Please can someone take a look at my chickens poop?

[shell3]

btw you asked is there anything else she got into; she ate loads of grit, general run floor bits like stones bits of wood ect and lots of bedding which was wood shavings and also was and still does eat her feathers when they fall on the ground! i have removed all bedding now and sweep the run floor with dustpan and brush daily! lol

 

[Haunted55]

she seems well, eating well and energetic, after i did my normal late morning poop pick up in the run today i did not see any poop after that was pink, curious! the night time poop was pink, no change from before but daytime i saw no evidence of it. ive put the paper down tonight and am hopeful it may have stopped but im thinking its unlikely to stop suddenly i was expecting less and less then gradual stop. i dont expect white poop for the morning but am always hopeful!
.

This sounds very good! It could happen with a sudden stop or what would seem to be sudden. If you weren't putting down white paper and you went back to the shavings underneath...how much would you be seeing? It really does sound like irritation to me. I'm no Vet. but I still think the wait and see is the way to go. You are doing everything you can to help, now it's up to her.

btw you asked is there anything else she got into; she ate loads of grit, general run floor bits like stones bits of wood ect and lots of bedding which was wood shavings and also was and still does eat her feathers when they fall on the ground! i have removed all bedding now and sweep the run floor with dustpan and brush daily! lol

Nothing serious then. I will say that the feather eating is a sign of protien lacking in her diet. I have a couple who will do the same thing. I've tried a lot of different kinds of feed and nothing seemed to work. When they can get outside and hunt for themselves, it stops. The cat food should help with this, as would the liver.

 

[shell3]

Thank you x
well the blood has been the same the last two nights ive not seen many bloody ones during the day which is curious but in the morning there it is on the paper! solid poop with pink caps and pink stained liquid soaked into the paper. so seems it hasnt reduced at all.
i did give them the cat food but then they all had the runs! so ive stopped now. i havnt got any wood shavings or bedding of any type in there as my hen will eat it so its just solid wooden floor in the coop with newspaper under the roost at night and a dirt floor in the run. i do add amino + to food, its vits mins and protein, i started giving that when she was ill and continued because of the feather eating and molting.
her crop that had seemed a little big was obviously just a good meal! has now returned to normal (normal for her) so think i just had a little panic there and assumed the worst. shes still lively, eating ,drinking ,playing ,her comb looks fine. just this persistent bloody poop.
im waiting on the vet to call me back today to advise on next step, shes had the seven days of antibiotic, day 7 was yesterday and i hope he dosnt want her to have any more! i dont like all these antibiotics at all! but i dont want to go against vet advice either! think ill just tell him id rather she stopped the flagyl and had a probiotic now and see what he says. im hoping he says he expected it to go on this long and not that he's supprised its still happening. i just wish i knew where this blood is coming from and how serious it is! i mean she seems fine other than the blood but seriously how long can she bleed like this and stay healthy! ijdk. its now been two weeks!

now i might sound dim here but i wanted someones opinion on this, ok, i found this insert in a chicken health book:-

Atrophy of the ovary can occur due to disease or to severe stress caused by lack of feed or water. Symptoms, in addition to cesstation of laying, are emaciation and dehydration accompanied by a neck or body molt.


now she had an extremely bad case of sour crop which took ages to cure, in that time i was advised to with hold food (never water) when her crop was huge, also she was not getting the nutrients from the food she had anyway as the crop was not functioning. it was obviously all very stressful for her and she lost so much weight during her illness and was so so thin after (shes gained most of it back now)
she has not laid an egg for prob about 4 months now and recently started this molt, which none of my others are doing. so does anyone think this could be whats happened? that the ovary is wasting or has wasted away? im just wondering if this could explain the blood? could she be passing blood because a part of her reproductive system has wasted away?
it seems she would pass what would look more like intestinal lining in the poop rather than this pinkness if this were the case but maybe its a possibility?
if im being rediculous please just say! lol but i would love opinions.
if this was the case i wonder if she would be ok once the bleeding stopped? almost like a period? if her only problem after all this is that she cant lay eggs i think we would all be relieved!

 

[Haunted55]

We can drive ourselves nutty trying to help our animals, lol. Believe me, I've been where you are as well. When the Vet calls, ask him. I wouldn't think atrophy would cause bleeding but again, I'm not a Vet. It could be a persistent infection that just isn't responding to the antibiotics given to her. Please don't be so hesitant to try another. Probiotics only supply bacteria needed for a healthy gut. They will not cure an infection, only make the bird better able to deal with one and the use of antibiotics to cure the infection.

I hope your birds appreciate how lucky they are to have you for their keeper! You have gone against your own belief's to make sure they are well and healthy. Ya done good! Talk to the Vet and I think it would be resonable to ask if there could be a secondary infection going on that might need a different line of defence, maybe even another look, from the other end this time, to see what's going on.

 

[pwand]

Shell: my concern is what caused her to bleed in the first place. Considering she had a procedure done at the vet, and an immediate bleeding afterwards. To me it had something to do with that. If it was infection related from the procedure, it would be a few days later and she is on antibiotics. As its been two weeks, I would think it should have stopped by now. If there is an infection, it's possible shes antibiotic resistant to what she is on now. She can be tested to see what antibiotic she is resistant to. I would try one she hasn't been on before.

I know I mentioned this before and others disagreed, I still wonder if a certain amount of blood could pass from the crop through the digestive system not entirely digested. Their systems are much smaller and quicker than ours. Vomiting her would rule that out. Just a thought.

There is nothing wrong in trying to figure things out. You love her so much. With her body stressed, doesn't surprise me she's not laying. With her moulting, she really needs more protein and with the blood lose. Her body also can be confused from being in the house for awhile and back out to the coop with lighting and temperatures. How did you make out with the liver?

