EE hen unable to walk with runny yellow poo.

[kinnip]

Have you tried poly-vi-sol? It's got a lot of micronutrients in it. I've found that giving it twice a day, about three drops, helps birds with mystery ailments get through long enough to pass whatever's ailing them, or for me to figure it out. Is her poo still green? That is bile, BTW.

 

[rachel]

Okay, now Roxie seems to be on the mend, she's walking around eating vegetables and some yogurt, doesn't really want to eat feed. However another EE, the lowest bird on the pecking order (and I think she's not all there) has the same symptoms. I found her in the middle of the chicken yard when I went to check on them before I went to bed, I thought the other birds just wouldn't let her in the coop but she can't stand. I know she hasn't laid an egg in several days, but I thought it was just stress from being picked on so much. I put on a glove and checked her for eggbinding and there was nothing, but some runny yellow poop came out when I was done checking. I will be going to the feed store tomorrow to get some polyvisol, hopefully they carry it. Now I have her isolated in a small cage (I'm running out of places to put birds!) with ACV water and yogurt mixed with greens and vitamin E.

What do you think the cause of all this is? Do you think it's something contagious or that something similar hit the two weakest birds while they were already stressed from the heat? I'm worried about the rest of my flock. I'm glad that the first chicken seems to be improving rather than getting worse but the second chicken getting sick seems like a pretty bad sign to me.

 

[Judy]

I'm pretty sure the dark green poo indicates cocci, but the yolk colored poo surely indicates a problem with laying, as one would assume yolk colored poo is, indeed, yolk. Chickens will have some cocci and some worms; no avoiding this if on the ground, but as a rule they are not that compromised from the cocci except as chicks. She probably needs worming, if you do not worm on a schedule, but this is not necessarily the main problem, with the yolk colored poo. And worming is rough on them if already ill. Personally, I would assume that the egg problem is the core one. And I do not know that there is much you can do about this, since you have determined there is no broken egg just above the vent that you can remove.

These hatchery chickens are bred to make lots of eggs. I suspect this is also resulting in disorders of the egg laying system. Nifty (well I think it was Nifty) recently had a necropsy done on a hen that just dropped dead. It found a cancer of the reproductive system, which was evidently not an unusual occurrence.

You probably already knew at least some of this, but maybe some will help.

I wish you and your hen well!

 

[Judy]

PolyViSol is a multivitamin for infants and available at the drug store, but I doubt the feed store, at least around here. Here I must buy a generic version of it; I needed the pharmacist to help me find it. Get the type without iron, or so I have read here.

 

[rachel]

Update: Hen #2 died last night, she has always been a weak hen, in all honesty, I'm a bit relieved for her as the other birds did pick on her and she didn't have any friends in the flock. Also like I said before she was never "all there". Hen #1 seems to be doing much better, I'm not sure how long to leave her quarantined though. She's in a 4X8 pen inside the main chicken pen, so she can see her flockmates and everything.

Thanks about the polyvisol.

So do you all think that it's just coincidence from the really hot weather coming on that I had two birds get sick? I'm bleaching out the waterers and mixing D.E. in with their feed.

I have had 2 birds die in the last 2.5 years and one bird get sick twice, all three were EE's. I've only had 4 EE's total, so this seems like an extraordinarily high ratio, do you think it's just coincidence, or are they prone to laying-related deaths/illnesses?

 

[kinnip]

Sorry about your girl. Two birds suggests more than coincidence. Have you acquired any new birds lately? Do any of your birds have any other symptoms of illness, no matter how mild? Runny eyes? Sneezing? Maybe just a little slower than usual? Have you checked your feed thoroughly for moisture?!

 

[kinnip]

Sorry about your girl. Two sick birds suggests more than coincidence. Have you acquired any new birds lately? Do any of your birds have any other symptoms of illness, no matter how mild? Runny eyes? Sneezing? Maybe just a little slower than usual? Have you checked your feed thoroughly for moisture?!

 

[luvarabhorses]

Read about botulism and see if the symptoms coincide.

 

[rachel]

The paralysis part of the botulism symptoms seem very similar in the bird that died, and maybe the first one just fought it off better? Maybe the nerve damage would cause them to be unable to form eggs and would account for the yellow poop? It's an interesting idea. I already buried her, as it's hot and she was already attracting flies etc at 6am. I didn't notice anything about the feathers pulling out easily but I didn't know to check for something like that at the time. If it is botulism, what would I do for the rest of the flock (which all seems completely normal right now, knock on wood)?

In Phoenix there is no issue of wet feed, wet ground, wet anything. Everything here is dry as a bone, we haven't had rain since January or Feb. and there's no humidity. I do feed them a lot of leftover lettuce that the produce man at the grocery store gives me. Occasionally a slimy bit might get through to them.

I keep them with two muscovy ducks that have a little black plastic cement mixing tray that they bathe and sometimes poop in. The chickens sometimes drink from that. I change the water once or twice a day. The ducks have been around for about 8 months though. I also had a duck and 11 ducklings come through a couple weeks ago that I rehomed within 3 days, they were in the quarantine pen the entire time and they came from the same place that my other ducks came from (she was their mother) I suppose it's possible that they brought something bad with them that my ducks didn't bring 8 months ago, I just didn't really consider it at first because they all came from the same place.

 

[rachel]

Also, I have called our county agent about a necropsy. The lab for our county is actually in another county 2 hours away. It's not really going to be possible to get the bird to that lab in time to get anything done (also it looks like it costs at least $115 plus courier fees?). I left a message for the doctor who will call me back and discuss symptoms etc, I hope we can get it figured out. I will post what I find out, if anything, so maybe it could be a help to other people on this board.