# strange 4 color diarrhoea; green with yellow, white in 2 colors,what's wrong with her



## mellinda (Jun 24, 2016)

Hello everyone

I'm looking for help concerning our 7 year old chicken.

This morning we discovered our only chicken left has diarrhoea.
We've never seen anything like it.

The color looks like white slime, with light-yellow and dark green in the 2 middles... The other color of white looks like "some air bubbles" in it....

Normally is she very lively, now she's extremely passive, sat not on her nest but somewhere else in the chicken run. She didnt want to go outside till after noon... The white pieces were also a bit like jellypudding... She also farths alot.

In the afternoon she at well, drinks very often but she seems to sneeze a bit out. For the rest she gets a good amount of fluid inside her body. When i came look back for her she layed a perfect egg. The day before she also layed a perfect egg.

Now i got her walk outside herself by leaving the big door open of her run. It's hot outside (30°C). Her tokking 'sound' has become back but she seems hoarse. She still is passive but seems a little more lively.

Is there anyone who can please help identifying what's wrong with her so we can do anything to help the animal?

Bringing her to the vet is not an option since she has a panic fear for other people except us.

Thank you on advance.

Yours sincerely


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## MikeA_15 (Feb 21, 2016)

Check the crop to see if it is full before she gets off the roost first thing in the morning. Crop obstructions cause birds to regurgitate just as they may when drinking excessively in hot weather. Does the bird feel skinny with a protruding breast bone? Also look in the bird's mouth and check through feathers for mites/lice. look under wings, along back, abdomen, and around the vent feathers.

Cholera is often overlooked and can be contracted from wild birds, rodents and their droppings. Symptoms for fowl cholera can have prolonged symptoms or death within a day or two. Fowl cholera symptoms include:

Sudden death, fever, loss of appetite, increased thirst, depression, drowsiness, ruffled feathers, head pale and drawn back, increased respiratory rate, mucous discharge from mouth and nose, watery white diarrhea later becoming thick and greenish yellow.

Coccidiosis can be a problem even in older birds like yours, so I'd suggest Sulmet (sodium sulfamethazine) which is available at most feed stores. Give 1 oz per gallon of water for 6 days, or since it is one chicken, a quart size drinker with 1/4 oz of Sulmet added. Make sure this is the only water source the bird can drink for those 6 days. Avoid feeding scratch grains or oyster shell. You can moisten a little bread with low fat or nonfat buttermilk each day with layer crumbles. Feed only small amounts to be eaten as to avoid attracting pests like flies. Follow up on day 7,8,9 with poultry vitamins-electrolytes in water. Probios dispersible powder is also beneficial for reintroducing good gut bacteria after medication or antibiotic therapy. let us know how your hen is doing over this time of treatment.


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## MikeA_15 (Feb 21, 2016)

I don't want to forget mentioning Sulfadimethoxine as an option which is less hard on the kidneys. If the feed store doesn't carry Sulfadimethoxine, then go with the Sulmet.


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## seminole wind (Aug 22, 2015)

It's tough to know what goes on. She's 7 years old, and it's hot. She may have drank a lot of water which would do it. A few of mine have had a day of overheating and I submerged them in luke-cool water to cool off. An older chicken may have a harder time with the heat. Ice in the water works well. Like Michael suggested, check her crop in the morning before she eats . Is she eating normal? 

I sometimes run the hose and make a big puddle and the chickens stand in it and cool off. I don't think sick chickens lay eggs. And the poop just looks watery. I hope nothing is wrong and she just got hot. See if she'll take some yummy treats.


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## mellinda (Jun 24, 2016)

Thank you for your responses. She is not eating normal as in if we bring her stuff from inside our home, she wont pick it up out of her bowl unless we take it in our hand. She's become a bit picky at that part. She does go to her normal chicken feed inside her barnhouse and eats by herself.
This morning she looks a bit better, not much, but i'm already glad she made it through the night. But now her processing part of the crest has got a mm or a mm and a half deep purple. If i leave the big door open she goes for a walk, so she isnt too weak to stand.

Also except 2 pitless cherries and 1 little strawberry she didnt got any green food last week. It is however a fact a family member is using for 2 weeks milk and weaks his bread for the chicken in it, because she liked it more... 

Can that have also an influence??? All stores are closed, so for the moment i can't get anywhere the medicin you mentionned. I did notice a symptom she smashes her beak like we humans do a couple of times but we humons do it only if anything tastes good, that we put our lips 2 times on and off eachother... Dont know how to explain it. She drinks enough and didnt got except her grass she picks herself any green food.

In an half hour she still sneezes one or 2 times but she did that as good as her entire life since we got her as a little chicken...


