I have a buff orpington, about eight and a half months old, who decided to go broody back Dec. 1'st. She's sitting on 10 eggs right now, on a nest, inside a large dog cage (about 2 feet by 3 feet by 2 feet high, I think), inside the spare bedroom in our house since there is no other place for a broody to go in our small suburban place. The henhouse is full.
We were hoping it was just a first time broody bomb when she dumped a load a few days ago that had a whole lot of diarrhea as well as solids in it.
But after three days of not pooping at all, tonight she finally let it out -- three days worth of waste products, most of it liquid. The only solid residue in her poo was some undigested pieces of scrambled egg.
After she didn't seem to be eating or drinking or pooing at all (three days of no noticible activity), four days ago we pulled her out of her cage and brought her to a special area where she could eat, drink and poo. The theory was that she might not want to poo in her dog cage.
And that night, it worked. She ate a scrambled egg, drank a little water, and dumped ALOT of brownish colored liquid along with waste solids. Gag a maggot!
The next night, and the next, we brought her out, and she did eat the scrambled egg we gave her, and drank some water (spiked with some apple cider vinegar with "mother"), since I had read in several places about that being good for chickens with diarrhea. She ate and drank, then complained LOUDLY until we returned her to her eggs.
Tonight, we took her to the same place, at the same time, using the same routine.
But she didn't go to eating the egg right away. She just stood there, looked all around, and when she figured it was safe, she let out a ton of diarrhea with a few bits of undigested egg in it.
I'm already giving her apple cider vinegar with "mother." I spike her water with it. One tablespoon per gallon of water. What else can I do?
Oh, BTW, I found an old chicken book on the web somewhere, from back in the 1940s or thereabouts, which claims that broodies who feel confined sometimes become diarrheaic. I have not found any other source that says that, but I guess I'm wondering if this is psychosomatic, or if this is a real illness. She is pretty much confined to that dog cage, because we have no place else for her to go.
We were hoping it was just a first time broody bomb when she dumped a load a few days ago that had a whole lot of diarrhea as well as solids in it.
But after three days of not pooping at all, tonight she finally let it out -- three days worth of waste products, most of it liquid. The only solid residue in her poo was some undigested pieces of scrambled egg.
After she didn't seem to be eating or drinking or pooing at all (three days of no noticible activity), four days ago we pulled her out of her cage and brought her to a special area where she could eat, drink and poo. The theory was that she might not want to poo in her dog cage.
And that night, it worked. She ate a scrambled egg, drank a little water, and dumped ALOT of brownish colored liquid along with waste solids. Gag a maggot!
The next night, and the next, we brought her out, and she did eat the scrambled egg we gave her, and drank some water (spiked with some apple cider vinegar with "mother"), since I had read in several places about that being good for chickens with diarrhea. She ate and drank, then complained LOUDLY until we returned her to her eggs.
Tonight, we took her to the same place, at the same time, using the same routine.
But she didn't go to eating the egg right away. She just stood there, looked all around, and when she figured it was safe, she let out a ton of diarrhea with a few bits of undigested egg in it.
I'm already giving her apple cider vinegar with "mother." I spike her water with it. One tablespoon per gallon of water. What else can I do?
Oh, BTW, I found an old chicken book on the web somewhere, from back in the 1940s or thereabouts, which claims that broodies who feel confined sometimes become diarrheaic. I have not found any other source that says that, but I guess I'm wondering if this is psychosomatic, or if this is a real illness. She is pretty much confined to that dog cage, because we have no place else for her to go.
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