Excessive thirst and diarrhea - Please help Daisy! Update

Thanks guys!

As a desperate measure last night I gave her 0.8ml of Imodium to try to stop the diarrhea. That was just before I put her in with her 3 flock mates to sleep (she was getting too stressed as it started to get dusk). Then I worried through the night wondering if I did the right thing!

Well Daisy is looking much perkier this morning! I do not have the test yet.
 
Did you ever find out what was wrong with your bird? I too have a 22 month old BR hen showing exactly the same symptoms.
 
"Excessive Thirst and diarrhea - also emaciated" I too wish we could read the final outcome of this thread. I just had to put down a hen who had been exhibiting these symptoms for 21 days! Vet intervention did nothing and now I have another hen starting to act the same way. They had all received Fenbendezole about a month ago? This hen is moulting. she is 2 1/2 years old and is a good layer. She is not laying.
I will do the yogurt today and vitamin water. I sometimes also add "spirulina". I am monitoring her crop and it doesn't seem to be hard. I really don't want to watch the same suffering the other one went through before I had the courage to help her pass....
 
"Excessive Thirst and diarrhea - also emaciated" I too wish we could read the final outcome of this thread. I just had to put down a hen who had been exhibiting these symptoms for 21 days! Vet intervention did nothing and now I have another hen starting to act the same way. They had all received Fenbendezole about a month ago? This hen is moulting. she is 2 1/2 years old and is a good layer. She is not laying.
I will do the yogurt today and vitamin water. I sometimes also add "spirulina". I am monitoring her crop and it doesn't seem to be hard. I really don't want to watch the same suffering the other one went through before I had the courage to help her pass....

I know this is way late...but, I think I might have found out what could be affecting these birds.
I found this thread because my La Fleche rooster was showing the symptoms listed here. He was drinking like it was going out of style, throwing up stinky smelling water, pooping watery almost clear liquid, and pooping sometimes with bits of green color in it. We saw him try to eat some, but all he seemed to want to do is drink and drink. He also felt a little thinner than normal, but not overly so, was very lethargic, and his comb had turned a darker kind of purpley color.

Ok, so here is what I tried before figuring out the problem:
I gave him Ivermectin wormer dose, treated with Co rid in his water (in case of coccidiosis), and separated him from the others. No other chicken showed any of these symptoms, only him. I was going to take his watery poo for a fecal test at the vet, but I kept reading and researching. Then DUH, it hit me! I checked his crop. I never thought about crop issues because he was drinking so much and I was focused on that and his watery green poo. So his crop was squishy and was mostly full. Sour crop. He was desperately, naturally trying to soften the mass by drinking excessively! The squishy crop skin was also reddened underneath the feathers and his breath smelled foul and he occasionally threw up nasty smelling liquid.

So, the treatment for sour crop began. I added a bit of olive oil to warm water, took a 1cc syringe, and carefully orally administered up to 3cc's of the water/oil mix. After letting it settle a few minutes, I took him outside and lowered his head towards the ground at about a 5o'clock level. Then work to massage the crop from the bottom towards his beak until liquid and some solids come out. You have to only massage for a little bit then slowly upright the bird so they can swallow and breathe-they cannot breathe when turned upside down. Continue another couple times until the liquid is almost all out. Then you give the bird a break for about 30 mins or so and repeat the water/oil mix, rest him, and then hang and massage his crop. You want to do this until the crop has no lump or squishy to it.

Continue offering water-don't take it away from your bird. Next you will want to start feeding plain yogurt, or plain yogurt with some feed really softened into it. Until they are ready to eat on their own, you may have to syringe it in. I also add some probiotics to the yogurt to help better fight the bacteria/fungus that built up in the crop.

So, I think this might answer the mystery of the previous posts about why the chickens exhibited those symptoms and eventually die. One, they can't absorb any nutrients because the food doesn't make it where it needs to go, plus they won't eat much anyway. Two, the bacteria that builds up in their crop makes them weaker and weaker and then the infection finally kills them unless treated.

I was so stumped as to why this was happening to a healthy chicken and none of the others. I thought if it was a disease or parasite issue, surely the others would have it too. I read this thread and many others before the light bulb went off to check his crop. Feathers can hide the redness and fullness of crop issues, so check crops often. Hopefully this information may help save the life of some chickens-check for impacted or sour crop.

PS: Long grass, strings, or hay can cause impaction or sour crop, so avoid having any of those available if possible.
 

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