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## mellinda (Jun 24, 2016)

I just remembered something else... Yesterday while drinking she could drink good but sometimes it looked a bit like she had trouble every now and then swallowing it, she spilled a bit that floated out of her beak, while other times she was still drinking for 5 minutes she didnt do it, only every now and then... Not sure if that can be a clue


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## MikeA_15 (Feb 21, 2016)

mellinda said:


> I just remembered something else... Yesterday while drinking she could drink good but sometimes it looked a bit like she had trouble every now and then swallowing it, she spilled a bit that floated out of her beak, while other times she was still drinking for 5 minutes she didnt do it, only every now and then... Not sure if that can be a clue


Birds having digestive problems get dehydrated and drink more. The trouble swallowing happens when they drink beyond the capacity of what they can pass through the crop. Avoid fibrous food like grasses and fruit. Avoid scratch grains like I mentioned. Stay the course on buttermilk soaked bread in small amounts throughout the day. Intestinal worms, coccidiosis, bacterial infections can all cause enteritis. The photo you provided is evidence and not normal droppings.


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## mellinda (Jun 24, 2016)

She improved today. Very much isnt the case but still a good improvement comparing with yesterday.  Much more vitality. 
Still a little bit passive but she's forgiven since the temps are +30 degrees again. The rain was welcome, she started to improve still when the temp dropped a few degrees i've heard.

Since i needed to go away an entire morning, day and evening continuously, human emergency sigh...., the others watched her. According to them they didnt find anymore stool of the picture i posted in the barn. Also outside they searched the whole area. I came home at night, couldnt check her by myself, will do it asap tomorrow. Almost midnight here, doesnt seem smart to wake her now since opening the wooden 2 meter high door at her barn will wake her.

She sleeps in a bricken barn with a plate roof like they use for building real houses that's isolated with ismo at the ceiling so it's not too cold at winter and not too hot in the summer. Quite sure the temp aint too hot for her inside, they put in a thermometer and it showed only 20.5° at the hottest of the day. 
She got 4 windows from a real old house, so proud my parents builded that for their generation chickens back then 

Yesterday, tomorrow and noon they continuid giving her rice and yoghurt. I asked them to stop the milk for making the food better swallowable and use water. Family members confirmed they stayed always with her till she drank. Not sure wheter to believe it or not, but another one told me she saw her doing the stool and it wasnt really diarrhoea anymore, she described it as not so consistent as poo that comes out smoothly but not all too flat, only at the borders a bit and white-grey color. 
When i asked them if they felt the crop, they told me they forgot........ Also they didnt notice the small piece of purple was still there, agreed, it was very small and not everyone still has a good Eyesight here, but will check for that also myself tomorrow. Tomorrow or monday we are going to put her outside and forbid here to get in. We'll clean all her barn again and after that we'll wash the walls, floor and ceiling with some stuff my parentst their old generation used to desinfect the whole place in the hope killing and eliminating multiplying of the possible infestations. If it's true the diarrhoe and the strange color has stopped, i dont think it's necesarry for her stool the get investigated. But Monday there is a (not sure how its called, too tired to remember the name in english: merchant specialised for farms and normal families like us that sell specialised food, health supplements and everything for pidges, chickens, other birdfamilies and animals that can fly). I know they sell things like antibiotics and other meds for these animals too. Closed in the weekends sadly... Tracked one down with a good rep in the area.

I hope our sweety is out of the woods for now. If tomorrow she's still doing ok i think her chances of making it are fairly good.


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## seminole wind (Aug 22, 2015)

So Melinda, where do you live? And family members watch her for you? That's amazing.


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## chickenqueen (Jan 9, 2016)

Chickens are social animals.She is all alone.Maybe she is depressed.Have you thought about getting more chickens?Plus,when it's hot here and Precious Poo-Poo comes in the house she drinks alot of water and leaves a big watery mess to clean off the linoleum but she's not ill just dealing with the heat.


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## mellinda (Jun 24, 2016)

We have been tinking some time to get this year 2 younger chickens. We've bought her along with another chicken 7 years ago. It's been 2 years the other chicken died. She was picky on her but everytime she found some food she would save it out of her beak and call the other chicken (we called that one our "Lientje, our little ADAD chicken" since she was constantly running and moving. Louise showed her she was the boss and even had the most place in the barn (they had 3 nests but they were Always laying in the nest made of a wooden crate with dried long grass and strow. Lientje was tinier and Louise always layed wide open when lientje only had barely a place to lay next to her in the same nest. Then they slept always back to back and sometimes neck on neck & on eachothers shoulders.

It was rarely Lientje (that was 3 times smaller then our Louise) sat still for even a minute, only by noon she layed herself down quitly next to Louise in the sun. Also if Louise saw us, she aways called the other chicken first and then started running towards us. Since Lien died she has a very close connection to my old dad. Have to admit that breed is a bit heavier then other chicks around here, but my dad is been spoiling her a bit. Especially when our 20y old blind cat died in March this year (still had a good life and was very independable, even walked to his own wired area outside under supervision, loved that Kitty also with all our hearts).

