chickenpotter
Songster
First thanks to all you experienced backyard chicken keepers for your great information and help. I am new to chickens and this site has been most helpful to me as I raise my first small flock of 8 chickens. I am totally hooked and loving every aspect of chicken- keeping thus far. My chicks seem to be thriving and growing beautifully, all except one. My white EE hen developed very watery poop with u digested food in it about a month ago(they are 2 mos. now). I was worried when I saw all of the possible things it could be so I took her to my vet(there's an avian vet on staff). They did a fecal float-negative- , but suggested worming the whole group for good measure(panache 1ml each for 5 days).
I then read about slow/sour crop and checked her- sure enough she had a very large, squishy crop in the morning. I vomited her two days in a row and started giving the flock probiotics in their water every other day. I also gave the sick one, named Pearl, softened feed with yogurt mixed in once a day for several days. I also bought feed with probiotics in it and am mixing that in with the feed they are used to. Her comb was pale and she was always in the corner by herself. She also drank loads of water 3-4x as many sips as the others.
She has improved a lot! She is definitely more energetic, her comb has color, she is more assertive getting in amongst the other hens to feed, etc. her crop is no longer big and squishy in the morning. However, she still has watery poop with somewhat undigested food in it. Better than it was, but still not normal ( I have spent way more time looking at poop pictures than I could have imagined possible in my pre-chicken days!).
So my question to you experts is this: Should I keep doing what I'm doing and expect her to get completely normal, or is there something I could be missing that I should have checked out? I see that clostridium perfringens can cause watery poop. Also, fungal infections can cause it.
Any advice you can give would be much appreciated.
Here are 2 pics of her along with other members of her little flock. She is a beautiful white bird with green legs
I then read about slow/sour crop and checked her- sure enough she had a very large, squishy crop in the morning. I vomited her two days in a row and started giving the flock probiotics in their water every other day. I also gave the sick one, named Pearl, softened feed with yogurt mixed in once a day for several days. I also bought feed with probiotics in it and am mixing that in with the feed they are used to. Her comb was pale and she was always in the corner by herself. She also drank loads of water 3-4x as many sips as the others.
She has improved a lot! She is definitely more energetic, her comb has color, she is more assertive getting in amongst the other hens to feed, etc. her crop is no longer big and squishy in the morning. However, she still has watery poop with somewhat undigested food in it. Better than it was, but still not normal ( I have spent way more time looking at poop pictures than I could have imagined possible in my pre-chicken days!).
So my question to you experts is this: Should I keep doing what I'm doing and expect her to get completely normal, or is there something I could be missing that I should have checked out? I see that clostridium perfringens can cause watery poop. Also, fungal infections can cause it.
Any advice you can give would be much appreciated.
Here are 2 pics of her along with other members of her little flock. She is a beautiful white bird with green legs
