Starving chicken: a true mystery

[lisasea]

Hi all - hoping to tap the community for more ideas here. We've seen two vets and are not sure what's going on. Here are the deets:

• 1.5 year old hen has been having diarrhea for months - mostly clear liquid with bits of foraged plants.
• Significant weight loss and falling - she's an orpington and only weighs about 1200 grams compared to our others who are all 2200grams +.
• Fecal is negative for any parasites or worms.
• Confirmed not a sour or impacted crop issue. No evidence of tumors, masses, etc.
• Eats very little feed feed, occasional interest in mealworms when her friends are eating them, but major loss of appetite for the most part. We have not switched feeds or changed their diet in any way. Constant access to grit. More interested in foraging than eating from the feeder, seems to be eating mostly small rocks, fallen little leaves, and easy to reach worms, but still not consuming nearly enough.
• Molted in fall, hasn't laid an egg since. Waddles and comb are lacking color.
• Used to be high up in the pecking order and is now a bit aloof and prefers to do her own thing. She still seems to like being around her friends and no one is overtly bullying her (no pecking at least), but she won't push into the flock to get treats or food. I think it's more from disinterest than social bullying.
• We've been taking her inside to monitor her food intake in the mornings and evenings, and sometimes she has zero interest in food, and sometimes she gobbles down feed. It makes no sense.
• The rest of the flock is perfectly healthy, laying, active, and with a healthy appetite.

That's all I got, folks. Any thoughts on why she isn't eating, and why the diarrhea persists after months? She's a family favorite, so we're doing all we can.

 

[Brahma Chicken5000]

Did you check her for mites? A heavy mite infestation left untreated will result in the chicken becoming anemic and eventual death.

 

[Brahma Chicken5000]

Also please post pictures of the hen in question

 

[azygous]

Kudos for taking the time and expense to rule out pathological causes for this weight loss. There are a couple of physiological causes for weight loss you should try also to rule out.

One is eye sight acuity. How well does she see? Do a vision test by holding some meal worms under her beak to see if she can see them. Do one eye, then the other by holding the treat off to the side.

The other is beak malformity. Does her beak line up top to bottom correctly? Does she have a beak "overbite" that might be interfering with picking up food particles? Both of these conditions can be overcome by offering food in a moist form, such as fermented feed.

The last cause, not to be made light of, is psychosomatic. If she has ever been low in the pecking order and bullied away from food, she could internalize that and come to be convinced she doesn't have the flock's permission to eat, even if this occurred a long time ago. Chickens can have fragile self confidence just as some humans do, and it may need to be restored with careful steps if it is determined to be the situation.

One final thought. It could be that she lost considerable weight during molt, and she hasn't yet had time or the will to recover yet. I would change the dry feed to fermented feed, and it might not only tempt her with an interesting new taste and texture, but the additional nutrients could kick start her body into regaining the weight she's lost. Sometimes this proves necessary if a chicken is stalled during and following molt.

And along that same note, I'd give her a nutritional supplement such as Poultry Nutri-drench, but if you aren't in the USA, you might have trouble finding it. In that case, baby vitamins without iron would work almost as well.

 

[Brahma Chicken5000]

To the OP: how many chickens is she housed with? How many feeders are in the run? If there aren’t enough feeders for the birds the lowest birds will be forced from the feed

 

[staceyj]

I'll throw a few questions into pile:

When you so no evidence of masses does that mean as "evident on palpation" or negative radiographs?

Have you never changed the brand or type of feed offered, Such as a higher protein level or switching from crumble to pellets for example?

Have you offered her any of the following:
Scrambled or mashed hard boiled eggs
Warm oatmeal
Regular feed soaked in warm water (mash)
Canned salmon, mackerel, tuna or cat food
Diced grapes, watermelon or tomatoes
(To compare her palate vs ruling out a mechanical swallowing defect) ?

 

[EggSighted4Life]

Hi, welcome to BYC!

Sorry your girl is having trouble.

I ALSO commend you for having fecal floats done!

I'm gonna say molting is seriously hard on the system. And maybe that is the core cause. Not laying and diminished comb color are quite normal. Aloof is part of this!

You say no change to diet... can you describe what that entails (protein %) including supplements and treats?

How has your weather pattern been?

I wonder about having a bacterial culture or gram stain run on a fecal sample?

Also, you say she is more interested in foraging than the feeder. This indicates that she is NOT lethargic?

