.

 

[azygous]

Update: Ethel's poop has slowly improved after I took the step of preventing her being bullied away from the feeders. In fact, after just two days of protective treatment, she regained her self confidence and began asserting herself at the food dishes. This morning when cleaning the poop boards, I couldn't tell which night deposit was hers.