keywee
Hatching
- May 29, 2024
- 4
- 4
- 9
Hi there, my family and I have recently become owners of some backyard chickens! Our 4 chicks are about 12 weeks old now, they are teenagers. 2 are Plymouth Rocks and 2 (including the sick one) are Easter Eggers.
For some backstory:
We believe we have a FTT chick as the third week we had them, we noticed one of them always tended to be under the brooder and often didnt run to eat food with everyone else. She was always the runt of the 4, smaller than the rest, we just assumed she is a couple days/week younger. She began to chirp in pain while pooping and doing diligent searching online I did notice she had pasty butt (but it never dried over her vent, it was always very dirty around her butt feathers though) so we washed her butt often. I read to give her some oil and give her a crop massage. This worked and after 2 days she was pooping normally and eating normally instead of hiding under the heat.
Now, for presently:
For the past 3(?) weeks now, almost 4. She has been chirping in pain while pooping and even straining (we can hear her release her breath after pushing,) and it only takes about 1-2 seconds before shes done. At this point it feels like we have done everything, we are currently trying Save a Chick in their water.
We took her to the vet and a fecal tests showed zero worms etc.
While weighing them, her 3 flock mates are currently about 2.5 pounds while our constipated chick is 1.8lbs. At the vet visit, she was 1.5 pounds, so she is gaining weight, but as she gets bigger, she feels more thin because she is not getting big enough.
I dont believe it is crop impaction because her crop does empty fully at night, I give her massages as well and it doesnt improve her poop.
She has small poops, often with lots of liquid, but she often has poops without liquid too, just her hydration I think. We give her oil and when she poops it is simply just very watery and kind of shoots out of her, but it still causes her to chirp in pain.
I have given her greek plain yogurt, it didnt really help with her poop pain or sizes. I tried giving her probiotic human pills as well (we emptied it out.)
We tried giving them just mashed food (their food in water) and it didnt help.
They currently get chick booster in their water, but we have tried giving her apple cider vinegar as well, to no avail. We tried molasses once, but it didnt dissolve well into the water so we plan to try again soon. We are not doing the chick booster for now as we try to give her save a chick.
When we put extra grit in their main feeder, she had normal poops with no pain… aaand then it came back after about the 4th poop. We thought maybe that was it, she isn’t eating enough grit, but we have been adding additional grit and it hasnt changed anything.
We also do epsom soaks and it helps produce either a big painless poop, or just another painful big poop. We dry her with a hair dryer.
Right now, we are trying to transition them to their outdoor coop, but she is still not completely healthy. They go outside and inside right now as they want, this is just to say they do forage outside right now and eat, but this issue started occurring before they went outside regularly.
Ive attached some pictures of her poop as WELL as her vent after pooping, after research, it looks normal but I posted it just in case. You can notice theres some pasting around it, we clean her vent when it has pasting around it, but often times her vent is completely clean. If you have any experience with something like this, please help!! We love them all so much, we hate to see her having a bad time pooping.
For some backstory:
We believe we have a FTT chick as the third week we had them, we noticed one of them always tended to be under the brooder and often didnt run to eat food with everyone else. She was always the runt of the 4, smaller than the rest, we just assumed she is a couple days/week younger. She began to chirp in pain while pooping and doing diligent searching online I did notice she had pasty butt (but it never dried over her vent, it was always very dirty around her butt feathers though) so we washed her butt often. I read to give her some oil and give her a crop massage. This worked and after 2 days she was pooping normally and eating normally instead of hiding under the heat.
Now, for presently:
For the past 3(?) weeks now, almost 4. She has been chirping in pain while pooping and even straining (we can hear her release her breath after pushing,) and it only takes about 1-2 seconds before shes done. At this point it feels like we have done everything, we are currently trying Save a Chick in their water.
We took her to the vet and a fecal tests showed zero worms etc.
While weighing them, her 3 flock mates are currently about 2.5 pounds while our constipated chick is 1.8lbs. At the vet visit, she was 1.5 pounds, so she is gaining weight, but as she gets bigger, she feels more thin because she is not getting big enough.
I dont believe it is crop impaction because her crop does empty fully at night, I give her massages as well and it doesnt improve her poop.
She has small poops, often with lots of liquid, but she often has poops without liquid too, just her hydration I think. We give her oil and when she poops it is simply just very watery and kind of shoots out of her, but it still causes her to chirp in pain.
I have given her greek plain yogurt, it didnt really help with her poop pain or sizes. I tried giving her probiotic human pills as well (we emptied it out.)
We tried giving them just mashed food (their food in water) and it didnt help.
They currently get chick booster in their water, but we have tried giving her apple cider vinegar as well, to no avail. We tried molasses once, but it didnt dissolve well into the water so we plan to try again soon. We are not doing the chick booster for now as we try to give her save a chick.
When we put extra grit in their main feeder, she had normal poops with no pain… aaand then it came back after about the 4th poop. We thought maybe that was it, she isn’t eating enough grit, but we have been adding additional grit and it hasnt changed anything.
We also do epsom soaks and it helps produce either a big painless poop, or just another painful big poop. We dry her with a hair dryer.
Right now, we are trying to transition them to their outdoor coop, but she is still not completely healthy. They go outside and inside right now as they want, this is just to say they do forage outside right now and eat, but this issue started occurring before they went outside regularly.
Ive attached some pictures of her poop as WELL as her vent after pooping, after research, it looks normal but I posted it just in case. You can notice theres some pasting around it, we clean her vent when it has pasting around it, but often times her vent is completely clean. If you have any experience with something like this, please help!! We love them all so much, we hate to see her having a bad time pooping.
