Clostridium?!

[moonnippie]

I've had my 1.5 yr old EE in the house for 3 days. She had what we think now was a soft shelled egg bust inside her and was passing an egg white like discharge but also has watery green grainy feces. She's eating, drinking and acting normal. I've added oyster shells to her kennel and vitamin supplement to her water. I took a fecal into the clinic I do vet tech locum work for and we thought we identified a few tape worm ova so we treated her and my 3 other chickens with fenbendazol & praziquantel (10mg/kg each respectively) and will follow up in 10 days.

However I'm beginning to wonder if it is Clostridium as the egg like mucoid discharge cleared up after a few Epsom baths but the green watery poop has not.
Here are a few photos from last night.

 

[azygous]

Can you run a gram stain on the poop? That would tell you what bacteria you might be dealing with.

The green stuff could be bile or from eating green leafy matter. If she's eating normally, it would more likely be leafy greens in her diet showing up in the poop.

Behavior should tell you if this girl is sick. As long as she behaves normally, eating, active, vocal, as opposed to no appetite, lethargic and mute, she probably is fine.

 

[moonnippie]

No leafy greens here! It's January in southern Ontario. I do often offer the ladies fresh organic spinach a few times a month in winter, but not excessively. It's been a few weeks since she would have had some. We had a major thaw/flooding a week ago and then a snap refreeze. I'm wondering if she managed to dig up some possibly rotting scratch in the mud.

 

[azygous]

I've had hens sick with clostridium, after having dug up rotting matter from an anaerobic compost pile in early spring, and they were extremely sick extremely fast. The first one died within the first 12 hours, and the second responded to antibiotics because I caught it at the first sign of lethargic behavior which leaves no room for question that you're dealing with a very sick chicken.

But if you suspect clostridium, and since there's also a chance that infection in the oviduct could also occur after the internal broken egg, I would just go ahead and treat with an antibiotic for both possibilities.

 

[moonnippie]

Do you think metronidazole would be an ok option? Or should I find some penicillin? I've never had to treat one of my ladies before. I have a relationship with the clinic I locum at but he knows NOTHING about avians. Hah.

 

[azygous]

That's an excellent med for clostridium. What form do you have? A 250 mg tablet is good for a standard chicken, half that dose for a chicken weighing just a couple or three pounds. Five day protocol.

 

[moonnippie]

I've got tablets kicking around from the dogs and I can get more of those. She's 2kg. 250 once a day or twice and can I crush and make a liquid? How the Hannah do you get one of those down a chicken throat?!

Here's a fresh poop...

 

[azygous]

The poop could be an indication of infection in the oviduct, so an antibiotic is definitely indicated.

If you grasp the chicken's head from behind the neck, grasping the beak with thumb and middle finger, you can slip the fingers into the sides of the beak forcing it to open. Then pop the pill onto the back of the tongue and close the beak. The chicken will then swallow.

If your chicken likes peanut butter, you can dip the pill into peanut butter, coating it. She will then take it eagerly as a treat. My chickens go insane over peanut butter, and getting a pill down an uncooperative patient is a piece of cake.

 

[moonnippie]

Hmmm. Ok. I tried palpating for an impacted crop and feel nothing odd.

I'm not sure that she's eating her layer crumbles very readily, but she is eating treats.

 

[Eggcessive]

You may see that green runny poop when chickens are not eating much. Since she has a history of soft eggs, she could have an ovarian problem, or internal laying, which may make her listless and have no appetite. It can cause many symptoms such as runny poops, preferring to sit or lie down, and generally feeling bad. I would try to get a fecal float plus a gram stain on her poop by a vet if possible. If using an antibiotic, wait to eat any of her eggs for a period of time required by that drug. Some antibiotics are forbidden in egg layers, but many require a 3 wet egg withdrawal.