looking for help, our favourite chicken is sick, strange yellow, green and white slimy diarrhoe, nev

[mellinda]

Hello everyone

I'm looking for help concerning our 7 year old chicken Louise. I'm not sure what race her species is called in English, https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mechelse_koekoek . Please excuse my possible orthograph mistakes or tenses mistakes, English is not my mother language.

This morning my family members discovered our favourite (and sadly only chicken left), has got diarrhoe.
We've never seen anything like it.
The color looks slimy, like a white-yellow egg yolk.

She was very passive, sad sadly not on her nest but somewhere else in the chicken run. Normally she's been already outside at that point of the day. We saw the egg-yolk looking diarrhoe. I included some foto's in this post. We are very worried about her. the diarrhoe was yellow, white, and green from colour. Also were the white pieces flubby. No worms were visible with the eye. We noticed she's constantly farthing.

In the afternoon i got her to eat very well, she luckily drinks very often but she seems to sneeze a bit out. For the rest she gets a good amount of fluid inside her body. When i came look back for her she layed a perfect egg. The day before she also layed a perfect egg. Not sure if it can be a factor, but tonight was there a heavy thunder and lightning for several hours... Now i got her walk outside herself by leaving the big door open of her run. It's hot outside (30°C). Her tokking 'sound' has become back but she seems hoarse. She still is passive but seems a little more lively.

Is there anyone who can please help identifying what's wrong with her so we can do anything to help the animal?
Bringing her to the vet is not an option since she has a panic fear for other people except us.
Thank you on advance.

Yours sincerely

mellind

 

[Eggcessive]

Welcome to BYC. Before you said that she has laid 2 eggs in 2 days, I would have thought that she may be suffering from internal laying, because of the yellow urates in her droppings. The green droppings is usually due to not eating enough food. She still may be an internal layer, but I would make sure that she eats her chicken feed, and you may want to mix a little plain yogurt and water into it. Give her some egg as well, either chopped cooked egg, or raw mixed into her feed. Does she have any difficulty walking or getting onto her roosting perch at night? Here are some articles to read about internal layers and egg yolk peritonitis:
http://www.chickenvet.co.uk/health-and-common-diseases/egg-laying-issues/index.aspx
http://scoopfromthecoop.nutrenaworld.com/tag/laying-issues/

 

[mellinda]

thank You very much for Your response. Actually she lays almost every day a egg, she's doing that since 2à 3 weeks. We were thinking that she was in her menopauze or something like that because of her age and because she didnt lay any for 9 months.This week we had every day eggs. All with shell. She drinks more then enough and eating goes a little harder but she does eat quite good. Yesterday she got 2 cherries (without pit) and a strawberry from me alongside 3 hands of chicken feed.Today she seems a bit better, she doesnt have like yesterday any weakness standing. But she still seems a bit off... If i leave the big door (not the small where she goes in and out herself, that's a little square of 30 cm on 15cm), i can tempt her like yesterday to take a walk outside, if i dont open it she stays in. While she's Always first to go outside by morning.
This morning she seemed a bit better, but her crest i think it's called (that red thingy they have on top of their head and unter their chin) has become a little purple in the top with the processing part, very small , maybe a mm or a mm and a half...Almost not noticable. Also i checked yesterday and today, no little piece of eggshell in the diarrhoe or in the barn. And the shells were quite sturdy of the previous 2 eggs.


I will try to give her some yoghurt later on the day like you adviced. I fed her this morning some rice along her normal chicken feed.
Can it be some stragiathella yoghurt? Stores are closed today and only yoghurt we have is a sour yoghurt of straghiatella i'm afraid.

 

[Eggcessive]

Strawberry yogurt will do for today, but the plain contains more probiotic cultures. I have also used cottage cheese and sour cream. The darkening of her comb and wattles can be a sign of a weakening heart, or problems breathing. What country do you live in? It is so nice to meet people from all over the world.

 

[mellinda]

I live in Belgium. Our familie is crazy about that chicken (me too) so i wanted to look for help for the sweety where-ever i could. Today again another hot temperature of +30 degrees.Glad it's cooler in her barn.

She improved today. Very much isnt the case but still a good improvement comparing with yesterday. Much more vitality.
The rain was welcome, she started to improve faster when the temp dropped a few degrees i've heard. She's been forgiven that she's still a bit passive, in her barn it aint so hot as outside, but even us humans are not very active due to the heat at the moment.

Since i needed to go away an entire morning, day and evening continuously, the others watched her. According to them they didnt find anymore stool of the picture i posted in the barn. Also outside they searched the whole area. I came home at night, couldnt check her by myself, will do it asap tomorrow. Almost midnight here, doesnt seem smart to wake her now since opening the wooden 2 meter high door at her barn will wake her.

