Question about chicken poop. When do you worry? *now very sick*

[Andora]

After losing two pullets to cocci, I'm paranoid about my birds' poop. Should it always be fully formed with white and brownish in it? Is it anything to worry about if it looks different or is liquid sometimes? Tonight one of the pullets pooped in front of me and it was yellow/brown and liquid. When they had cocci, she had bloody liquid poop, but she has since recovered back to normal solid chicken poop until today. All the birds had Sulmet in their water from September 1st through 5th, so it's been a week or so. Everyone seems healthy and active...the one with the yellow/brown poop is the most active of all of them, flying everywhere and peeping like crazy.

I'm a new chicken mom...can you tell? I went through the same poop questions and worries as a first time mom with my daughter too.

*ETA*
Two of my pullets are sickly today, very sleeping...nodding off randomly in the run then jerking awake. They both have dirty tail feathers, all wet and poopy. The rest still seem fine.

 

[dlhunicorn]

my collected info on POO:
http://dlhunicorn.conforums.com/index.cgi?board=poos&action=display&num=1158478320

 

[Andora]

That's exactly what I needed, thanks!!

 

[Andora]

Ok based on that extremely helpful page of info, I think they might have worms.

"Internal Parasites
Birds appearing listless, pale in the face, losing condition and producing mustard-coloured
droppings can be suspected as having worms"

It's not quite as yellow as mustard, but it's yellowish/brown. The hens with normal poop definitely have a different shade of brown poo with no yellow in it.

I can't afford to go buy an dewormer right now due to some recent unexpected expenses, but I do have a ton of DE. I've been lightly dusting their feed with it, but maybe not enough? It doesn't seem to stick to the feed. Now it seems like an emergency...maybe I should mix it in something else, like yogurt or their water? I have no idea how much to use!

 

[silkiechicken]

Not every poo needs to be uniform. If it's only an few poo that you see that is streaky, could be hot and they drank more water, ate lots of goodies, played in the dirt and so on, don't worry. If they ONLY ate pellets and lived 24 hours in constant conditions, then most will be uniform. Let them live a bit, run around, nibble, and you'll get some odd ones. I don't know many humans that panic and run to the doctor when they see something abnormal from themselves.

If the birds are otherwise looking fine, before treating with worms or cocci take a sample to the vet for a fecal float test. Over treating and over medicating though jumping to conclusions is a big reason for the massive overuse of drugs and the inability to fix problems when they do arise, due to the resistance built up in the things we are trying to fight.

 

[Andora]

My houdan pullet is now very sick. I can't afford vet treatment right now, and they aren't open on the weekend anyway. The pullet is lethargic, she will walk a few feet then just plop down with her eyes closed. The only other symptom she has is nasty poop coated tail feathers. I haven't actually seen her poop at all. She also seems to yawn or open her beak very wide, but she doesn't stretch her neck when she does it. She ate and drank a little this morning, and she was perfectly fine yesterday. It looks like she's not going to make it, and I have no idea what's making her sick or what to do.

I have DE, Sulmet, and Tylan on hand...

 

[Emzyyy]

I get Wazin17 or watever its called for like $5 works fine for mine.

 

[PoultryPedia]

So sorry

Hope she improves, & that your other chickens are ok.

 

[spook]

Hang in there, is it super hot where you are? Perhaps its need for electrolites. Give her some fluids and bring her into the house where you can keep her calm in a clothes basket yet see what she is doing.
I certainly am no expert, but she could be over heated, it will change their poop and is the DE food grade?
Do you have any asprin in the house? If you type in asprin in the search it should tell you what to give her age and size. It may help if she has a fever.
I'm saying prayers for your girl!!!

 

[Andora]

I read another thread on here describing a bird with similar symptoms, and they gave Tylan, so I went with that. I don't have much to lose and everything to gain at this point. If sh has an infection somewhere hopefully that will take care of it. She had her eyes closed until I injected her, then she fell over and for a minute I thought I killed her! Suddenly she jumped up and ran off peeping LOL.

It's been in the 80's here, not as hot as it was. I live in Kentucky, so it's very humid a lot of the time. They're coop has stayed dry, so nothing in there should have made her sick.

I also gave her some feed with DE coating it. (It's food grade! That's an important question.) I've got her in the coop alone now, she was eating when I came inside. My house is a dangerous place for a bird, with four cats and two large dogs so I don't want to bring her in unless she's totally listless and silent, otherwise I'll have an army of pets trying to beat down the door to get to her. That would be a tragedy. How do you tell if a chicken has a fever? We don't have any asprin, but I could run out and get some.

The white polish was acting similar this morning, but she has perked up...I hope the houdan does too.