Our chicken pooped out something weird.

Evangitron

Chirping
Dec 5, 2018
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We adopted a chicken that we assume is a austrolope because it looks like one. Not necessarily important to the issue. But here is some background and potential symptoms. She's probably a year old, she occasionally lays shell-less, she seems to be laying more of them lately at night. (We 90% sure it's her).
She also attempts to poop when you hold her? I notice it while holding the other big hens as well.
She doesn't seem lethargic most of the time but sometimes she worries us. Recently she laided this yellow looking poop, which looks like yolk to us but we're not sure.
Than in the February she laid what looked like a lash egg (the two weird goooy pictures). But she seemed completely fine, she landed plenty of normal eggs afterwards, with the exception of the soft shell or shell less egg here and there.
One of us also thought her abdomen felt warmer, but the other didn't.
She also seems to breath hard, and has those moments where she really looks sick, than instantly pops back to being her excited normal self.
She also has been getting tapeworm because of the landlords horse. But we're not sure, and we worm them on a regular basis.


We've had chickens exhibit odd things before and be completely fine. But we just want some second opinions about these particular things. Because deciding if something is or isn't a symptom in a chicken is incredibly hard. Since chickens seem to be so good at hiding being sick. And when adopting a chicken, it's hard to know if it's normal for them. Or something new and troubling. Any advise or insight is much appreciated.
 

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You can give the hen Vitamin D which helps with calcium absorption. Hopefully it will help firm up eggshells unless there is an oviduct problem, maybe an infection. If in fact she has tapeworms, that can be problem as well.
Tapeworms do not have a Direct lifecycle like nematodes. Tapeworms have an indirect lifecycle. In other words, a chicken must eat an infected insect.
Treatment for tapeworms is Equimax equine paste containing praziquantel.

You can tell if a chicken has tapeworms. Take a look at her feces for rice-like segments. Here's a pic:
downloadtape eggs.jpg
 
I would be tempted to treat her with antibiotics to head off a reproductive infection. Enrofloxacin can be found online, and dosage is 0.05 ml per pound of weight given twice daily for 5 days. It is banned in chickens, but some vets do still prescribe it for reproductive and E.coli infections. Do not eat eggs for a month. Amoxicillin (Aqua mox) could also can used instead. Also, I would give a human calcium tablet with vitamin D3 for several days in case of a calcium deficiency.

Please post any pictures of droppings to look for tapeworms.
 
As of rn she's kinda acting like she' egg bound with greenish poop. But it seems like her latest poop is alittle more solid.

She is still very talkive, eating and drink but is sitting down atm. She was standing up for awhile trying to sleep.
I also attempted to give her a espon bath, but she acted like she was overheating, and her comb is fairly warm. So after a few attempts I gave up and dried here. She actively preened herself afterwards, which seems like a good sign.

I'm going to see if I can feel a egg with a lubricated latex groove later. But I have to go get one later on.
 

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It's been awhile our hen seems to be recovering? She has lethargic episodes still. Like today where I have her out with our other chickens ( because she really wanted out) and 4 hours later she is like super sleepy in the pen. That kind of scary sleepy so I brought her in. She closed her eyes and slept standing up
Thankfully she after a hour returned to normal.


She still hasn't laid a egg. And she still has a bit of a swollen abdominal area and breaths alittle hard while laying. Though she has a great appetite and decent energy and complains to get outside. But Idk what she has still, hopefully supportive care Is enough until we figure it.
 

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