Chicken diarrhea...

[Kellichick]

My 18 month old Buff Orpington hen has developed a reddish brown diarrhea in the past week or so. She is eating and drinking well and appears to be otherwise healthy. She lives in a house and run with 5 other of the same breed and she is the only one with diarrhea. I have put buttermilk in the waterers for the past 3 days and it has tightened up the feces just a little bit. What could this be??

 

[Judy]

http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/ps044

Scroll down to the bottom and you'll see some of the possibilities.

First thing I'd do is check the food for frreshness/mold. Have you wormed your chickens or changed their feed? Is she laying? Could she be eggbound or an internal layer?

Here is a poop chart that might help, too (pics of poop): http://www.chat.allotment.org.uk/index.php?topic=17568.0

 

[Kellichick]

Thank you for your response! The food is fresh. I feed layer food in the feeders, plenty of grit and alot of calcium. The only difference in their diet is that instead of cracked corn, I bought cracked corn and wheat for scratch this time. I use DE to worm and dust everything and haven't seen any worms or parasites. She's the only one with the poopie problem and she's in a house and run with 5 others. The poop pix were very helpful. Just upon appearances, it looks like the "Ceacal" droppings, but I still don't know if that's acceptable or not. Only my RIR is still laying right now. It's very cold and not much daylight right now.