molting hen watery poop (not emergency)

[guest226]

My hen is molting like crazy. She lost a ton of feathers in like 3 days and she is growing them back. Besides ocassional discomfort she is acting fine. She stopped laying suddenly and began to stop eating as much.

2 days into her molt, now she is slowing down on the feather loss, and her body is covered in growing pinfeathers. I noticed her poop was almost 100% water with small bits of poop. It is very hot (heat wave) and dry where I am right now, up to 100 degrees, but she doesn't seem to be drinking too excessively. My hens are staying cool, they have shade and cold water. They often dont even pant because I am very vigilant.

Her crop is very slow. Every day, I feel her crop. It feels full of food, and hard until i begin mushing it around. It is a mass of food that is just staying in her crop! I thought at first she was impacted, but upon breaking up the chunk it feels like just a bunch of loose chicken food. They don't even eat any long vegetable leaves or fibers, or grass, ever. Nonetheless Ive been gently massaging her crop to help her get the food down. Each morning it seems to go somewhat down, it is not getting bigger.
I normally check by the end of the day, but her crop is fuller and harder than normal. And this is odd since she doesn't eat as much anymore than she would normally. Her poop is very watery (NOT mucusy or milky) and she passes only small amounts of food dispite food being in her crop.

She is acting fine and is very energetic for a molting hen. I was wondering if a slow digesting crop is normal, since I know her energy is being occupied by regrowing feathers, but the watery poop has been going on for about 3 days. Any advice will be appreciated <3 thank you!

@Wyorp Rock @azygous @Eggcessive

 

[Debbie292d]

Molting is very stressful for a chicken, so a lot of this could be attributed to that, although I'm not sure about the slow crop. I would put her on probiotics, like the powder for water or sugar-free yogurt, Greek being the best. That could help out her crop and digestive system.

As for molting, I try to get more protein to all the chickens when one's molting as we make up big batches of scrambled eggs and no fair for just one to get that as they all love it.

 

[guest226]

Molting is very stressful for a chicken, so a lot of this could be attributed to that, although I'm not sure about the slow crop. I would put her on probiotics, like the powder for water or sugar-free yogurt, Greek being the best. That could help out her crop and digestive system.

As for molting, I try to get more protein to all the chickens when one's molting as we make up big batches of scrambled eggs and no fair for just one to get that as they all love it.

@Eggcessive @Wyorp Rock
her crop keeps remaining very full of food. it happened suddenly when she started her heavy molt. She’s on electrolytes and digestive probiotics but nothing works! I can’t feel any hard mass and when i massage her crop it just feels like im massaging a pile of food.

 

[Debbie292d]

Do you check before she roosts for the night and again in the morning to gauge the difference in how full she seems? My chickens are full cropped when they go to bed, and still not empty but a LOT less when they get up and go out for another day of free-ranging.

These are the two best articles about crop issues so you can learn about what to look for and what to try.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...w-to-know-which-one-youre-dealing-with.73607/

https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...ntion-and-treatments-of-crop-disorders.67194/

 

[guest226]

Do you check before she roosts for the night and again in the morning to gauge the difference in how full she seems? My chickens are full cropped when they go to bed, and still not empty but a LOT less when they get up and go out for another day of free-ranging.

These are the two best articles about crop issues so you can learn about what to look for and what to try.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...w-to-know-which-one-youre-dealing-with.73607/

https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...ntion-and-treatments-of-crop-disorders.67194/

Her crop in the morning is smaller but still full, like a small hard ball of food until I come in and massage it. Today especially it seems like the food accumulation is high because her crop is bigger and full like the size of a baseball. At first it’s hard then when I massage it around it is easy to break up and feels entirely like food just built up in there.

She is acting fine but this has been going on for 4 days or so and it suddenly started happening when she reached peak feather loss and when she started regenerating feathers.

tldr; her crop empties slower than she eats.

 

[TwoCrows]

I am sorry your girl is struggling.

How old is she? Do your birds free range at all? She could possibly have an overload of worms or Coccidiosis. Have you treated your birds for either of these issues recently? Has it been a wet summer?

She could also have or had an impaction which led to a yeast infection. Does her poop or butt smell strong?

Has she ever had any laying issues? When did she lay her last egg?

Can you get a photo of the poop?

 

[guest226]

I am sorry your girl is struggling.

