Stinky Poo

[GRB73]

For the last few days my almost five year old Wyandotte has had the smelliest morning poos. They are not fecal poos, but large poos with a large white cap. Slightly loose. They almost smell like dog poo. I switched their feed on Sunday to all flock rather than layer feed because they won't lay again until February. They normally take winters off.
Is smelly poop a symptom of disease or could it be from the higher protein in the all flock ( we went from 16% in the layer feed to 20% in all flock)? We are in SE PA and it got cold and snowy very quickly. My girls never react well to these extremes which seem to becoming more and more common. I want to nip whatever this is in the bud. Thank you for your input.

 

[MissMonty]

Change in diet can cause some pretty rank poops for a while. I'd say monitor her and my guess is it'll get better over the next week or so as she gets accustom to the new feed. That is as long as she's acting otherwise fine.

 

[Aapomp831]

She’s probably fine... a sick hen will present lethargy and puffed out feathers and you’ll notice a change. If I can make a suggestion, keep them on the grower feed permanently and when they are about to lay again, offer free choice oyster shell on the side for calcium supplementation. Layer feed forces them to consume calcium even if their bodies don’t need it which can lead to issues later down the line. With the free choice oyster shell and grower feed, they will get the protein that they need (you won’t need to buy expensive mealworms anymore), and you won’t have to strain their digestive systems by changing feed twice a year.

 

[GRB73]

Thank you. I'll just keep watching her. She seems fine--active, drinking and eating fine. She is a little grumpy, but I think that is because she is not happy being stuck in the run. We have deep snow out there and my girls hate the snow.