watery whitish diarrhea

[karmadog]

I had a hen pass away unexpectedly the other day, and now I am noticing a watery whitish diarrhea in some of the others. Any idea what this may be?

 

[ChickenCanoe]

There are many iterations of normal chicken feces.

http://www.the-chicken-chick.com/2012/02/whats-scoop-on-chicken-poop-digestive.html

IMO, there's no way to correlate between feces appearance of a flock and what unexpectedly killed a flock member earlier. Plus, there's much too little information to go on.
The only real way to know what you're dealing with would be to get a necropsy of any bird that dies in the future.
It's best to contact your state poultry lab for instructions and costs. With the hundreds of things that can kill a chicken. lab work is the only way to be sure.

 

[Michael Apple]

I had a hen pass away unexpectedly the other day, and now I am noticing a watery whitish diarrhea in some of the others. Any idea what this may be?

What age are the birds?

 

[karmadog]

What age are the birds?

they are seven to eight months old.

 

[Michael Apple]

they are seven to eight months old.

Young birds are more susceptible to worms and coccidiosis. Nutrients robbed by protazoa and intestinal worms cause excessive urates (the white liquid). Get it before damage is done. Worm them all with Valbazen at .5 cc oral dose with a syringe for a 5 lb bird. Give poultry vitamin-electrolyte-probiotic powder in waterers that day. Then run Corid (Amprolium) in waterers for the next 5-7 days. Dose for 20% powder is 1.5 tsp per gallon of water and 9.6% liquid is 2 tsp (10ml) per gallon of water. Follow up with poultry vitamin-electrolyte-probiotic powder for the next 3 days. Deworm again on the 10th day. Let us know whether you see improvement after 3-4 days after beginning treatment, or if you have questions. I will try to help.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

While that may be good advice, and not to contradict because that's what most people would do, I don't worm unless a fecal sample reading indicates they have worms. The OP doesn't say where they are and what their climate is. We haven't even seen a picture of what the OP considers odd feces.

There could be nothing wrong with them at all.

The last time I lost a hen, rather than prophylactically medicate, a necropsy found that she had cancer. By medicating, I would have prolonged her misery and unnecessarily medicated.

Another time, I thought some had worms, rather than worm, I had a fecal sample read. They didn't have worms but a severe infection of clostridial bacteria. Again, by treating for the unknown, I would have been wasting time and not cured anything.

 

[Michael Apple]

While that may be good advice, and not to contradict because that's what most people would do, I don't worm unless a fecal sample reading indicates they have worms. The OP doesn't say where they are and what their climate is. We haven't even seen a picture of what the OP considers odd feces.

That's why I asked karmadog to report back after 3 days into treatment. If there's no improvement, a different approach to treatment should take place. I could just say,"Take the bird to an avian vet with a few hundred bucks in your pocket", and call that response sufficient. A deworming, especially if one has never been performed, at 7 to 8 months old is as good a preventative as it is a treatment. The same can be said for preventative use of coccidiostats with young birds. I can't even count how many people post about coccidiosis in their flock, and only used medicated feed for the first 16 weeks only. They then wonder why birds are dying at 5 months of age. Birds on range will get worms. Damp conditions will harbor cocci protozoa. It is that time of year.