Diarrhea and messy rear

[nychicks]

I noticed this morning that one of my hens has diarrhea stuck to her rear fluff. It is not dried up yet...meaning it must have started occuring this morning or late last night.
It is hard to explain exactly if she is acting truly abnormal because I have been examining every move she makes =}....However...I would say she is less energetic than normal and does not seem to be eating as much as usual (I threw scratch down and she only ate a few pieces) She also seems to be drinking a lot.

Her vent does not seem particularly red or inflamed. (However, I have never examined a chicken vent as closely as I did this morning) It may be slightly swollen but it is pink.

The diarrhea also does not look like it is stopping her up but rather just sticking to her rear fluff. I also noticed that she has pretty runny diarrhea when I saw her poop before...

Any suggestions...what could it be/what could I do?
Thanks-

 

[silkiechicken]

How much scratch are you giving them? Too much can cause runny poo if they don't get enough layer in their systems. Could be lots of possibilities really. Just keep an eye on her for now and see if she improves or not. Ocassionally they do have runny poos. Maybe someone else may have more suggestions.

 

[nychicks]

I usually give them one scoop of scratch a day to get them back in their coop. I gave them a scoop before just to see if she would eat any.
My husband thinks she may just have an upset stomach from eating something outside (they free-range for most of the day)
Do chickens get upset stomachs?
I was just worried because chickens seem to go downhill quickly when they are sick.

 

[RepoBob]

I just noticed this with one of my Orp hens yesterday. I hope you don't mind me asking a question in your thread, but we are going through the same thing. Hopefully this will help both of us.
Just as NYChicks says she has diareha on her rear fluff. What do you do to clean her? Its pretty cold here 20's or so. I don't know if I should clean her with a damp, warm cloth and dry her off with a towel. Will that make her damp & cold? I have wipped what I could with dry paper towels, but it still looks uncomfortable for her.

Thanks NYC. Hope this helps you too.

Bob

P.S. I'm sure its because of to much cracked corn for me. Thanks Silkichicken

 

[BabyGirls]

I am so glad to see this post as one of my Girls has had a bad case too for about 2 weeks now. It is all stuck on her fluffy feathers.

(1) How do you clean this area (she will NOT be a willing participant) (2) Is she sick? She doesn't want to come out of the coop much

I did fill up an entire feeder with Corn scratch? I didn't know it could make them sick? I thought it provided warmth for them in the winter months?

Would yogurt work or high protien cat food to get her back around? I don't know who else to ask and my heart is breaking as she looks sick

 

[RepoBob]

I've kept mine off the scratch now for a couple days. I feed them some bread and lettuce today, along with their 24/7 layer feed. I gave her a bowl of snow for herself

today. Seems the diaharea is better, at least I didn't see any anywhere. Her rear fluff looks much bettr. I think since I got the worst of it off she cleaned the rest. She's behaving like normal it seems today.

 

[krturpie]

Same thing happened here today. One of my EE pullets just started getting really lethargic, with watery white and green stools (like a much smaller bird). She ate and drank quite a bit out of my hand, and seemed perk up for a while after that. But just a soon as I starting thinking about putting her back with the flock she started falling a sleep again. She's sleeping on a roost in a cage in my house for now, where I can keep an eye on her.

I was thinking it was maybe the new treats I that tried yesterday (cauliflower and asparagus), but she did eat a much as the others. I hadn't thought the scratch would be problem though. Maybe I try cutting back.

 

[RepoBob]

Oop's wrong thread. Sorry, I'm still half asleep.

 

[dlhunicorn]

If you notice your bird have "diarrea" >I prefer to use the term "abnormal" droppings) then DO separate (to monitor their water and feed intake and any other symptoms ) but please... do not change their basic diet by giving them a bunch of treats or add things to their diet without careful consideration of WHY you are doing so! Changing your birds diet will cause intestinal upset .
Ill birds need the balanced nutrition in their feed (and perhaps the problem has been brought on or aggravated by them eating too much of the scratch that is now available due to the cold weather >many birds will snub their rations to try and pig out on the scratch they know is coming!)
When you separate to a warm and temp stable environment, then the scratch will no longer be "necessary" and you can make their boring ole standard rations more "palatable" by adding just enough cooked oatmeal through it to make it all clump together (do NOT give them a bowl of cooked oatmeal with a bunch of treats in it!). This will not only aid in digestion (according to a paper by Cornell university) but when the feed clumps together it means they get more in every bite (sick birds will often eat less which will contribute to any deficiency issues) and it will also be moist to aid in preventing dehydration. DO add a supplement like AviaCharge 2000 and offer live culture yogurt free choice. Then monitor the droppings and any other symptoms. A faecal float at the vets will turn up any parasite or cocci issues.

 

[krturpie]

Thanks dlhunicorn. It's very tempting for us newbies to want to experiment with treats; find out what they like. Rest assured however, we did not give a sick bird anything but standard rations and a bit of oatmeal. Fortunately, our pullet seems to be doing fine now. I think it was likely a case of indigestion.

Could you give a citation for the paper you mentioned? It sounds like a rather interesting read.