Hen is suddenly "off" and has weird poop/diarrhea

[8hipchicks]

Hi everyone,

Our 6 month old, 5 lb. Aracauna hen named Josie-Marie isn’t quite right today.

She didn’t come tumbling out of the coop into the run this morning. I found her sitting quietly on the roost pole. She looks fine but is just quiet.

I noticed on the bedding directly beneath the roosting pole where she was sitting a rather small light brown egg. She’s an “Aracauna” that lays light brown eggs. We're not exactly sure how "regular" she is as a layer because most of our other hens lay light brown, too. Her eggs tend to be a bit smaller.

I picked her up to check for injuries (none) and set her down on the coop floor to make sure she could walk. She walks fine and her steps are sure, if a bit slow.

She walked out into the run but had no interest in the morning scratch and went back into the coop and drank some water.

I scooped her up and brought her inside and got her set up in a temporary situation.

She did a poop and it is really odd. In the center there was some solid waste but it is surrounded by a clear stuff that is almost an egg-white consistency.

She drank a large amount of water. She has no interest in her layer pellets or scratch. But she’s enjoying some organic, low fat, plain Greek yogurt.

She’s walking around. She’s quiet but not droopy. We notice that when you reach out to pet her or pick her up she's not doing that "squat thing" they do when are starting to lay.

Bedding is pine shavings and hay. Feed is layer pellets, yogurt, greens, tomatoes, fruit.

The only thing “unusual” (in her six months of life) is that we had torrential rain this past weekend with made the run quite mucky and wet.

I’m hoping she just has a little tummy ache from all the wet or some puddle water in the run but I don’t know if the poop/diarrhea described is of an alarming nature.

All other hens are fine.

Any insight is appreciated!

Pam

 

[lisameeks]

I have a two year old that started acting listless, exactly like you described, and had some mucus-y waste. First I checked to be sure she wasn't egg bound and then I read that I should check her crop. It was huge and felt like a squishy water balloon. I've decided she has an impacted crop. The advice I gathered for that was to put some olive oil down her throat (at first I got her to take it on some bread then she turned her beak up at that so I had to give it to her with an eye dropper). Then I massaged her crop. I set her up in a separage cage overnight. This morning, she was still listless and her crop was still swollen. So I held her upside down (kind of on her back with her feet toward the ceiling and her head down) while my assistant held her neck out straight and massaged her crop to get her to spit up. It took a while but she eventually vomitted up some stuff. The purpose is to get what ever is binding up her crop to pass. Her crop is still swollen. I'm going to feed her the plain yogurt this evening and perhaps do another milking. Anyway--sorry to unload my story but check the crop. I hope I'm doing the right thing.

 

[8hipchicks]

Thanks so much lisameeks for sharing your experience and insight. Josie-Marie has been drinking water and eating yogurt all day.

My husband worked on her crop this evening - he could tell there was squishy stuff in there but wasn't sure if it was "impacted". He massaged and she did some burping. She looking much perkier but still has no interest in solid food.

Her poop is still the same.

I hope your chicken is doing better. Please let us know.

Pam

 

[lisameeks]

Glad to here your chicken is hanging in there. My hen's crop makes noise when you pat it like it's full of liquid. We put more olive oil in her and tried the upside down routine again but nothing came up this time, not even olive oil. She won't eat yogurt. I just mashed up the yolk of an egg in it and brought it to her in her favorite pie tin and still nothing. I'm at a loss.