is my chicken sick or just bullied?

[NewFlockOnTheBlock]

We have a sweet, 3-4 year old hen named Spice Cake who is having some symptoms and we need some help figuring out what's wrong with her. Here's what we're seeing:

• She started laying again in January, then stopped after a few weeks. The eggs were completely normal while she was laying.
  
• Very runny poop that is mostly water or mucus with only small bits of greenish solids. The liquid part of the poop varies between clear, greenish, and yellowish.
  
• She is mostly out and about with the other chickens but spends more time than others just standing and resting, or sitting on the roost. Her posture appears slightly hunched over.
  
• I do see her eating from the feeder, pecking at the ground, and eating snow. She has a good appetite when I bring her inside and feed her treats such as scrambled eggs or old bread, although she is more picky than our other chickens. For example, they all go crazy for ground meat or plain Greek yogurt while she will only eat a little meat and couldn't care less about the yogurt. However, when I bring treats out to the entire flock and all the chickens run up to me to see what I've got, she rarely comes near, and when she does, she stays off to side and rarely eats anything.
  
• Her breastbone is easily palpable, which I believe is a sign of being underweight, but otherwise she looks OK in terms of feathers, eyes, legs, etc., and does not feel too light when I hold her. No bad breath. Her crop feels/looks small but otherwise normal.

We had our state lab test the flock's poop for parasites and cocci after these symptoms began (I made sure that some of her poop was in the mix) and the test came back negative. Is there something else we should be testing for? Someone suggested clostridium but when I asked the state lab's vet, she said it was very rare in our part of the state, in her experience. We could still have them run the test but I would think that if we had clostridium, Spice Cake would not be the only one affected.

Spice Cake is definitely at the bottom of the pecking order (along with one other hen who may rank the same or slightly higher) and this was the status quo even before we noticed the odd poop and some of the other things I listed above. So, do you all think that all the issues are simply due to bullying? E.g. it could be that she won't jump into the free-for-all with treats because she'd only get chased away, and perhaps her poop has so few solids and her breastbone sticks out because she is not getting enough food?

We put her on oxytetracycline just in case it is an infection. She's only been on it for 2 days so far so it's too early to tell if it's going to work. We plan to continue it for a total of 14 days.

Here are some pics of our girl and her poop

 

[Eggcessive]

Sorry to read about your hen. It is good that you did get a fecal float on your chickens to look for parasites. Clostridium is in the soil everywhere, but I think they have to look for it with a gram stain. Her poops could have yellow urates or some egg yolk material in them, and the green is from not eating much. Yellow urates can be a sign of liver problems or ascites. I would just try and offer her some foods she likes. The cooked egg, and some wet chicken feed is good. Some like liver or tuna/salmon in small amounts. I use a little canned Friskies cat food pate as well to tempt a sick hen to eat. Everything in small amounts except for chicken feed of course. At her age she could be starting to have some reproductive disorders. I have a bunch of 6,7, and 8 year old chickens, and many stopped laying years ago. Each year, I lose a couple, but it helps to do a necropsy to look at what was going on inside.

 

[NewFlockOnTheBlock]

Her belly doesn't feel distended but it could be an early stage of ascites?

I like your food/treats suggestions! We are wary of tuna due to the mercury but do feed it occasionally (once a week max). Most of our chickens also love sardines (canned in water). We'll see if she goes for them.

We'll continue the oxytetracycline for now as we've had good results with it in the past for salpingitis and mycoplasma. Since it's a broad spectrum antibiotic, perhaps it will help if she does have a bacterial issue. And, we'll plan to bring her inside every day for a few hours (possibly overnight) so she can get some treats and spend some time in peace away from the other hens.

 

[Eggcessive]

I have necropsied a hen with ascites that was not distended. That may have just been from liver disease. The yellow in the urates sometimes is hard to tell from egg material in the poop. Let us know how she feels later.

 

[NewFlockOnTheBlock]

Thanks, I'll try to remember to post an update in a few weeks.

I wonder if there is a food connection. We adopted six hens, including this one, from another family that was moving out of the area, about nine months ago. They were said to be 3 years old at the time and their former owners warned us that they were no longer laying much. They said that some days they got several eggs, some days just one, and some days, none. This was fine with us (we just needed more hens for our rooster) but I was surprised because our friends who first got us into chickens said that their hens were still really productive at that age.