Mostly CLEAR liquids with bits of forage is interesting to me...

 

[lisasea]

Hi all - thank you so much for your insight. Exactly what I was hoping to get from this group! More info and answers to questions below:

• I haven't seen a solid looking poop out of her since September and was taking her in to clean her sludgy butt fluff in the sink once a week. The diarrhea got worse about a month ago - no more brown stuff and it shoots out super clear liquid (sorry for the imagery but I'm sure you're all used to it) and clears the fluff by nearly a foot! More like a squirt from a high pressure hose This is what makes me think it's not just the molt but I could be wrong.
• I haven't checked for mites specifically - had her at two vets who I would hope have noticed, but I'll look into that!
• She seems to see just fine. I can see here pupils changing in size to focus on what I'm putting in front of her and she finds mealworms on the ground no problem. Beak looks fine too, and she's not interested in soft foods either, so might rule that out.
• She goes back and forth between acting totally normal (85% of days) and being lethargic (25% of the time). She's generally pretty active but we've had a few bad days where she just wants to sleep a lot.
• No evidence of masses as "evident on palpation" - thanks for making me clarify, no radiographs done
  
• Her normal diet consists of Purina layer crumbles at 16% protein. Lately, I've been cooking more for her than for us! I made her scrambled eggs and she was interested for a while, then no longer wanted them, doesnt seem to like oatmeal warm or cold, despite exotic toppings like mealworms and cheese, cheese has been an overall favorite but I can't imagine that's too healthy in the long run and even so, she'll only eat it occasionally. Tried giving her some leftover rice yesterday and she turned her nose up. Will add canned fish and watermelon to the list.
• In all cases I end up giving her leftovers to the rest of the flock, and she's more interested in eating when they're around. She won't push into the bowl, but runs around eating the food they spray everywhere else...when 2 minutes prior she wouldn't touch the stuff on her own. When i throw food on the ground, she's right in there with them.
• She's in a good sized run with 5 other hens. They're a pretty docile group split into the three pushier ones (usually she's in that club) and the two younger scrubs. There's a single feeder in there but she's always fed with the pushy club, and no one would dare peck her or push her out. I'm watching closely for signs of ill will, dirty looks, etc, but she just seems disinterested in food. The single feeder theory wouldn't explain why she doesn't gobble up food when I put her by herself.
• We live in northern california, so no radical change to weather. Her symptoms started during the summer when it was marginally warmer. Their run is covered to keep it dry, but the roof is clear so they have sunshine all day.
• I haven't had a a bacterial culture or gram stain done - what might that show us?

I'll add some photos when I get home. Again, thank you all so much!

 

[azygous]

You're really, really helpful at supplying pertinent information. It's sort of like a treasure hunt with extremely good clues.

Do get the bacterial culture from another poop sample. The gram stain shows what type, gram positive or gram negative bacteria might be present. The cell structures are different. The gram negative bacteria is trickier to treat so knowing that is helpful when choosing an antibiotic. If you have the budget allowance, get a blood test for antibodies, also. That will let you know if viruses are present.

I still believe there may be a psychological factor involved. Try this experiment - find one chicken that she seems to be very comfortable with and put them together when you feed her. She sounds like she is reluctant to eat with the flock, and she may feel more comfortable with just one companion. The other clue is that she doesn't like to eat alone, either. So giving her a dinner companion might change the equation.

Have you tried an all-flock feed for your flock instead of layer? It's higher in protein and much better tasting. At least, that's what my chickens have told me. I found out by accident they prefer Flock Raiser over layer when I was trying to cure a feather picking problem and switched from the layer. They really went for it. Just something else to try.

Watery poop isn't necessarily sick poop. It can be watery because of the quality of the diet. Or it can be watery because of the individual's intestinal quirks. I happen to have a six-year old hen who has had maybe six solid poops in her entire life. Her default poop is fire-hose-high-velocity watery splorts. It's been this way from the day I brought her home from the feed store as a two-day old chick. And she's never been sick a day in her life, and was still laying up to her recent molt.

 

[HenOnAJuneBug]

Is there any puffiness or swelling in her rear? I had a hen that had a lot of your hen's symptoms this past spring/summer. After reading here I assumed that it was due to the condition (can't remember the name) where eggs build up in the system (not egg binding). I assumed she was going to die, but once it got into fall and flock egg laying diminished, she got back to normal.