WATERY POOP

[Zoom Zoom]

My RIR roo has had "loose" poop since he was very young. It wasn't bad , I thought it was normal for him, so I didn't worry about it. The six hens are fine. I started feeding the flock (7 in all) Activia yogurt (with fruit - plain with probiotics isn't available here) three days ago thinking that would clear it up. Yesterday it was a little worse and today it is mosly liquid. I see no signs of worms. He is eating, drinking and acting normal. Gobbles up the yogurt and, this morning, warm oatmeal. Could the probiotics be making this worse? Should I be doing something else. They are all 19 weeks old.

Well, above is what I'm getting when I try to insert a picture so here's what I'm seeing. There is a small amount of dark in the poop surrounded partially by a milky, thicker liquid and then a clear, running liquid.

Thanks!

 

[dawg53]

Hi Rolla, We have New Hampshire Reds and one of them as what looks like your photo ( watery, sometimes white with bits of poo in it,) sometimes resembles watery cabbage soup. She has had it for 3-4 months now, we took her to the vets who gave us antibiotics to treat all 3 in the water, still no change, so back to vets who gave her a mulit-vit injection. She is very health looking, very active and ravenous 24/7. we have just finished a course of Layers pellets/ flubenvent and alas no change, they have cider vinegar in their water daily and fresh greens. Solids go in the front end and a liquid steam out the rear. She hasn't laid since about October last year, sorry we do not have an answer, but sympathize, its not nice to see her like this but we love her to bits and hope for an improvement.

Stop the ACV and greens. Mix buttermilk with plain boiled white rice in layer feed for a few days, that should stop the runs.

 

[casportpony]

Everyone here is so quick to worm a chicken at the drop of hat....Hey why don't you find out if they have worms first. You can get a kit from My Pet Chicken or take a sample to your Vet. Having worms is hard on a chicken but also worming a chicken that doesn't have worms is hard also.. Would you take an antibiotic if you didn't have a infection? Just my thoughts !

'

"Prophylactic Deworming

I have been saying this for years (because I have been seeing this for years!) and here it is: Many young and adult birds can be harboring ascarids (especially if they were parent-raised for any length of time) and you can run fecals all day, and guess what? The fecals will almost always be negative. A paper out of the Univ. of Georgia a few years back confirmed this. Many a time I have been a hero when I have dewormed a bird during a second or third opinion, when it passes a pile of ascarids and shocks the owner after being repeatedly told by other vets that "the fecal was negative." Well, deworm it anyway, with something safe. I routinely use pyrantel pamoate, since you can't hurt a bird with it, unless you aspirate it! "
Source:
http://www.exoticpetvet.net/avian/challenges.html

 

[dawg53]

Pyrantel Pamoate is not similar to wazine. Wazine is mixed in water and treats large roundworms only.
I know of two types of Pyrantel Pamoate. One is an equine paste and the other is a liquid which must be given orally undiluted. Pyrantel Pamoate treats large roundworms, cecal worms and capillary worms in poultry. Oral dosage is 2.5ml for a 5 pound chicken if you're using the 4.54mg/ml liquid.

 

[dawg53]

Stop the corid. Chickens always have cocci, just like ecoli bacteria. Five or six cocci on a microscopic slide is completely normal. However if the slide was loaded with cocci, there would be a problem and they would need corid. Worms arnt your problem since the slide was negative for worm oocysts.
I suspect there is an imbalance of bad bacteria vs good bacteria in their system, aka ecoli bacteria causing the diarrhea. It is passed to other birds via feces. Forget yogurt, electrolytes, gram stains etc etc etc...
I recommend that you mix buttermilk with scrambled eggs and give it to your birds to eat for 3 or 4 days. Then mix it in their feed to make a mash for several more days. Dont add ACV in their water, no meds, no vitamins, no other probiotics...only buttermilk mixed with scrambled eggs. Buttermilk is a better probiotic than yogurt. It is easily absorbed in the digestive tract whereas yogurt tends to pass through them. Buttermilk will help build their immune system and scrambled eggs is extra protein to help build strength.

 

[Ila88]

I had the same type of poop problem; finally got the vet to look into it. There were worm eggs. After deworming, everyone is fine. I learned that chickens can die of worms, so I'm no longer trying to rely on natural treatments.

 

[dawg53]

I had the same thought so added it after the eggs were cooked to be on the safe side.

Correct. Scramble the eggs first, then add buttermilk into the scrambled eggs and mix it up. The buttermilk will cool the scrambled eggs. Stick your finger in the mixture just to be sure before you give it to your birds. Make the mixture somewhat liquidy with the buttermilk.

 

[Zoom Zoom]

Hi - sorry for your problem; hopefully my experience will be of help. If you've read this entire post you know that I tried everything to no avail. As a last ditch effort, I called the University of Missouri School of Veterinary Medicine and spoke with their poultry expert. After telling him everything that had been done he asked LOTS of questions about their environment, especially if they have access to a compost pile - which they don't (apparently a compost heap is a common cause of digestive problems) and he asked if we use chemicals or fertilizers on our yard or vegetable garden, which we don't, so that wasn't the problem. He then talked about feed. At the time I was giving them Rooster Booster vitamins in their water. He told me to stop giving them anything other than their feed and a few treats. I learned that feed companies often put additional fat in feed for the winter and that some poultry can't handle the added fat. This made sense since I moved them to layer crumbles in November when I got my first egg and that was the time the problem started. Also, not all chicks were affected. He said to find a feed with no more than 2% fat and 3% calcium. I was buying crumbles from a local feed store who grinds their own feed and couldn't give me the content analysis. I went to a new feed store in town and found Country Acres layer crumbles with 2% fat and 3.5% calcium. I mixed that with the other feed for a week then put them entirely on the Country Acres feed. That was two weeks ago; the hen's poop is now normal and the roo is just a tad bit loose - I can see improvement every day. I also give them a tiny bit of good quality scratch or corn or meal worms spread over a wide area several times a day along with greens to relieve their boredom. It is amazing that it was the feed all along and I am relieved it wasn't something serious.

I'm certainly no expert since I've only had chickens since June but from my experience, my advice to you is to have the poop checked out by a vet to eliminate parasites, bacteria, etc. If they free range at all, make sure they aren't getting into something they shouldn't. If that all comes back normal, look at their feed content.

Good luck.
Sue

 

[Traphill]

Everyone here is so quick to worm a chicken at the drop of hat....Hey why don't you find out if they have worms first. You can get a kit from My Pet Chicken or take a sample to your Vet. Having worms is hard on a chicken but also worming a chicken that doesn't have worms is hard also.. Would you take an antibiotic if you didn't have a infection? Just my thoughts !

'

 

[Betsy57]

"Prophylactic Deworming

I have been saying this for years (because I have been seeing this for years!) and here it is: Many young and adult birds can be harboring ascarids (especially if they were parent-raised for any length of time) and you can run fecals all day, and guess what? The fecals will almost always be negative. A paper out of the Univ. of Georgia a few years back confirmed this. Many a time I have been a hero when I have dewormed a bird during a second or third opinion, when it passes a pile of ascarids and shocks the owner after being repeatedly told by other vets that "the fecal was negative." Well, deworm it anyway, with something safe. I routinely use pyrantel pamoate, since you can't hurt a bird with it, unless you aspirate it! "
Source:
http://www.exoticpetvet.net/avian/challenges.html

What's the dosage and for how many days for the Pyrantel Pamoate. Is that similar to Wazine?