Need advice on EYP chickens and loose stools

[Blesser]

Hi, I recently had 2 girls die of EYP (not 100% positive on first but confirmed positive on second hen when I cut her open). I now have 5 hens, these are red sex links (combination of RIR and something else). They had mites on them so I bathed them yesterday and will dust them later today with a permethrin powder and redust in 10 days. I also cleaned out the coop yesterday, did a deep clean as I like to call it. One of my hens' feet are red, the others are fine. Here is a pic of her feet (sorry about the quality of the pic, my camera is not working right now and had to use an old camera)-

Red feet(Belongs to my bird Angel)
I'm not sure if the mites caused this because like I said she is the only with red feet. She also has quite a bit of feather loss and broken feathers , mostly on top and red skin patches. I'm thinking the mites were the cause.


Now lets move on to their stool.
Angel's stool first. She has the beginning signs of EYP. Will treat her with penicillin later. This camera doesn't have flash, I know what? So had to take all these stool pictures outside in the sun, unfortunately her stool is showing white on camera when actually it is the color of scrambled egg.


This is a picture of my other hen Diamond stool before penicillin(she has EYP).
This was taken a few weeks back with my good camera so it clear and is showing the right colors. Angels stool above has the color of this stool (scrambled egg). This was actually one of her best stools, some were almost all egg and no poo.


Now this is a picture Diamond's stool today. This picture is showing accurate color, no sign of yellow in this poo.
So the penicillin helped.


Next the remaining three hen's poop. These pictures are showing accurate color no sign of yellow but loose. These are on a plastic tray that was beneath the roost to collect droppings. I installed this yesterday glad I did.

This one looks okay beside being a little watery.


Rocks were to hold the plastic so it wouldn't tip over. Same as the others, stool loose.


And that all the poop pictures.
For now, lol.



So what do you think could be the cause of all these watery/loose stools?

And has anyone ever had so many cases of EYP for such a small flock,2 died of eyp and 2 currently have eyp. Thats over half my flock. In case anyone is wondering, EYP stands for Egg Yolk Peritonitis. And if your not familiar with it here is a link- http://www.avianweb.com/eggyolkperitonitis.html

I feed my Hens purina layena pellets, free choice grit and oyster shell and treats. They are also free ranged.

 

[speckledhen]

Quote:

I can beat that for you. I've lost 10-11 hens from EYP and internal laying, 8 of my original hens and 2-3 others, all except one being hatchery hens. It's very, very common. Another of my original hens died from ovarian carcinoma, though she lived almost until her 5th birthday. I have only one original hen left, who is now 6 1/2, and hasn't laid in over a year. I think she is the only one who may have just run out of eggs.

My breeder quality birds don't seem to suffer from reproductive malfunctions to that degree. Have never lost one to EYP, not yet anyway, not in almost 7 years of keeping chickens.

Hens are the only animal who develop spontaneous ovarian cancers like human women. Add that to hatcheries not caring one bit about long term health of their stock and you have a recipe for what you and I have experienced. It's very common, mostly in the egg-a-day types the hatcheries send out, the RIRs, production Reds, the sex links, Wyandottes, Orpingtons and Rocks.

A PhD in poultry science I was consulting about all the deaths at the time, with necropsy photos I sent him, told me perhaps it was a good idea to find stock from better places, so no more hatchery stock for me.

When they're very ill, you get lots of green poop with the white urates, runny poop, etc. It's just par for the course.

 

[Blesser]

I can beat that for you. I've lost 10-11 hens from EYP and internal laying, 8 of my original hens and 2-3 others, all except one being hatchery hens. It's very, very common. Another of my original hens died from ovarian carcinoma, though she lived almost until her 5th birthday. I have only one original hen left, who is now 6 1/2, and hasn't laid in over a year. I think she is the only one who may have just run out of eggs.

My breeder quality birds don't seem to suffer from reproductive malfunctions to that degree. Have never lost one to EYP, not yet anyway, not in almost 7 years of keeping chickens.

Hens are the only animal who develop spontaneous ovarian cancers like human women. Add that to hatcheries not caring one bit about long term health of their stock and you have a recipe for what you and I have experienced. It's very common, mostly in the egg-a-day types the hatcheries send out, the RIRs, production Reds, the sex links, Wyandottes, Orpingtons and Rocks.

A PhD in poultry science I was consulting about all the deaths at the time, with necropsy photos I sent him, told me perhaps it was a good idea to find stock from better places, so no more hatchery stock for me.

When they're very ill, you get lots of green poop with the white urates, runny poop, etc. It's just par for the course.

It's really sad about the health of hatchery birds and it makes me very mad to see these birds suffering. If I do decide to get more chickens I will look into breeder quality birds. Is there any breeds that you recommend? Moderate egg production and healthy is what I'm looking for.

 

[speckledhen]

I have had good luck with true Amerauanas. Mine came from Cree farms stock. They seem to be pretty healthy, though their eggs are not huge. My BBS Orpingtons haven't had any egg issues at all, though the hens tend to crop issues during hard molt for some reason. They originally came out of Sandhill Preservation parentage.

If you get a breed from the hatchery that is not the common egg laying type they sell, you may do better. I had two hatchery Brahma hens, same hatchery, not what most folks get for their higher production layers, though mine did very well. One just died at over 5 years old. She never had one health issue till the last four weeks of her life and we knew she probably had cancer. The Buff Brahma is still laying, same age, now 5 1/2.

The hatchery hens I had trouble with were Wyandottes, RIR, Buff Orp and the Barred Rocks, the most common you see at the feed stores in the spring. I have BRs now, but they are not direct from the hatchery, some even are heritage stock, and I have Buff Orps from Jody Hinkle, a good breeder of Orps in PA. I don't expect any of the same issues from them. The further you get from the hatchery, the better, in my opinion, based on my personal experience.

My BBS Rocks and my Barred Rocks are good layers. None are hatchery stock, though three BR hens are from hatchery parentage and one is the granddaughter of hatchery stock. Two of the BR hens are 5 1/2 and lay regularly, though they do take a long break at this age for molt.