cityeggs
Songster
I have a molting Wyandotte who, for over a week, has had mostly diarrhea on the dropping board every night. It seems closer to normal during the day, though her droppings are generally wetter than normal. No blood whatsoever, or even intestinal lining. When it first started, the rains had started (it's very dry for 80% of the year here, and then we get almost all our rain in the winter months), so I thought maybe she was just drinking too much rainwater dripping off things, but then it persisted. Then I thought maybe it was because there was some layer pellets still in the feed bin mixed in with the chick crumble I had switched to bc of her molting, and maybe she was still eating them and drinking too much water bc it was too much calcium for her?? idk. There were other chicken issues going on, and my whole family was sick, and I kept hoping she would just resolve on her own.
Sometimes there are what seem to be solid droppings on top - which look like they could be from her, though it could be that they've moved around near morning and it's someone else's droppings. She tends to get poopy vent feathers, and they were bad for at least a month and still so the other week. I had been leery of handling her because she's molting (and even more skittish than normal), but I did finally catch her this evening and check her vent and it seemed clean (no poop, no discharge, no visible mites, though it was evening so the light wasn't great) and no longer any feather poop dreads. Her crop seemed normal for the evening, and I've closed the pop door so I can check her crop first thing in the morning.
I have bricks around the lower part of our fence, and saw small pebbles of brick in her poop, so I removed the brick that seemed crumbly and put out grit again, which was my other thought. When the ground is dry, they don't touch the grit (it was covered in dust for months; I'd stir them up, and they'd just sit there), so I repurposed the grit feeder a while back, but now that the soil is wet, I wondered if it's harder to find little stones, hence trying to eat the bricks. But it's been a few days that the grit is back out, and still diarrhea.
It's hard to tell if she's acting normal - because this is her first molt, but as far as I can tell, she's acting about the same as before the diarrhea started while she was still molting - quieter than usual, but still scratching and running for food, more skittish, not laying - and at first her comb was still red but now it's more pale, though I thought this was just because she molting and not laying. She was chest-bumping my cockerels through the fence the other week, though none of that a few days later - could've also been that she lost interest, and unrelated?
What else can I check? I've never wormed them - they're my first chickens, and they're now just over a year old - could it be worms?
here's a picture from the other week - last night's was much wetter - wetness with just a little solid covering at least an 8"x8" square under her spot on the roost. And an example of a morning dropping from out and about - I thought it was blood at first, but turned out to be brick
Sometimes there are what seem to be solid droppings on top - which look like they could be from her, though it could be that they've moved around near morning and it's someone else's droppings. She tends to get poopy vent feathers, and they were bad for at least a month and still so the other week. I had been leery of handling her because she's molting (and even more skittish than normal), but I did finally catch her this evening and check her vent and it seemed clean (no poop, no discharge, no visible mites, though it was evening so the light wasn't great) and no longer any feather poop dreads. Her crop seemed normal for the evening, and I've closed the pop door so I can check her crop first thing in the morning.
I have bricks around the lower part of our fence, and saw small pebbles of brick in her poop, so I removed the brick that seemed crumbly and put out grit again, which was my other thought. When the ground is dry, they don't touch the grit (it was covered in dust for months; I'd stir them up, and they'd just sit there), so I repurposed the grit feeder a while back, but now that the soil is wet, I wondered if it's harder to find little stones, hence trying to eat the bricks. But it's been a few days that the grit is back out, and still diarrhea.
It's hard to tell if she's acting normal - because this is her first molt, but as far as I can tell, she's acting about the same as before the diarrhea started while she was still molting - quieter than usual, but still scratching and running for food, more skittish, not laying - and at first her comb was still red but now it's more pale, though I thought this was just because she molting and not laying. She was chest-bumping my cockerels through the fence the other week, though none of that a few days later - could've also been that she lost interest, and unrelated?
What else can I check? I've never wormed them - they're my first chickens, and they're now just over a year old - could it be worms?
here's a picture from the other week - last night's was much wetter - wetness with just a little solid covering at least an 8"x8" square under her spot on the roost. And an example of a morning dropping from out and about - I thought it was blood at first, but turned out to be brick