Both our adopted hens (at their former place) and our friends' hens had nice coops, access to pasture, and occasional treats. The only major difference I can think of is what they were fed. Our friends feed Scratch & Peck, a local, organic whole grain mix with added vitamins, minerals and supplements. Our adopted hens' former owners fed layer pellets from one of the major manufacturers along with scratch, also produced by a major nationwide manufacturer. Our adopted hens are Buff Orpingtons and what looks to be either Rhode Island Reds or some sort of RIR hybrid; our friends also have these breeds as well as several others. It looks like our friends' hens have aged a lot better than our adopted hens, at least in terms of laying. In fact, only one of the six is currently laying. Two-three others started laying around mid to late January, then stopped after a few weeks of fairly irregular production. Could the early decline in egg-laying and the health issues be related to what they were fed for most of their lives?

 

[Eggcessive]

Most layer feeds have a balanced mix of nutrients plus vitamins, minerals, and probiotics. But if they were feeding a lot of scratch grains, that would dilute the good nutrients in their feed. There also can be a lot of variability with how others care for their chickens, feeding off the ground, not cleaning waterers, feeding scraps, etc. Bouts of coccidiosis or worms, even poor air circulation can cause problems. Getting outside on fresh grass to roam around daily is also good for them.

 

[NewFlockOnTheBlock]

UPDATE: Well, it looks like our girl is dealing with either ascites or liver issues after all. She's been on the antibiotic for 5 days now and it does not appear to be making a difference. We will continue for a full course (probably 10 days) but I have a feeling it's not going to solve the problem.

She does not appear to be in acute distress but she is definitely more subdued than any of our other chickens, and eats a lot less. She readily eats foods that she likes but can only eat a little bit at a time before she needs to take a break. She also needs food broken up into very small pieces, and has no interest in chicken feed. For the past couple of days, she's been eating cooked brown rice, roasted spaghetti squash, scrambled eggs, and ground-up oatmeal - which actually sounds not so bad, for either a chicken or a human.

We're keeping her mostly in the house for now although we take her outside for the afternoon so she can spend several hours with the other chickens. We're trying to balance giving her time to rest indoors, where she doesn't have to keep up with the flock and pretend like she's fine to avoid getting bullied, and letting her spend time with the flock so she can do normal "chicken stuff" and so that the other chickens don't gang up on her after an extended period of time away.

Does anyone have any advice for this situation? Is there anything we can do in terms of treatment or supportive care? Should we let her be outside more, or, conversely, keep her in the house full-time? Are there foods we should avoid giving her?

 

[Shellvegas]

UPDATE: Well, it looks like our girl is dealing with either ascites or liver issues after all. She's been on the antibiotic for 5 days now and it does not appear to be making a difference. We will continue for a full course (probably 10 days) but I have a feeling it's not going to solve the problem.

She does not appear to be in acute distress but she is definitely more subdued than any of our other chickens, and eats a lot less. She readily eats foods that she likes but can only eat a little bit at a time before she needs to take a break. She also needs food broken up into very small pieces, and has no interest in chicken feed. For the past couple of days, she's been eating cooked brown rice, roasted spaghetti squash, scrambled eggs, and ground-up oatmeal - which actually sounds not so bad, for either a chicken or a human.

We're keeping her mostly in the house for now although we take her outside for the afternoon so she can spend several hours with the other chickens. We're trying to balance giving her time to rest indoors, where she doesn't have to keep up with the flock and pretend like she's fine to avoid getting bullied, and letting her spend time with the flock so she can do normal "chicken stuff" and so that the other chickens don't gang up on her after an extended period of time away.

Does anyone have any advice for this situation? Is there anything we can do in terms of treatment or supportive care? Should we let her be outside more, or, conversely, keep her in the house full-time? Are there foods we should avoid giving her?

Greetings! I have a hen that is experiencing exactly what you described with Spice Cake. Every single detail. Poop looks the same. Not interested in chicken feed etc. I'm so depressed! She is my favorite girl and only 2 years old, a lovely yellow Buff Orpington. May I inquire if Spice Cake has made it through this health issue? Or has she passed? I'm also wondering what I can do feed-wise if she is in liver crisis.
Thanks!