oegbs with black tongues

[mr300win]

4 of my bantams have black tongues not the entire tongue just from the tip to the middle of the tongues 2 are in the same tractor and the other 2 are in a seperate tractor and have never had contact with one another there tongues were pink before last time i looked in there mouths wa atleast a month ago and were fine they are not acting sick and are healthy doing normal chicken things 2 of them are growing there feathers back from a molt i guess and have new feathers or quills all over ive never heard of black tongue and cant find anything on the net o do with it there tongues are still moist and they are drinking and eating fine any info would be great as i need to know what it is and if its something i can help them by treating

 

[mr300win]

please if anyone has any info or input please let me know my 2 bb reds are my favorotie chickens and i cant see why there tounges are black they have fresh water every day and the only thing they eat is grass bugs scratch and veggies nothing to color there tongue and no algae in there water i cant figure whats going on or if this is a serious sign that they need something i dont like antibiotics and that would be a last resort they are healthy but i cant say ive neard the roo crow in past few days all my chickens are in 4 x 10 foot tractors with 2 hens or 1 hen and a roo to a pen and they get moved 1 time a week is this normal for a tounge to turn black it almost looks like tar

 

[Tala]

the only thing they eat is grass bugs scratch and veggies nothing to color there tongue and no algae in there water

Do you feed them regular food, besides just "scratch" ????

Scratch is just a treat. They need some consistant form of complete nutrition to round out the diet - such as layer feed.​

 

[elmo]

I agree with Tala about the feed. Your chickens might have nutritional deficiencies from their diet, especially during molt:

Niacin(B3)

It acts as a coenzyme and has important links in a series of reaction associated with carbohydrate, protein and lipid metabolism. It is found as nicotinic acid and nicotinamide in plants and animals. It is reported that broilers from 3 to 7 weeks of age do not require supplemental niacin while fed a cornsoybean diet but the vitamin is required from 1 to 21 days of age.

Deficiency results in Black tongue, a condition characterized by inflammation of the tongue and mouth cavity. In laying hen there is loss of weight, decrease in egg production and hatchability

http://www.poulvet.com/poultry/articles/vitamins_in_poultry.php


It also might be some kind of infection, too. Is there any bad smell coming from their mouths?​

 

[mr300win]

i dont feed my roosters laying mash or hens they eat anything i feed them i feed them scracth in the noons and scraps fruit sometimes catfood and meal worms i mean my chickens are healthy and every hen lays still they are fine beside the black tounge and theres no smell at all to the toungue they act normal was really alarmin to me to find it what else is there to feed a chicken though besides laying mash

 

[mr300win]

and ive never had a problem too feed my chickens vitamins before never or antibiotics if they stopped laying then id be worried 1 hen did stop for a molt but ive founde 2 eggs in her pen in the past week ' shes the one with black tounge also its just the top of her tounge not the bottom but i will try to scrape it to see if its under the skin or not maybe its from her eating ants ive seen lots in the past 2 weeks because the rain weve had has brought them out of the ground and the grounds been soaked here and they are all over the pens or around i have seen them eating ants yesterday because i was watching them for awhile in fact if they see a ant hill they demolish it and eat ants because when i let them out yesterday it seemed they were searching for ant hills

 

[mr300win]

so ive speckulated what made my hens and 2 roos tounges black and i conclude that it was from them eating the raw soybeans from the field beside my home when i let them out in the afternoon crazy only 2 reamin with black tounge and i have decided to not let them out to range for about 2 weeks until all the beans are gone from the grounds thanks for the replies

 

[Farmer Viola]

hi there, did you ever figure out what was causing your chickens to have black tongues?
I am having this problem in my flock too. it is only the top of the tongue not the bottom. their diet is very well rounded, grower feed, oyster shell, grass, scratch, and more.

 

[luckycluckfarms]

I'm having the same issues with three of my 14 hens and they are all three of different breeds. They seem healthy otherwise but when I gave them a once-over look today I noticed that three of them had brown/black spots on various locations on their tongues. I'm also in Oregon.

 

[Farmer Viola]

I'm having the same issues with three of my 14 hens and they are all three of different breeds. They seem healthy otherwise but when I gave them a once-over look today I noticed that three of them had brown/black spots on various locations on their tongues. I'm also in Oregon.

whoa, how interesting. please keep me updated.

My chicken's tongues are completely black/brown. it is actually a brownish color more than a black, and it is on the tops of their tongues but not the bottom.

I recently checked their mouths 1st thing in the morning when they woke up. To my complete surprise, their tongues were pink! Some had a small dot of black on the very very tip. I am thinking at this point that it is diet related, and not disease related. Tomorrow I will keep them in the run (no free ranging) and will check their tongues to see if it's still happening. I'm near Forest Grove, OR.