yellow liquid running from beak

[Mrs. K]

Recently I added chickens to my flock. Seemed bright eyed and healthy, one of them had a dirty butt, but they all had been in a gunny sack so I was not too worried.

Yesterday I noticed the dirty butt was not getting cleaner, all the others were, and was getting a thicker and thicker coat of green and she was holding her tail down. Today, she was hunched, eyes closed, miserable, and a big crop, when she leaned over to peck something from the ground, a yellow liquid flowed out of her mouth turning the snow yellow.

I separated her from the flock, the rest seem to have adjusted well, and are doing fine, and so are my original hens. This afternoon, I culled her, but am wondering what it was that she had, and praying that whatever it is, does not go through the flock.

I have never seen this.

MrsK

 

[Sunflower]

I had a hen with something like that, she was my favorite hen and it was winter. We brought her in the house and gave her extra loving care. When I picked her up and bent over with her,a yellow fluid just poured out of her beak. She fought and fought to live but there was no improvement. She couldn't really eat much and when she bent over to eat or drink, most of the time, fluids poured out. We ended up culling her. I never did get any answers from anyone on this site and had not seen this symptom before. I wish you the best and hopefully a better outcome than we had with Esther. Good luck!

 

[Mrs. K]

Thank you Sunflower,

I felt kind of bad for culling her, but she looked so miserable, and I did not have any other place to keep her. None of the rest of yours caught anything, if I read your post correctly. So far, the rest of mine look well.

I was kind of kicking myself, for ignoring the whole quarantine situation, but the reason I got more chickens this time of year, was I needed more body heat for my coop, and with the temps plunging, could not wait.

Maybe someone else will chime in, I looked up sour croup, but there was no symptom of yellow running out of the mouth.

 

[Devon Burke]

Hi guys!

I just had the same issue with one of my pullets yesterday. She had a large mass (if you can even call it that) protruding out of her vent. It was round and bloody. It looked like some kind of internal organ and not just like a prolapsed vent. When I picked her up and slightly tilted her forward to get a better look at it, that same liquid you described started pouring out of her mouth. I mean it was like a faucet, the poor girl.

She was almost lifeless. I found her sitting in the corner of our coop like she was trying to lay an egg, isolating herself, and she just let me move her around like it was nothing. She was one of the more shy birds we had. She even let me put her on her side without flapping her wings at all at first. It was very…unnerving, to say the least.

We ended up having to cull her.

I’m newer to the chicken world (8 wonderful months) so I have a lot to learn, but with everything I read, this just doesn’t seem to fit right in those categories. Sour crop, prolapsed vent, egg bound causing a prolapse, egg yolk peritonitis. All of those were suggested answers but none seem to work here. I can post pictures if that’ll help anyone.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

She had a large mass (if you can even call it that) protruding out of her vent. It was round and bloody. It looked like some kind of internal organ and not just like a prolapsed vent. When I picked her up and slightly tilted her forward to get a better look at it, that same liquid you described started pouring out of her mouth. I mean it was like a faucet, the poor girl.

I’m newer to the chicken world (8 wonderful months) so I have a lot to learn, but with everything I read, this just doesn’t seem to fit right in those categories. Sour crop, prolapsed vent, egg bound causing a prolapse, egg yolk peritonitis. All of those were suggested answers but none seem to work here. I can post pictures if that’ll help anyone.

Post your photos.
Did you happen to perform a necropsy as well?

Speculation - could she have had an egg inside the prolapse?
Anything that is blocking, causing inflammation and/or restricting the digestive system will cause the crop to not empty. So if she was prolapsed, the intestines are generally blocked, she's not pooping and so the contents of the crop just sit there - no where to go. Even if healthy if you pick up a hen that has a normally full crop of food/water if you tilt them or press on the crop, then contents are going to come up - they have no gag reflex - the crop is just a holding pouch for food/water to be processed.
It's quite common for a crop to not empty when a chicken has some other issue going on.

 

[Glothomsen]

Has anyone ever gotten any answers to this situation. Very same fluid rushing out, lethargic, pale comb, and it has been 105 with an index of 110+. She's the only one to stay in the coop today. Any advice on next step would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Mrs. K]

Not the advice you want to hear. At that point I would cull her.