 

[Bogtown Chick]

Shell: I like that you are thinking outside of the box with her. Ovarian Atrophy is something to consider but there is next to no literature that I can find for physical symptoms of that other than not laying. There is Pollurum Disease but the outcome of that is death without symptoms. I wish there lied an answer for you somewhere in these thoughts. She is a young bird also and the chances of a tumor growth of some sort along the tract is low on the percentages. Her tendons and ligaments also holding the ovaries in place would most likely be nice and springy yet holding everything where they should be. That being said I think you are not daft and that those are all good thought processes as that part of her anatomy obviously uses the same outlet. Her vent does not show sign of prolapse does it?

With what I've read persistant bloody stools in Poultry -- Coccidosis seems to be the only answer. It is quite possible and of course coincidental that slight trauma from procedure has now left openings for coccidosis. Cocci are also notorious for becoming resistant to antibiotics due to over use in the Poultry Industry.

(Another thing I've been known to get on my pulpit about--lol --so I will digress). I'm guessing that the vet has her antibiotic to keep her from getting Cocci while her tract heals and its quite possible she has a resistant strain if persisting. There is a listing of meds here for Coccidosis. http://www.merckvetmanual.com/mvm/htm/bc/tpou03.htm Check to see if your med is on this. Your Vet may have to consider another. But be patient as he may ask you to keep on so as not to propagate yet another resistant strain. Give him the number of days she's been on it. He may call it "worthless" then at a certain point and move on to another.

Please know, The last thing I want to see for Bombie is more or different drugs as a solution and I'm sure your vet feels the same. They are entirely over used. I think also the ACV is integral and maybe look to see if you can up the concentration in her water without making them "NOT" want to drink...LOL. There might be some good recommendations on those concentrations if you search Cocci. Everything I've looked at on byc and google, bing says cocci.

When pwand says about blood and short uncomplicated digestive tract I still get a visual of a stick stuck kitty wumpus in the tract or gizzard--tearing a bit here and there sending trace blood every once in a while. But I know the imaging is clear and her diet has been well monitored....still... I wonder.

Chin up and enjoy your spunky girl. Let the vet help with some of your own kind suggestions and thought processes. I'm sure he appreciates that too as she is a complex case.

 

[casportpony]

......................................snip..............................................
Everything I've looked at on byc and google, bing says cocci.
......................................snip..............................................

If she were mine, that's what I would treat for and I would treat it with something like Corid (amprolium), but I don't know if you can get that in the UK. Maybe Baycox?

 

[casportpony]

From the Penn State Poultry Health Handbook
http://pubs.cas.psu.edu/freepubs/pdfs/agrs52.pdf

 

[seminolewind]

That's a nice book those charts were in, so I bookmarked it.

 

[shell3]

thanks guys. lots of things to think about there, the vet called me from his car phone yesterday on his way home, bless him he had non stop emergencies all day and reception said he wouldnt be calling but he did on his way to collect his kids! his so nice! unfortunatly the connection was awful and conversation was differcult. however he said to give the antibiotics a rest for now, he seems to think the seven days should have been enough. he wants her wormed so i had to take her to clinic today for a weight for her, my vet wasnt there as he's at their hospital today for surgerys but he wanted the weight so he can order the wormer. he wants to rule out parasites as her defence has been weak. ive checked poop for worms every day, seen nothing but that dosnt mean their not there! cant hurt to have her wormed anyway. i feel its prob not the answer but what do i know! lol. so ill pick wormer up later today. can i give probiotic and wormer together?
btw her weight last week was 2.06 and today 2.51 so she gaining really well, im happy with that! shes really energetic today and eating well (obviously lol) her combs looking ok and wattles are red.
i had a real scare yesterday! did something really stupid! i cant have locked the door to the run correctly! i went in the kitchen to make tea , glanced out of the window only to see chickens! running round the garden! the little darlings had escaped the run and were wondering round the garden quite happily, i rushed out to get them back in and they all came running over to me and squatted by my feet in that submisive position they have! i gathered all three up in my arms and put them safely back. they didnt even flap when i picked them up, it was like they were saying "i told you we wernt aloud out here" lol they cant have been out for long, maybe 5-10 mins but im just praying no one ate anything naughty!!
bombies crop got a very careful examination! i couldnt feel anything worrying and this morning it was empty.
the cocci does seem possible and it worries me now that he didnt give different antibiotics! even thou i didnt want them, now i think i do! gosh he must find me hard work! lol anyway i think ill do the wormer ,and probiotic (i know it wont cure anything but just want her to have it after all the meds) and then give her a couple of days to see if anything improves before asking for different antibiotics. does anyone know how long the wormer takes to work?
i want to say the blood seemed less last night but she had a quite mushy poop under her so it was maybe just less evident, prob from eating grass on her little adventure round thwe garden yesterday!
i havnt tried the liver, the cat food gave them all the runs and i cant cope with that just now, i have no bedding as you know and thou the newspaper catches most droppings at night, with the runs it had sprayed up the walls and everything! i cant keep it clean with that. i cant get a power hose out til the weather improves. so im trying to avoid the meat route for now while shes seeming well in herself but may just do it once a week or something.
shes got like a million quills growing in her neck area, hopefully she will start to look less scruffy soon lol
all in all she seems well other than the bloody poop, so ill worm her, wait 2-3 days , if no improvement ill get different antibiotic. thats my plan for now lol. ill up the acv too, they dont seem to mind the taste at all i do agree its very strange that it wouldnt have anything to do with the procedure thou as it did happen directly after it.
thanks for all your opinions and advice xxx you guys are great