Couple of months ago we put her on the weighting balance, 5.6kg. Other chickens of that breed i remember (think we had 4 or 5 since i was born over a period of 26years), were a bit lighter. Agreed... We have the suspicion she was a half (how is it called- not a laying chicken but one that ppl raise to do in the soup with a father of a fat cock and a normal chicken for laying more eggs then other average chickens, sorry i dont know the names). Dont think it's only my father's faulth she is a bit euh, fluffy XD When we got them she was ironic enough the tiniest and smallest of them both 

Till 2 months ago she had free passage in the entire backyard, more then 40 m². Because it became the time of the year the seeds and vegetables had to be planted, we had to put her after her old beakoned wired area (now she still has 20m² she can walk around outside, not including her barn. She was a bit sad but it passed. She's the type of chicken that Always calls if she sees one of us, and not only for wanting food. If you say just hi to her she cockles very loud and happy and moves away in a good mood. If you ignore her and she sees you entering the 40m² backyard she will keep calling till you go away and will become said if you dont say hello to her. That didnt change much, she's Always been like that. When there arent much crops in the yard, she may even come and run loose, she stays if my dad is digging, spitting the ground with his shoffle or is planting or burrying winter beds. She will Always be around in a radius of 5 meter of him in that case, otherwise she just uses the entire backyard if he goes inside for a drink or a pauze.

We wanted to get mid-summer 2 new ones, but we're hessitating. What if she gets a personality twist and makes the other chicks their life's miserable if she doesnt accept them? Or what if that old chicken gets sick? Fact is, she was the illnesst when we just got her & Lien. They infected the old chicken that almost died of it back then. But Louise has been coping better with other diseased then Lien did. Agreed.. She's sneezing for almost her entire life, but not so severe as she was a couple of days ago. And especially with that strange stoolsample, in the other direction, what if she makes the 2 new chicks sick?

Things are going great at the moment with her. She's still a bit slow and not active, we had in the middle of the day another thunder and lightning orchestra... I went searching her in the rain, she was all wet, hiding under a bush in her area outside the barn. Lucky it was 25° outside, a bit cooler but not too cold. I put her into her barn where she directly went to her feeding place inside. I closed the door and she stayed in. She moved out herself today. Also no signs anymore of the strange colored diarrhoe, even not any diarrhoea at all. She didnt make as much improvement compared to yesterday and 2 days ago, but she's more lively, she gladly eats the yoghurt and rice, she eats by herself now from her old grains and she drinks without. Dad thinks its because he gave her 2 wallnuts today (he has the habbit he told me he holds 2 wallnuts in his pocket of his working pants every day for her and gives her it).

Her crop is very thick at morning, noon and night but according to my old folks (litterly old parents), she always had such a big round crop because she eats alot.
She picked bugs, insects and grass today outside. Even a fallen cherry.


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## seminole wind (Aug 22, 2015)

You sure do love that chicken! I have one that calls alot when she sees me and I go pick her up and rock her a bit then she bites me. I call her psycho. She's a Houdan. They hens are very nice. The roos are nuts. I don't have anymore of them.


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## chickenqueen (Jan 9, 2016)

You don't have to get chicks,you can get adults from other people or livestock sales.First meetings can be rough but the chickens usually work it out themselves.You'd have to quarantine the new ones to make sure they aren't infected w/ something but your lone chicken might benefit from some chicken company.You stated she watched over the other one so why shouldn't she do that again.Just a suggestion.I'm a firm believer of at least 3 chickens so they have company and if 1 dies the other 2 will not be alone.That's how I started out but now have 35 chickens and I love each one dearly.


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## mellinda (Jun 24, 2016)

Today she's 100% the old Louise. She cockles and sings constantly, runs and crosses around her wired area, calls us with no more hoarse sounds when she hears us. No more eggs but i dont care since we didnt keep her last 2 years for the eggs.
I'm very relieved. 
We might do get some other chickens now she's better and we've cleaned out her barn. But we will wait till the temperature settles a bit. Now its constantly hot a couple of days, followed by full days of raining. My parents adviced me to wait till mid-summer, since this is typical weather in this country that causes alot of chickens from chicken farm sellers become ill due to the instable temperatures, according to their +65&+70years experience...


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## seminole wind (Aug 22, 2015)

Melinda where do you live?


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## mellinda (Jun 24, 2016)

I live in Belgium in a small in the country-side.
We've had some terrible weather this month, constantly wet or dry for several days, hot and cold, so dry that the ground bursts, the seeds have been washed away when we planted them, almost all the fruit trees we have dont have fruit, everythings's rotten and the plants and vegetables are ruined. Lucky a small part of the garden has still eatable crops. We dont have to complain, the farmers in the area have more serious problems: constantly thunders, lightning, hail and rain has ruined their entire harvest.
The animals aren't in their normal doing: we've got 6 self-made bird-houses and several nests we know for and from several wild birdspecies, all the babybirds left the nest much later due to the weather. It's rare not one of them wanted to fly out till a week ago when it was dry and warm.It's a miracacle all the birdboxes where empty... And that none of the little chicks were hurt


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## mellinda (Jun 24, 2016)

with a heavy heart i must tell that she passed. She was doing so well and was back to the old Louise that we decided to go on a family trip of 3 days. When we came home today, we found her corpse laying outside a half meter right before the entrence of her sleeping barn... It looks like she just fell down and was instantly dead. The weather was superhot last 14 days, we're glad she passed now instead of later this summer when the heat would become worse. Thank you for your help everyone. We burried her.


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## seminole wind (Aug 22, 2015)

Sorry to hear she died.


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