Digestive problems, nothing seems to work, need help *update*

[centrarchid]

Combine what Elmo suggest with what I did.

 

[katiesdad]

I have a girl who has similar digestive problems--she's a healthy laying adult, but still watery poops...one thing I can say, chickens love yogurt--you might see if the beneficial intestinal flora help...

 

[yomama]

Have you wormed your chickens recently? I know that runny stool can be from parasites. I have a Blue Andalusian that always seemed to have runny, runny stool, yet she acted ok otherwise. I had wormed my group with Wazine, then 10 days later with Ivermectin. Finally, 2 weeks later, when egg withdrawel was finally over, she did a runny poo right next to me while I was outside. For some reason, I decided to kind of analyze it. Glad I did. I saw super tiny, what I believe to be round worms whipping around in her poo!

And I had just wormed everyone 2 weeks prior!! These things were tiny, no thicker than sewing thread. They reminded me of whip worms, but thinner. I went ahead and wormed my group again that night, and will probably give a second dose here soon. Beware who you take a fecal too, though. I have a great small animal doctor here in town, and take all my small pets to her. However, she doesn't treat chickens. She offered to do a fecal of chicken poo for me, but being unfamiliar with chicken poo, she did miss some parasites that my avian later caught. She did warn me ahead of time that she had never done a fecal on chicken poo before. I would think that parasites are parasites, no matter what the poo, but who knows.

 

[LaurelRidgeDreams]

I wormed the pullets with Wazine in July and Ivermectin in August. I'm going to really look at her poop and I will get a sample and take it to a local bird vet.

I believe this pullet layed an egg yesterday. She was also eating more last night. Meal worms and yogurt are on my list of things to try. I don't have a second pen for isolation. If she has had this watery poop for more than 6 weeks, wouldn't whatever it is probably not be contageous? She's the only one with the issue.

 

[elmo]

Quote:
An isolation cage can be something as simple as a dog crate. That's what I've used in the past. It's certainly possible that what's bothering her isn't contagious, but if it was me, I wouldn't press my luck. Sometimes all it takes is for something to stress a bird's immune system (winter coming on, etc.) and they can succumb to an infection previously resisted. We lost our rabbit to a pasturella infection that had been dormant for all of her life but when she was stressed by a loud party held by our pet sitter (without our knowledge), she finally got sick with it.

If it was me, I would not keep feeding her all these different things. I'd go back to basics and give her plain water and plain chicken feed. That way you could be sure that you're not adding to the digestive upset with all the treatments. If she's losing weight, I would offer hard boiled egg, mashed up. It's nature's perfect chicken food, after all.

 

[centrarchid]

In many ways, the diverse food options being considered, especially those of animal origin that have not been dehydrated, are much closer to natural than any dried, ground and nutrient enriched chicken feed. Especially the insects.

We have been pushing our poultry for quite some time on to energy dense feeds with way more carbohydrates than chickens / jungle fowl would normally encounter in nature. I do not think their physiology has had time to adapt completely to such a diet but they likely do have retained capacity to handle more natural foods.

Get the animals appetite up and continue to offer as staple the chicken in use. It is very likely the birds immune system will counter any microbe infection / embalance of gut and intestinal tract over time. If problem from a parasite of some sort, re-infection must be recognized as a possible cause of problem. LaurelRidgeDreams may want to check bird or have someone else do it and then take appropriate treatment if infection found. My appropriate treatment is culling birds that can produce / thrive in presents of parasitic infections. If bird is highly valued enough as an individual then more aggressive and tailored treatment maybe warranted.

 

[LaurelRidgeDreams]

Quote:
I've been thinking about this salty pellet comment. I did have a picking problem and about the time this pullet started with the watery poop, I began to give my 7 pullets 1/4 cup of soaked cat food, Meow Mix, each morning to raise the protein level. Do you think this might be her problem? I haven't given them the cat food in 3 or 4 days. She is definitely acting more energetic today. I about fainted when she stood up like a rooster and went after my BR about 30 min. ago. I will not give them any more cat food and see what happens.

 

[centrarchid]

Generally, chickens require less than 24% of diet to be crude protein (see Table 2 of http://www.afn.org/~poultry/flkman9.htm).

Cats have higher protein requirments than chickens (http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?c=1+1399&aid=701). Check label for your catfood, likely to be higher than required for cats. Selling point, more is better. Salts may also be higher, taste it.

Back off on catfood, nutrient profile, not just protein content could be problem. Nutrient profile is ratio of various nutrients to each other. Energy to protein ratio, fat to protein, vitamins, and minerals (salts) are nutrients where ratios can be a factor.

Your bird could also be getting over its health problem naturally.

 

[prairiehousewife]

Glad I found this. Was searching for any help as I have a chicken with projectile diarrea, too. Nearly got hit this evening as I was closing up the coop. I've given the ladies yogart twice this week, as I've noticed this runny pooh problem for a while. Seems like just one or two have it. I can't be sure. I've had them about a month and got them from a neighbor. They looked pecked and not very healthy when I got them. I don't know very much about chickens, but I'd like to make sure she's okay and not deathly ill. I have no idea how old she is. I think she's a Red Production. Of those 6 chickens, they've all stopped laying. The weather has cooled off considerably these last couple weeks, so I'm thinking the egg laying is due to weather and stress of moving. The watery pooh really bothers me. Would it be safe to say crumbles, water and yogurt are okay then? Should just give her some more time maybe? I have a heat lamp in the coop. Perhaps I should start running that a bit at night? Could mice have anything to do with this?

 

[LaurelRidgeDreams]

I just updated my original post. I checked her crop this morning. It was the size of a golf ball and somewhat hard. I guess she' s impacted.