Mucousy/watery poop, lethargic, and squishy crop

[KennyRae]

Yesterday my chicken Nellie was acting really lethargic and out of it, and I noticed that she had a squishy crop. I've dealt with sour crop before, so I waited to see if it would go down in the morning. It did not and she was still acting strange. So I placed her in a pen where I could keep an eye on her for the day and I noticed that her poop was very mucousy, watery, and mostly white with small amounts of what appears to be blood. Now I'm unsure as to what is truly wrong with her. Is it a crop issue, coccidiosis, or does she need de wormed?

I took a couple pictures of her poop, if you have any idea as to what's wrong please help because I don't have an avian veterinarian in my area and I'm not sure as to what's the best way to help her.

 

[TNchickies]

The last two pictures nearly confirm that this is a worm infection. I would search for cures/aids for de-worming. Good luck!

 

[KennyRae]

Thanks! Do you think it's worms or coccidiosis? We picked up corid last night but weren't sure what to treat for first since we don't have an avian vet near us and are unable to have a fecal done.

 

[TNchickies]

Since i cannot find any pictures to confirm that this is worms, i would go with coccidiosis, and start treatment with Corid right away.

 

[ChickenNamaste]

Her being fluffed up like that looks like how ours did when he had cocci.

 

[KennyRae]

Thanks again, I will start treating them with corid and see how it goes. We never had an issue with our girls until this year (there 2 yrs old now), we treated with sulmet for coccidiosis back in October because we thought something was wrong. The only change we've made is that we added 2 new chickens that we got as chicks. We introduced them last July, and they're still doing great. We have two chickens who have really poor feather quality and one of them is getting skinny. We've checked them for bugs and they don't appear to have any, so my question is could coccidiosis be causing the skinniness in only a couple of chickens and not the rest? Or is that more likely a worm issue? How can we improve the weight and feathers?

 

[ChickenNamaste]

Well, I am fairly new, only a year into chickens, so I am not comfortable confirming anything for you yet, but based on observations, her poo and stance, looks just like mine did, and my two that came to us with cocci.. Before I knew what cocci was and treated my first case of it, he wasn't eating much, and got very raggedy looking, the raggedy looking is a sign of cocci.. But I would think that worms could do that too. I hope someone more familiar can help you out better. I don't think it will hurt to treat for cocci.. I just traeted all of mine since they could have come in contact with the new ones cocci.. Had them in quarantine, but you never know.

 

[KennyRae]

Any information helps thank you! Hopefully I caught everything in time and the corid helps. Only two of my chickens look raggedy, and if that's a sign of cocci then i will make sure to treat the whole flock. So is coccidiosis a recurring infection? Is it something I'm going to always have to look for, because I was under the impression that the immune system fights it off unless exposed to a new strain. My chickens didn't have any issues as chicks, and didn't have coccidiosis as chicks or the whole first year, so I assumed they would have built up a sort of immunity to it. The two new ones that we added were kept in the garage for 3 months before we even exposed them to the rest of our 8 girls and they've been healthy the whole time. So is coccidiosis something you have to treat for like deworming a few times a year and is there special cleaning procedures for after treatment to prevent it from recurring?

 

[ChickenNamaste]

From what I understand, cocci is an ongoing issue, they can get it from wild birds. I haven't had any issues with my existing flock ever getting it, and we are deep in woods with sometimes hundreds of wild birds.. But 3 now have come to us a lil lethargic, and puffy, and undeniably sick with cocci, after a day of treatment you see some improvements, third day much better for all of them thankfully. I personally wouldn't treat them in the same manner as you would for worming, I would do it IF you suspect they have cocci. Also, for their feathers and overall health, I use rooster booster electrolytes in their water, they have it at tractor supply, I think it keeps the girls looking pretty happy and healthy

 

[ChickenNamaste]

And yes you definitely have to clean the coop thoroughly. It is a protozoa, so it stays alive in the poo I think.