How old is she? Do your birds free range at all? She could possibly have an overload of worms or Coccidiosis. Have you treated your birds for either of these issues recently? Has it been a wet summer?

She could also have or had an impaction which led to a yeast infection. Does her poop or butt smell strong?

Has she ever had any laying issues? When did she lay her last egg?

Can you get a photo of the poop?

She is 3.5 years old. They do not free range but they have a very large run. I dewormed her a couple months ago but i don’t think she shows symptoms of worms (no lethargy) and none of my girls have weird poop but this one. She actually pooped last night and even though it was still watery, it was brown and had more food in it this time.
It has been a very dry summer but I sprinkle the dirt with a hose every day because they like dust bathing in it.
Her poop doesn’t necessarily smell strong and i will get a picture later today if i can. Her breath doesn’t smell.

The only ever laying issue she’s had was about 7-8 months ago when she became egg bound from a soft shell egg, but that was fixed with calcium and she laid normal eggs consistantly until her molt started.

Here’s a pic of the sleeping roost camera, circled is her poop compared to my other hens

 

[guest226]

Today she woke

I am sorry your girl is struggling.

How old is she? Do your birds free range at all? She could possibly have an overload of worms or Coccidiosis. Have you treated your birds for either of these issues recently? Has it been a wet summer?

She could also have or had an impaction which led to a yeast infection. Does her poop or butt smell strong?

Has she ever had any laying issues? When did she lay her last egg?

Can you get a photo of the poop?

Do you check before she roosts for the night and again in the morning to gauge the difference in how full she seems? My chickens are full cropped when they go to bed, and still not empty but a LOT less when they get up and go out for another day of free-ranging.

These are the two best articles about crop issues so you can learn about what to look for and what to try.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...w-to-know-which-one-youre-dealing-with.73607/

https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...ntion-and-treatments-of-crop-disorders.67194/

Today she woke up and her crop was very full and hard, I could break up the food in her crop when i massaged it.

Poop is still very watery. She is not eating because she probably is full. I’m taking her into the vet. She’s acting pretty much fine though

 

[TwoCrows]

She is 3.5 years old. They do not free range but they have a very large run. I dewormed her a couple months ago but i don’t think she shows symptoms of worms (no lethargy) and none of my girls have weird poop but this one. She actually pooped last night and even though it was still watery, it was brown and had more food in it this time.
It has been a very dry summer but I sprinkle the dirt with a hose every day because they like dust bathing in it.
Her poop doesn’t necessarily smell strong and i will get a picture later today if i can. Her breath doesn’t smell.

The only ever laying issue she’s had was about 7-8 months ago when she became egg bound from a soft shell egg, but that was fixed with calcium and she laid normal eggs consistantly until her molt started.

Here’s a pic of the sleeping roost camera, circled is her poop compared to my other hens

Today she woke


Today she woke up and her crop was very full and hard, I could break up the food in her crop when i massaged it.

Poop is still very watery. She is not eating because she probably is full. I’m taking her into the vet. She’s acting pretty much fine though

Is she being bullied away from feeders at all? Is she normally thin? The reason for this question is if they are being pushed away from the food and they get hungry enough they will consume anything they can find to eat like litter, oyster shell, grit, etc... which can impact the gizzard. They can also gorge if really hungry and this can stop a crop.

I think a vet visit is a wonderful idea. You might have them run tests for round worms, Coccidiosis, and a mouth swab for yeast or bacteria. Maybe even an xray to see if she possibly ate something she shouldn't have and its stuck somewhere. In her system.

Keep us posted!

 

[guest226]

Is she being bullied away from feeders at all? Is she normally thin? The reason for this question is if they are being pushed away from the food and they get hungry enough they will consume anything they can find to eat like litter, oyster shell, grit, etc... which can impact the gizzard. They can also gorge if really hungry and this can stop a crop.

I think a vet visit is a wonderful idea. You might have them run tests for round worms, Coccidiosis, and a mouth swab for yeast or bacteria. Maybe even an xray to see if she possibly ate something she shouldn't have and its stuck somewhere. In her system.

Keep us posted!

She is not bullied. The only thing I can think of is that she likes to eat feathers just for no reason, and there is an abundance of them due to the molt.

What I'm just concerned about is potential permanent slow crop or permanent blockages or something. I know its not a tumor probably, because this crop thing appeared suddenly.