Chicken Poo

[M Brennen]

What would cause my chicken to have poo look like this? She is a very skinny bird. Can’t seem to put weight on her.

 

[Dottie the Chicken]

@azygous

 

[topochico225]

Where is the poop in question? Hard to tell.

 

[M Brennen]

Where is the poop in question? Hard to tell.

It’s the very long, skinny greenish stuff.

 

[azygous]

That poop is difficult to see. It would help to place it on a contrasting background.

From what I can see, it seems as though it has a lot of roughage in it, such as grass or even hair. This may be why she's skinny. If she's obstructed in her crop, she won't feel hungry. If the obstruction is in the gizzard, not much food can be processed and sent into the intestines for absorption, so she is technically starving.

To verify my guesses, withhold food and water after bedtime, and check her crop in the morning before she eats anything. If her crop is full in spite of no food all night, then she's likely impacted. Here's information on how to deal with a crop disorder. https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...w-to-know-which-one-youre-dealing-with.73607/

 

[M Brennen]

Her crop never seems to empty. It feels very squishy. I have felt a few hard pieces at times, but mostly squishy. It doesn't have a sour smell to it. I had another bird die a month ago. She was skinny also. I suspect what might have happened is that they ate the rope hung a cabbage from. Could that cause these problems? If so, do I need to manually empty her crop?

 

[Aapomp831]

Her crop never seems to empty. It feels very squishy. I have felt a few hard pieces at times, but mostly squishy. It doesn't have a sour smell to it. I had another bird die a month ago. She was skinny also. I suspect what might have happened is that they ate the rope hung a cabbage from. Could that cause these problems? If so, do I need to manually empty her crop?

No, don’t manually empty her crop - even veterinarians can kill a chicken this way because it can cause them to aspirate. Read the article that azygous attached above. I wish I had known this, I accidentally killed the last chicken I vomited bc she ended up aspirating.

 

[M Brennen]

Thanks. I did read the article and start with the oil.

 

[azygous]

That poop did appear to have jute fibers in it. That would definitely cause this problem. You may need to use a stool softener, and the attack on this issue should be aggressive. Give two teaspoons of oil at a time, massage to try to break up the mass, then more oil and more massage. After a couple rounds of this, you should feel the mass start to break apart. Give the stool softener and more oil, let it rest for half an hour, and do more massage. It should be pretty dissolved by this time. If not, crop surgery may be the next step. I can walk you through that.

 

[M Brennen]

That poop did appear to have jute fibers in it. That would definitely cause this problem. You may need to use a stool softener, and the attack on this issue should be aggressive. Give two teaspoons of oil at a time, massage to try to break up the mass, then more oil and more massage. After a couple rounds of this, you should feel the mass start to break apart. Give the stool softener and more oil, let it rest for half an hour, and do more massage. It should be pretty dissolved by this time. If not, crop surgery may be the next step. I can walk you through that.

Would it make sense to put oil in my water for all my birds in the event more of them are experiencing this? This bird is the most severe.