Light sussex

[polo]

Hi everyone.

Any experts on diarrhoea out there? My light sussex has had lose poo for a while now but has been well in herself - eating and drinking well and active.

This week she started to fluff up and look worse each day until I took her to the vets on Friday. She is drinking lots and lots of water and has very watery poo and one I noticed today had strange stringy green mucus in it. She is still eating but has lots lots of weight (currently 1.6kg) Her wattles and comb were pale but quickly got pinker once in the warm.

The rest of the flock are absolutely fine - all just been wormed with flubenvet in January and no worms visible.

Vets reckons she could have coccoidiosis so I am taking poo samples back for analysis and if so she will treat accordingly. The hen is in the utility to keep warm and she is eating and drinking fine and looks quite perky.

Do you think we are on the right track with this?

Thanks

Polo

[Scarlet]

Any other symptoms? How old is she? She would have very runny/waterey poo if she is drinking alot and not taking much food in. Have you seen any blood in the poo?

[polo]

Hi Scarlet, no blood today in poo today and I haven't noticed any in the run. No other symptoms other than in October she had an impacted crop which was sorted with massage and olive oil. She is coming up to one year old.

[Scarlet]

Have you seen blood at all? Cocci is usually seen in young chickens but drinking lots of water makes me think its something else. What does her crop feel like? Has she been laying?
Hopefully RichmondHens might come along soon with a few ideas

[polo]

No, not seen blood at all and I also thought it was something young birds got. Her crop is fine - not compacted or gassy/squidgy. She isn't filling her crop like she would in the run but has eaten a scrambled egg and about 2 handfuls of layers pellets today.

Thanks x

[RichmondHens]

At one year old I would expect her to have developed immunity to coccidiosis but she may be a weakling and therefore more susceptible, although I would expect more than just one hen to be affected if it were coccidiosis. E Coli infection also causes diarrhoea so it's worth asking the vet to check for that, and also for parasites in case the de-worming was not very successful.

[polo]

Thanks RH. The coccidiosis test also comes with a worm count in it. Will also ask her to include E Coli.

The hen is still ok this morning - lots of diarrhoea and getting annoyed to be cooped up.

Will keep you posted.

Polo

[chris]

Hope she's ok Polo!

Side note, now I understand where the phrase cooped up comes from!

[polo]

Hope she's ok Polo!

Side note, now I understand where the phrase cooped up comes from!

I know Chris, I was thinking that when I typed it!!

Just for info I have NEVER seen so much poo in one day. A few of which came out with such force they breached the paper barrier and went all over the kitchen floor closely followed by cats and then the hen (who was let out for cage cleaning) walking through it. Cats got paws washed - I have the scars to prove it, chicken got quickly chucked back in. The floor got bleached.

Having said that, she has only pooed three times in the last 3 hours so hopefully that is due to improvement! She is still eating and drinking so all good!

I'm of to check the house - I'm sure I can still smell poo somewhere....

[chris]

I know what you mean! i'd stepped in poo, and some had smeared on the side of the bottom of my jeans. Kept thinking the baby had pooed, even checked my self!! (of course, after accusing the wife of messing her self!). Only when I put my jeans in the shower and smeared it on my hand, did I realise it was the chickens - gross. Thankfully it was high up enough in my jeans not to drag anywhere else!

Any improvement in her today?

[RichmondHens]

I'm always covered in poo ....................... I'm a poo magnet!

Opening up this morning one of the Orps had dropped an egg under the roost (nestbox blocked off overnight you see). It would have been nice and clean, except that just as I opened the lid to get it out, a young pullet stopped and dropped a poo right on top - lovely!

[polo]

My neighbours look upon me with horror most of the time. If its not poo, its mud form the lottie. Glad I'm not the only one.

No change today. Still loads of nasty smelly runny poo but she is eating and drinking still and looks quite bright. She is not very interested in her layers pellets and the vets advised me to get her to eat something so its scrambled eggs, peas and sweetcorn wth some layers mashed up to fool her. She is so skinny she needs to eat something.

Test result comes back tomorrow so looking forward to that. If its not easily curable then I think its curtains unfortunately. Fingers crossed x

[Scarlet]

Keep us posted - I'm really curious as to what it is. Good Luck!

[polo]

Hi everyone. We have the results back from the vet and its not good news really. They found nothing. The vet is not hopeful and thinks its likely to be something like lymphoid leukosis because of her symptoms.

I'm not sure what to do now so have decided while she is happy I will keep her in the kitchen for a couple of days just to see what happens. I would really like to put her back in with her mates but am worried she can pass something on so wont. I think come Friday I will get my friend around to dispatch her because she can't sustain this level of weight loss before she gets really unhappy.

What a rubbish day!

Polo

[chris]

Tough decision, but one for the better. You never know, she may fatten up thursday over night (here's hoping!)