Please help! Sick Chicken!

[juliebrown]

One of our golden sex link hens has had terrible diarrhea for three days now. It is very watery with little bits in it. She has had a messy bum as well so we gave her a bath last night and dried her all up and it is better but still has evidence of more diarrhea. This morning I found her hovering over a broken egg on the run floor, and there was only a little piece of a paper thin soft egg shell. I attached some photos, sorry they are so graphic! As we were tucking them in tonight she got on the roost and had another big blowout. I have given her plain yogurt and will mix in some raw apple cider vinegar into their water tomorrow.

She seems to be eating and drinking as normal and running around with the rest of them like nothing is wrong. We haven't been giving them excess treats or anything either. We did see some mites on them and I have treated them with poultry DE (last week), do I need to treat for worms too??

Thank you for any and all suggestions!

 

[Eggcessive]

When hens have eggs that break inside they can develop egg yolk peritonitis. She has some blood or intestinal shed in her stool which could be from enteritis or capillaria worms. If you could take several samples of her droppings in a clean container (fresh is best) to your local vet to get a fecal float and a gram stain, it may help you narrow down what treatment to use. Make sure that she is getting a good layer feed and feed her some extra calcium such as crushed egg shells, crushed oystershell, or liquid calcium to help her egg shells. Valbazen or SafeGuard Liquid Goat Wormer (or the Equine Paste) are excellent to use for worming. Valbazen dosage is 1/2 ml orally, and repeat in 10 days. SafeGuard is 1 ml given 5 days in a row orally. Enteritis is treated with several antibiotics, and testing of the droppings can tell your vet which bacteria is causing it.Here is a bit of info on EYP, and enteritis:
http://www.chickenvet.co.uk/health-and-common-diseases/egg-laying-issues/index.aspx
http://www.thepoultrysite.com/diseaseinfo/101/necrotic-enteritis/

 

[juliebrown]

Thank you so much. I went to one of our local feed store and got some worm medication for worms and lots of good advise for boosting their immune system and adding protein. Fingers crossed for solid poops!!