She sleeps in a bricken barn with a plate roof like they use for building real houses that's isolated with ismo at the ceiling so it's not too cold at winter and not too hot in the summer.
She got 4 windows from a real old house, so proud my parents builded that for their generation chickens back then I remember when i was in my teenages, younger and even 2 max. 3 years old the chickens moved at winter after the big windows. All that chickens (4-5) hoping for a sunray and sleeping in enjoying the sunlight and the warmt at wintertimes.... When they at summer were hiding in the shadow part of the barn, we could look inside through these big windows without disturbing them or just check on them without entering.

Yesterday, tomorrow and noon they continuoud giving her rice and yoghurt. I asked them to stop the milk for making the food better swallowable and use water. Family members confirmed they stayed always with her till she drank. Not sure wheter to believe it or not, but another one told me she saw her doing the stool and it wasnt really diarrhoea anymore, she described it as not so consistent as poo that comes out smoothly but not all too flat, only at the borders a bit and white-grey color.
When i asked them if they felt the crop, they told me they forgot........ Also they didnt notice the small piece of purple was still there, agreed, it was very small and not everyone still has a good eyesight here, but will check for that also myself tomorrow.

Tomorrow or monday we are going to put her outside and forbid here to get in. We'll clean all her barn again and after that we'll wash the walls, floor and ceiling with some stuff my parentst their old generation used to desinfect the whole place in the hope killing and eliminating multiplying of the possible infestations (not harmfull for the chicken herself). If it's true the diarrhoe and the strange color has stopped, i dont think it's necesarry for her stool the get investigated. But Monday there is a (not sure how its called, too tired to remember the name in english: merchant specialised for farms and normal families like us that sell specialised food, health supplements and everything for pidges, chickens, other birdfamilies and animals that can fly). I know they sell things like antibiotics and other meds for these animals too. Closed in the weekends sadly... Tracked one down with a good rep in the area.

I hope our sweety is out of the woods for now. If tomorrow she's still doing ok i think her chances of making it are fairly good.

 

[mellinda]

smily should come after our family is crazy about this chicken (me too) xD not after i'm from belgium

 

[Eggcessive]

Hopefully, she is just reacting to the hot temperatures, and is just dehydrated. I really hope that she improves.

 

[mellinda]

She did improve today

Things are going great at the moment with her. She's still not nearly the old, a bit slow and not active, we had in the middle of the day another thunder and lightning orchestra... I went searching her in the rain, she was all wet, hiding under a bush in her area outside the barn. Lucky it was 25° outside, a bit cooler but not too cold. I lifted her up and let her walk herself into her barn where she directly went to her feeding place inside. I closed the door after that and watched through the big windows,she stayed inside and went directly to the metal feeding container.

She moved out herself today. Also no signs anymore of the strange colored diarrhoe, even not any diarrhoea at all. She didnt make as much improvement compared to yesterday and 2 days ago, but she's more lively, she gladly eats the yoghurt and rice, she eats by herself now from her old grains and she drinks without. Dad thinks its because he gave her 2 wallnuts today (he has the habbit he told me today he holds 2 wallnuts in his pocket of his working pants every day for her and gives her it).

Her crop is very thick at morning, noon and night but according to my old folks (litterly old parents), she always had such a big round crop because she eats alot.
She picked bugs, insects and grass today outside. Even a fallen cherry. She's stil lnot greeting and singing as much, but a little improvement over past days and she's still hoarse but every now and then a little sound that isnt all THAT hoarse...

Kinda unsure now after the events a couple of days ago. Mid-summer we were planning (not decided yet due to we dont know how she will react, if her personality will change and what if she's sick and she infests the others or the others infest hers (mostly concerned about that last one...) on getting 2 new young chickens.
It was a fact that even when we got her, we hold her in quarantine for 4 weeks, she infected the old chicken back then and all almost all died... Dont want that to happen with her now. There's no rush so maybe we'll just leave her alone. Our family members are not chickens but she's always appreciated it we come greet her several times a day, you directly notice she's Always glad to see you (not only for getting food )

 

[mellinda]

Ty everyone for your advice Today we found her 100% back like the old Louise. Running around lively, called from far when she heard us and all the hoarseness went away, she sings multiple times / min now and cockles constantly.

 

[mellinda]

with a heavy heart i must tell that she passed . She was doing so well and was back to the old Louise that we decided to go on a family trip of 3 days. When we came home today, we found her corpse laying outside a half meter right before the entrence of her sleeping barn... It looks like she just fell down and was instantly dead. The weather was superhot last 14 days, we're glad she passed now instead of later this summer when the heat would become worse. Thank you for your help everyone. We burried her. She'll be forever in our heart.