SHOCKING amount of bloody diarrhea - Cocci or internal bleeding or...?

[Eggcessive]

I wonder is she has a liver issue, such as cancer or fatty liver hemorrhagic disease? Her urates are bright yellow which means liver problems usually. Water belly is usually present with liver disease. Vitamins or dehydration might add to that. Your vet did a thorough check and I feel that you may not know exactly what is going on until she dies and a necropsy can be done. If you are in California, UC Davis (at 4 locations) does them at a very low cost. That is about the only way we can solve the mysteries of an illness. It is amazing that she is still walking around after all of the blood loss. We have a lot of glass shards in our soil where people on our farm would carelessly throw things out. I have spent years picking up small pieces so that my chickens don’t eat it. Glass does not show up on xray usually. Please let us know how your hen gets along, and if you find out the cause.

 

[GregoryPeckory]

Bad Chicken passed about 2 hours after my last update . She went quickly, and I'm grateful we had brought her indoors beforehand.

@WyropRock, I had wondered about Enteritis, but as it seems to be less common in older birds I had ruled it out. After doing more research, I do consider it a possibility, especially with the potential liver disease as @Eggcessive mentions - as Enteritis progresses the bacteria causes liver damage. Apparently feeding oats in high amounts can cause the conditions that support Enteritis, especially in a bird that has a pre-existing condition - which BC may have had with the ongoing diarrhea issue. We do sprinkle a small amount of oats as treats to get them in the run at night, but I didn't think that the quantity would be high enough to be damaging. Either way, we'll stop doing that. We've worked our yard extensively for 11 years and I've never seen glass, but we do live on a horse boarding ranch, so it's possible she could have picked it up somewhere - thank you for that thought.

I found this helpful info that may explain the "worm" - if you scroll down there is a similar photo and the explanation that it is a tubular blood clot from a bleed in the lower GI https://bitchinchickens.com/2024/08/29/avian-pathology-cases-49/

We do know about the UC Davis option, but we don't have the heart to send her out and just want to bury her today. Of course if it happens with another bird, we will for sure do a necropsy. This seems very one-off - crossing fingers it stays that way.

Thanks so much for putting your eyes on this case, it's good to have the support and input. Will update if I ever find out more.

 

[Eggcessive]

So sorry for your loss. Thanks for posting the link about the blood clot from the lower intestines, and interestingly there were yellow urates in the dropping.