Long Term Hard Molt, Coccidiosis or Worms

[BurbCoop]

Alright, here is this morning’s poop pic and as well as her recent inconsistent eggs.

She sat in a weird spot on the roost last night and hit the back wall / edge of the poop board. I can tell you, there is a lot of clear liquid with the poop, soaking the pine shavings.

It was interesting to line up her inconsistent eggs showing pigment, wrinkles and oblong misshapen forms. Definitely kind of leans towards some sort of respiratory illness at some point in this hens history, but we’ve never seen active symptoms such as runny nose or discharge.

I also checked her crop this morning and everything was cleared out.

I wonder if we’re dealing with multiple chronic issues here, or side effects as a result of underlying chronic issues.

 

[BurbCoop]

One additional note. I was watching her for a bit before going to work this morning and she was drinking a lot of water. We have multiple watering stations available at all times with clean water, she visited one station three times before I left for work and drank quite a bit. It is warm right now, mid-eighties during the day, but nothing too extreme. They have plenty of shade as well.

Thanks again for everyone's input, always appreciated!

 

[coach723]

I was wondering about water intake, as that can be a cause of runny droppings. I don't see her age mentioned, how old is she? How is her body condition? Does she feel fat, thin, etc.? Watery urates and increased water intake could be an indication of kidney problems. But there are lots of reasons other than that one that are possible. If she has always had runny droppings that can sometimes mean malabsorption in the gut, which can happen as chicks (sometimes viral causes). Diets high in lactose can also cause gut issues that can cause runny droppings.

 

[BurbCoop]

I was wondering about water intake, as that can be a cause of runny droppings. I don't see her age mentioned, how old is she? How is her body condition? Does she feel fat, thin, etc.? Watery urates and increased water intake could be an indication of kidney problems. But there are lots of reasons other than that one that are possible. If she has always had runny droppings that can sometimes mean malabsorption in the gut, which can happen as chicks (sometimes viral causes). Diets high in lactose can also cause gut issues that can cause runny droppings.

Had to look up her age, seems she is a little over two years now.

She doesn't feel fat and I haven't noticed her being thin. She is, and always has been, a relatively large hen, giving our Buff Orpington a run for her money, but without the girth. The vet also noted she seemed in very good health and weight, outside of the diarrhea.

She has always had somewhat loose stools, however, they are pretty much water at this point.

We do not feed anything that would contain lactose. I could definitely see malabsorption or kidney issues as a possibility.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

It was interesting to line up her inconsistent eggs showing pigment, wrinkles and oblong misshapen forms. Definitely kind of leans towards some sort of respiratory illness at some point in this hens history, but we’ve never seen active symptoms such as runny nose or discharge.

No, this doesn't look like the typical corrugated eggs you see with respiratory disease.

These are more like the eggs have been in the shell gland for a longer than normal period of time, one resting against the other. Sometimes you may see slab sided eggs, but this is not the case here.

The shells are pretty thick?

Could be something with the shell gland, but I don't know of any way to fix that. Unfortunately, some hens have quality issues and that's what we have to live with (them too). As for the loose poop, that may just be the way her system works too. I've never encountered it, but there's been a few folks with threads over the years, no matter what they tried, their hen had loose poop all their life and some were relatively older hens around 8yrs or so.

 

[BurbCoop]

No, this doesn't look like the typical corrugated eggs you see with respiratory disease.

These are more like the eggs have been in the shell gland for a longer than normal period of time, one resting against the other. Sometimes you may see slab sided eggs, but this is not the case here.

The shells are pretty thick?

Could be something with the shell gland, but I don't know of any way to fix that. Unfortunately, some hens have quality issues and that's what we have to live with (them too). As for the loose poop, that may just be the way her system works too. I've never encountered it, but there's been a few folks with threads over the years, no matter what they tried, their hen had loose poop all their life and some were relatively older hens around 8yrs or so.

Thanks for the info! I do suspect the egg quality issues might have to do with stress. She is a very nervous and shy hen. Being at the bottom of the pecking order, she gets pecked, corrected and chased off quite a bit. As big as she is, she is always trying to get under our head hen for protection and as a show of submission.

Her sister is extremely neurotic, seems to be in the genes.

Outside of the occasional egg anomalies, she does lay very consistently with much higher quality eggs for the most part. There are thin spots on occasion, otherwise egg shells are thick and strong. She’s only had one soft shelled egg and that was coming out of this last hard molt, to be expected.

We did have another hen years ago that always had loose stools. Like you said, it was her normal. However, it was nothing like the constant fire hose we have going on here. This hen is chewing through the pine shavings budget at a rapid rate

 

[Lkw]

When I started chickening, I inherited a hen that did this who was almost 5 yo. Her name is Clover. She is 6yo now and has stopped laying. I took her to the vet bc she had constant poopy butt and diarrhea… I was given meds even though he vet said tests were negative… at first he thought it was something she ate, but the diarrhea was so bad he wanted to make sure he hadn’t somehow missed something. we went round and round with this after multiple antibiotics did nothing to in the end be given a best guess of just normal for this chick. Lol I now have over 60 ladies and clover is the only chicken who still has poopy butt regularly. I grab her and hose her booty off when it’s really bad and they get some yogurt with fresh fruit when I make it… it helps a tiny bit and she really loves the yogurt. My kids feed her flavored yogurt from a spoon as a treat too.

Luckily she roosts in the same spot every night, so I put down a puppy pad and just change it every day or two (rocks on the corners will keep it from flying away or being taken off by an offended chicken). It works. I no slinger have to clean coop daily bc of her splatter.

 

[Eggcessive]

This is a good link if you haven’t seen it:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/common-egg-quality-problems.65923/

 

[BurbCoop]

This is a good link if you haven’t seen it:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/common-egg-quality-problems.65923/

Thanks! I've looked at that article many, many, many, many times over the years

 

[BurbCoop]

When I started chickening, I inherited a hen that did this who was almost 5 yo. Her name is Clover. She is 6yo now and has stopped laying. I took her to the vet bc she had constant poopy butt and diarrhea… I was given meds even though he vet said tests were negative… at first he thought it was something she ate, but the diarrhea was so bad he wanted to make sure he hadn’t somehow missed something. we went round and round with this after multiple antibiotics did nothing to in the end be given a best guess of just normal for this chick. Lol I now have over 60 ladies and clover is the only chicken who still has poopy butt regularly. I grab her and hose her booty off when it’s really bad and they get some yogurt with fresh fruit when I make it… it helps a tiny bit and she really loves the yogurt. My kids feed her flavored yogurt from a spoon as a treat too.

Luckily she roosts in the same spot every night, so I put down a puppy pad and just change it every day or two (rocks on the corners will keep it from flying away or being taken off by an offended chicken). It works. I no slinger have to clean coop daily bc of her splatter.

Poor Clover, though it sounds like she is still living the good life. That's great she stays in one spot for easy clean up.

I am so paranoid of poopy butt as our hen that had the loose stools years ago eventually got hit with fly strike because we were constantly cleaning her off, or she had gunk on her rear end feathers that left an opening for a fly to get in there and lay eggs. Those fluffy butt feathers serve a very important purpose.

Fly strike is something I never want to go through with a hen ever again. We were able to treat her and get her back to "her normal", but we saw and had to do things, very gross things