Watery, mucusey poop, crusty face??

[Chicken❤️er]

Hi everyone,

Recently our hen Snowpea has been acting sick. My family was on vacation for two weeks when it started, so it’s been a few weeks and she hasn’t gotten better but also not worse. Snowpea is around 3 years old, lavender Orpington. She has been having runny, green and white tinged poops, and her butt is very messy as a result. She is moving much slower than normal, but still tries to do everyday activities and is eating and walking and digging in the yard. I’ve noticed on her face that there’s some strange flaky crust. Photos are below, if anyone has any ideas I truly appreciate it!

Thanks-
Layla

 

[Sara S]

Aww she’s definitely got something, green poop is an indication. That’s horrible too! I’m so sorry and Hoping she’ll get better. It might be an intestinal thing. What does she normally eat? uust Wondering too if any of your neighbors don’t like your chickens if they’re thst close?

 

[Banana01]

The crust could be from her scratching her head constantly due to something irritating her, like mites or lice. Chickens only have their claws and scratch away at their skin sometimes to get the mites off, at least that is how i know sometimes know to give a permethrin topical because they scratch away at their heads when your not looking.

I also recommend first wiping off the dirt buikd up with a wet cloth or wet toothbrush, help her keep the built up debris off her face. It will loosen up if you soak it with water with her relaxed sitting in front of you. You may see areas where she scratches. At the same time look for bugs in her body feathers all the way to her skin. But start at the area at the top of her head and search for sign of insects. You may need to treat with permethrin, do you have anti parasite?

 

[Chicken❤️er]

Hi-
So sorry for the late reply, but I’ve figured out the problem. I think Snowpea had an impacted crop that’s now turned sour. I saw some mites (not related to the problem, I think they came because she stopped dust bathing) treated her with permethrin, and found that the white stuff on her head was not crust, the ends of the feathers have turned white. I isolated her without food and gave her 10ml of olive oil yesterday twice and massaged her crop. Gave her another dose just this morning. However, the problem looks pretty serious as it took me so long to figure it out that it’s been building up for weeks and the massages don’t seem to be breaking down/removing the blockage. She’s really weak now, and starving to death. I feel terrible for taking so long to deal with this and want to take her to the vet nearby, which opens tomorrow, to get surgery to remove the blockage. I’ll let you all know how that goes- I was told they do chickens but not completely sure, I’m worried I may have to convince my family to do it at home if that doesn’t work. My mom is a pediatrician (not a surgeon, but she does have more experience than average) and the surgery seems fairly simple. But I’m getting ahead of myself, we’ll see if that even needs to happen.