Diarrhea in two birds. Need help with cause.

[Shanshan315]

One of my hens has a watery white diarrhea (similar to image 1) and another had a brown poop with what looked like maybe blood. They are all acting normal and eating/drinking. Any ideas?

 

[azygous]

A little more information would make the guesses we come up with have more chance of hitting a target.

What is your location? This contains lots of clues to climate and what might be happening locally with parasites in the soil.

Has this poop been happening for several days or did it just now show up?

What do your chickens eat? Do they free range? What do they eat when out of their run on their own?

The one poop sample contains what appears to be intestinal shed. This is normal, but it should not appear in every poop day after day. Blood in poop is a ruby red color, and definitely shouldn't be there. But either one showing up more than one day running is cause for concern.

 

[Shanshan315]

Thanks for the response. I didn’t know that about the intestinal lining!

I’m in New England. The weather just warmed up to about the sixties during the day. It’s very damp out.

I just noticed this poop today.

I have ten hens total. They stay in the run until about 4pm and then free range in the yard until 7pm. I feed 16% layer pellets that they have access to all day. In the yard they eat grass and bugs right now until more plants come up.

I do give a lot of kitchen scraps mostly fruit and vegetables, bread, cheese. They had ground beef for the first time on Saturday.

One of the things that had me worried was the hen with the runny white poop was getting picked on a little today by another girl and I was wondering if the other hen noticed she was sick. She’s not acting sick to me, but maybe the other chickens can tell?

 

[azygous]

The trouble with using poop as an indicator of health is that it's constantly changing according to the weather, diet, water intake, etc. The better indicator of well being is behavior. Chickens are normally very active, moving about chattering with one another and us, and when they don't, we notice.

When a change in behavior occurs at the same time as a change in poop appearance, then it rings an alarm. We need to watch that chicken and her poop closely. If she is "off" for two days in a row with a couple days of unusual poop, then it's time to take a closer look.

So, for now, keep an eye on the flock for behavior changes and if the hen with the white poop starts slowing down and the one that made the poop with the intestinal shed keeps making more of the same, then we need to assume something is making these chickens sick.

Spring comes with warmer wetter weather and that can cause coccidia blooms. You might want to get proactive and start the flock on Corid. Also track down an antibiotic just in case. Ask at Tractor Supply for fish amoxicillin.