Incessant Diarrhea in a Silkie Hen

[mldoublee]

Hello chicken folk. I need your brains.

Patient: Silkie hen (pure bred if that matters). Unsure as to her age, but likely a couple of years old. Currently laying eggs.

Symptoms: Stinky sulphuric diarrhea. Drinking about 1L of water per 24 hours. Eating well. Gets around well. Seemingly no other issues. Occasional intestinal shed in droppings. No solid droppings. They are brown, not white or yellow. I have trimmed the feathers around her vent so they don't collect the droppings and become soiled and soggy. This is what originally alerted me to the problem: mucky butt. This has been going on since I got her from another lady this summer...unsure if she "came this way".

Treatments already attempted (not at the same time, one after the other): Corid for 5 days at 2 tsp/gallon. Calf Scour Bolus for 6 days at 500mg/gallon. Safeguard paste at 1 pea size amount about a week ago. No improvement on any of these.

I have also previously tried ACV in her water. Probiotics in her water and food. She is currently (and has always been) eating 16% protein layer crumble from Fleet Farm (Sprout brand). I have also tried oats and plan greek yogurt. Otherwise she had gotten occasional chicken scratch with the rest of the flock, some table scraps but not often.

I checked for Sour Crop the other night. Nice plump crop at bedtime, withdrew food and water, totally flat crop in the morning. Nor do I see any evidence of mites on her feathers.

The vet has told me that I probably need to wait a little bit before bringing in a fecal sample because of all the treatment I've given at this point. Does anyone have any other ideas as to what this could be that I haven't tried?

 

[azygous]

Is her behavior normal? One liter of water consumed per day is excessive. But it could certainly cause watery poop. She may have an organic problem or she is obsessive about water, the latter being a psychological issue. I had a hen once that was obsessed with drinking water her entire life, was normal and healthy, but she had runny poop all the time. She was never sick from the time I brought her home as a day-old chick to the day she died at age eight.

 

[mldoublee]

Is her behavior normal? One liter of water consumed per day is excessive. But it could certainly cause watery poop. She may have an organic problem or she is obsessive about water, the latter being a psychological issue. I had a hen once that was obsessed with drinking water her entire life, was normal and healthy, but she had runny poop all the time. She was never sick from the time I brought her home as a day-old chick to the day she died at age eight.

Yes her behavior seems normal, but here's the thing...I purchased her from a breeder earlier this summer so I'm not sure what "normal" should be. She's always been docile and low-energy. When out in the yard, she explores, gets around and scratches in the grass with everyone else so I THINK she's behaving normally.

I've just started weighing her in order to keep track of whether or not she's losing. Hopefully that will be enlightening one way or another.

That's interesting that you had one that was just nuts about water, and good to know.

 

[azygous]

Pecking and scratching and moving around al lot is normal behavior. Sick behavior is when a chicken stands in one place most of the time or goes off to the edge of activities and stares at a wall or corner. Shoulders may be hunched and feathers may be fluffed out.

Yes, it was a Speckled Sussex, and the first day after I brought her home as a day-old chick, she produced audibly "splorty" poops. I was fearful she had some sort of disorder, but she behaved normally. She just drank a lot of water, and this continued over her eight long years of life. All her poops were runny. Always.

 

[mldoublee]

I want to follow up here in case someone else finds this thread.

I ended up getting a fecal float done at a nearby vet clinic. The vet said she saw a small amount of Cocci, but wasn't convinced it was the only thing going on with Sasha (the silkie). She advised I give a Sulfa antibiotic along with direct Corid (dosage was 30mg/kg which worked out to 0.3ml once a day. Sasha weighs just under 1 kg). I am to do this for 5 days, take a break for 5 days, then repeat for 5 days.

Vet also told me that it's still possible that it's just that she's a Silkie and will "grow out of it" even though she's a couple years old. She said she had treated an entire flock of Silkies for diarrhea over this past summer. The owners ran the whole gamut of testing and they never found anything specifically wrong with the flock. They even called the State Department. Eventually the birds just "grew out of it".

I'm still in the midst of this treatment plan and will continue to update for the sake of future chicken owners!