Sick chicken with green and yellow diarrhea

[RobynQuercus]

Hello everyone, sorry for the long post but I'm hoping I can get some guidance on what's going on with one of my hens. This is our first year with chickens so we're still learning a lot.

On Saturday my husband noticed that she was lethargic and seemed to be straining so he thought she was egg bound. He immediately isolated her and gave her a couple of espsom salt baths and lubricated her vent. However later she had a bunch of yellow and green diarrhea and stopped straining. She also refused to eat or drink anything. We started giving her electrolyte water by syringe and after a day of that she started drinking on her own. We then managed to get her to eat some scrambled eggs and from there have progressed to some fermented feed and banana. We already tried fasting her after feeding her enough to feel food in her crop to confirm that her crop is emptying on it owns (it is). And then yesterday she ate and drank quite a bit and we thought she might be on the mend. However her poops still haven't solidified and just recently she had a light yellow foamy poop (however I wasn't able to get a picture of it before it absorbed into the newspaper bedding we're using). She'll often start shaking her head over and over again, but isn't always doing it. And she often closes her eyes like she's in pain. However those symptoms have also gotten better since Saturday. She's also been preening herself (she's molting) and I've watched her scratch her head with her feet and stretch her legs and wings. Overall she seems more active and lively than when we first beought her in, but she's definitely lost weight as I can feel her keel bone quite prominently. Is this something we just need to keep monitoring and she'll keep getting better on her own as long as she keeps eating or drinking, or do we need to try something more? So far none of the other 9 chickens we have have displayed any signs of being sick and we haven't found any diarrhea in their coop or run.

First diarrhea we noticed after soaking her

How she keeps standing


Poop we noticed after her first night in isolation. What's the pink fleshy stuff?


The inside of her vent on day 1 but since then it's gone back to being pink and not swollen.


What her poops have been looking like for the past couple days.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Welcome To BYC

Can you take a sample of her poop to your vet for testing to see if worms are part of the problem?

She's molting, but acted like possibly being egg bound. I'd still give her extra Calcium for a week to see if she's struggling to expel an egg, membrane or lash material. You can find Calcium Citrate+D3 at Walmart, CVS, etc. Give 1 tablet daily. Pull down on the wattles, pop the tablet into the beak and let her swallow.

Do you have any antibiotics on hand? I'd be inclined to start her on a broad spectrum like Amoxicillin.

The yellow poop and urates can point to something reproductive and/or liver dysfunction. Of course there's other reasons too, but these 2 seem to be the most common.

Work on hydration and continue to entice her to eat. She may benefit from extra protein since she's molting. Bits of egg, fish or meat can give her a boost.

 

[RobynQuercus]

Hi thank so much for responding.

I talked to my vet and they don't do poultry so they can't guarantee they would find anything in the poop that would help, and they suggested that if I go that route that they would like a more solid sample.

I forgot to mention in my original post but she's been molting since August and hasn't laid any eggs in that time as far as we can tell, although it's hard to say for sure. Since we have a rooster they are all on grower feed with crushed oyster shells and bone meal on the side. There is also some calcium in the electrolyte water we've been giving her. Would you still recommend a separate calcium supplement? Or should I try crushing some eggshells with her next egg instead?

Also I was doing some more research and one resource I found said too much protein in their diet can cause diarrhea, could that be the possible cause? We've been fermenting their feed and sources say that increases the availability of the protein. Plus they've been free roaming my garden from time to time and eating lots of earth worms and the occasional frog.

The only antibiotic I have on hand are antirobe aquadrops from my cats recent dental surgery. Do you think that would work and if so, what dose and how frequently should I administer it?

 

[RobynQuercus]

Update: I gave her a crushed up hard boiled egg with the shell today and she ate maybe half of that. She seems alert, but is still hunched and sitting lots, and continues to have diarrhea. However she did have a poop that included what looked like a big clump of egg in it, not sure if that's a good sign or not. I gave her a bath because she had some diarrhea stuck to her but and when I was blow-drying her I noticed her abdomen below her vent is quite hard. Could she be slowly getting eggbound because she hasn't laid in so long due to molting? I was under the impression that a chicken dies within 24 hours of being eggbound, but she's not deteriorating any further. Plus she hasn't done the penguin stance thing yet, but otherwise her symptoms might align. I felt into her vent and didn't feel anything when going straight back, but gently probing down felt hard? Also the vent opening itself felt hard and swollen. The attached picture is the scrambled egg like poop she had along with the regular diarrhea.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

There is also some calcium in the electrolyte water we've been giving her. Would you still recommend a separate calcium supplement? Or should I try crushing some eggshells with her next egg instead?

She seems alert, but is still hunched and sitting lots, and continues to have diarrhea. However she did have a poop that included what looked like a big clump of egg in it, not sure if that's a good sign or not.

That is a Lash Egg (Salpingitis) which is inflammation of the oviduct. This is very likely the reason why she's all hunched up.

I would give her to Extra Calcium as suggested in Post#2. The Calcium may help with contractions to push out more material.

The antibiotic may help with the infection. Not many people use Clindamycin for an infection like this, they use either Baytril or Amoxicillin, sometimes a Tetracycline but that's harder to find nowadays. Poultry DVM has a little info on dosing or you may find it by searching threads. https://poultrydvm.com/drugs/clindamycin

Here's some reading about Salpingitis (Lash Egg).
https://the-chicken-chick.com/causes-of-lash-eggs-salpingitis-by/
https://the-chicken-chick.com/salpingitis-lash-eggs-in-backyard/

She's molting, but acted like possibly being egg bound. I'd still give her extra Calcium for a week to see if she's struggling to expel an egg, membrane or lash material. You can find Calcium Citrate+D3 at Walmart, CVS, etc. Give 1 tablet daily. Pull down on the wattles, pop the tablet into the beak and let her swallow.