EE has had liquid poop for over a year????

[urbanutah]

We adopted some backyard hens from a client almost 2 years ago. Our EE, Marge, has been a good and consistent layer and looks perfectly healthy, eats and drinks just fine and does not have a poopy or pasty butt. However, she consistently has very liquidy poop. It is early February in Northern Utah and the temperatures are approximately 50° during the day so this phenomenon is not heat related. She has these poops year-round. We feed our hens 16% Layena pellets, They get a good handful of high quality scratch every morning and are not fed scraps. They free range in our urban backyard every day. We have tried Duravet probiotics in their water and also give them ACV. We are completely perplexed by her constant liquid poop, all of the other hens have perfect poop. We did worm her in November and that didn’t seem to do anything at all and there is never any blood in her poop. Is it possible that this is just simply normal for her? We did take a sample to our chicken vet and there were no worms present and no coccidiosis was seen .

 

[DwayneNLiz]

that is very odd

does her crop empty completely at night

@casportpony come look at this poo

 

[casportpony]

Very strange. Looks like she not digesting it properly, but I have not idea why.

 

[Kenny_]

Poor baby. If she was a human I would say she needs some potatoes, bread, or rice.. something to bulk her stool up but she's a chicken so I have no idea what to say to her. Other than poor baby.

 

[urbanutah]

that is very odd

does her crop empty completely at night

@casportpony come look at this poo

It appears to, she's never had an enlarged crop and I can feel her breast bone, I've had a hen with a slightly impacted crop, which resolved on its own, but Marge does not seem to ever suffer from this.

 

[urbanutah]

Very strange. Looks like she not digesting it properly, but I have not idea why.

I agree. I've come to the conclusion that there must be something wrong with her digestive system and she just doesn't digest what she eats properly, but she looks healthy with shiny feathers and a nice fluffy butt. Because she has never acted sick and scratches around the backyard with the other girls and seems "happy as a clam" I haven't been overly concerned. That being said, I am well aware it's not normal and wondered if anyone had ever heard of this before or might have a suggestion for something I haven't tried?

 

[urbanutah]

Poor baby. If she was a human I would say she needs some potatoes, bread, or rice.. something to bulk her stool up but she's a chicken so I have no idea what to say to her. Other than poor baby.

I've actually given them both brown rice and white rice (cooked) and it didn't have any affect on her poop.

 

[DwayneNLiz]

What about some yogurt with their food, and some acv with the mother in their water to try to replenish good bacterias

 

[urbanutah]

I have tried plain Greek yogurt, which they love, but they can’t have too much because it causes loose poops in the other hens and really did not improve Marge’s poops at all. I only use ACV with the mother. I have never given our flock ACV without it. It is a perplexing situation and that’s why I reached out on the forum hoping maybe someone might have a clue as to what would cause something like this.

 

[DwayneNLiz]

Interesting

And you asked your vet?