Chicken suddenly lethargic and white runny poo - please help

eggsistential123

Hatching
Jul 15, 2025
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Three days ago, my 5 year old Black Marans chicken suddenly became really lethargic. She used to be really high energy and always run up to me when she sees me, but now she hangs back and moves very slowly. She stands or sits still with her eyes half closed, and has not been eating much. Her comb is droopy, and all of her poos are white and runny. She is barely touching her feed, but she will eat snack foods I give them (such as oats or watermelon). I am at a loss for what to do, and was hoping that someone would have some insight. Here are the things I have already checked:
  • Impacted crop or sour crop: Her crop feels normal, and I could not smell anything weird. There was a small lump about half the size of a ping pong ball when I checked earlier in the evening, but I could kind of feel the individual grains of food when I pushed it around.
  • Egg bound: I checked, but couldn't feel any hard lumps. I gave her a hot epsom salt bath two days ago and she did lay an egg yesterday, but her symptoms have not improved today.
  • Mites: I couldn't see any visually, but I did put a few drops of liquid ivermectin on the back of her neck.
  • Injuries: none that I could find.
I have 4 chickens in the flock, and she is the only one exhibiting these symptoms. She did have some abnormal behavior on the first day, when she kept drinking water but pooped very little. However, that behavior stopped after the first day and now she is barely drinking. I am trying to treat her at home as there isn't a vet that will see chickens in my area. Is there anything else that I can check or do to help her? Thanks for any advice :(
 

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Her droppings look a bit like egg matter and she is having a reproductive disorder. Was the egg she laid normal with a hard shell? I would keep an eye on her crop emptying each morning. In the photo she appears a bit large in her chest. Has she been wormed recently? Have you checked for lice or mites? Encourage her to eat some moistened chicken feed, egg, and fluids. Let us know how she gets along.
 
Her droppings look a bit like egg matter and she is having a reproductive disorder. Was the egg she laid normal with a hard shell? I would keep an eye on her crop emptying each morning. In the photo she appears a bit large in her chest. Has she been wormed recently? Have you checked for lice or mites? Encourage her to eat some moistened chicken feed, egg, and fluids. Let us know how she gets along.
The egg she laid was normal sized with a hard shell, she hasn't laid another egg since then. All of her poos have been looking like this for the last few days, is it possible that it is all unformed egg? I isolated her and just checked her again this morning and her crop does feel doughy, so I will try some of the doughy crop treatments mentioned in other forum posts for now.
 

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