Hen with pale limp comb and lots of white poo stuck to butt??

[mommystayshome]

I noticed today that my hen's face and comb are very pale compared to my other girls. I also noticed that she has a LOT of whit poo stuck to her and she is acting kind of lathargic. I did see her poo and it is brown and runny. They have fresh clean water available to them all the time but do you think she is not drinking? I just switched them from LAyer crumbled to pellets could that be it? Hmmmm anyone have a suggestion?

 

[Glenda L Heywood]

brown runny manure denotes E.coli

E.coli is something chickens do get
Now, anytime you have any gut problems, the health of the beneficial bacteria that should naturally occur in the gut should be considered.

It's usually when the populations of those good
bacterial decrease that we see an INcreased in bad bacteria, thus gut illness. The good
bacteria literally crowd out bad bacteria, and some even secrete substances
that ward off over abundances of bad bacteria.

So during illness, and really any time there is
stress, you'll want to increase the number of good bacteria in your bird's gut. You can do
this quite easily through the use of probiotics
available over the counter, and some even at the grocery store.

(1 In this case, with a
probability of E. coli, you'll want to find a
"probiotic" that contains live cultures of
Lactobacilus (most commonly lactobacilus
acidophilus) as well as B. bifidum.

Bifidum is one of those bacteria that secretes stuff to ward off bad bacteria, in this case it specifically wards off E.coli.

(2These two live bacteria are usually found in Walmart yogurt.

Just make sure it's NOT artificially sweetened.
(Birds don't do aspartame well.) You'll want to
encourage your bird to somehow take 1 teaspoon per day any time during medication.

(3, nutrition during illness:
You can mix it up with boiled/mashed egg yolk for a combination of good high protein for healing,
super nutrition from the egg, and the good bacteria from the yogurt. Plus, this treat is soft and easily dissolved.

(4 vitamin E.
Vitamin E acts specifically against overdoses of E.coli. I'd use the oil capsules. 1-400 mg of people Vit E daily.You can put it in a small bit of food if you KNOW that bit of food will be eaten entirely.

When birds are sick, their crops/gizzards slow down, so it's really easy for their crops to back up and get impacted.

If you don't think your bird will eat yogurt (some dont, some love it),

tYou can pick up a non-dairy human probiotic from the human health food store.
You'll find them in the remedies for yeast infections. Liquids are easiest to use, though
you can crush tablets if you absolutely have to do.

Be sure to read the label to see
that it says that it contains both acidophilus (aka lactobacilus) as well as bifidum.
Nathalie Ross provided this excerp

Glenda L Heywood provided this

My favorite natural probiotic is this
for chicks over two weeks
adults all ages

NATURAL PROBIOTIC RECIPE
1 qt of dry crumbles
2 qts of milk any kind :ie sweet, sour, or buttermilk
(to make sour milk use 3 tbsp of apple cider vineager per gallon of milk, keep all unused sour milk in frig till used)
1/4 cup of natural unflavoered yoguart ( no artificial sweetner)

feed 2 tsp per chick each time you feed it
for adul chicen 3 tbsp each time you feed it:

what they will eat in 20-30 minutes
then clean milk feeder out and restore dry crumbles

use every day for a week after medicating them
then once a week will do for life of chicken
restores good gut flora to fight diseases