Sooo much pooping

[thebdj]

Hi,

 

I am afraid to say that one of my girls passed away yesterday. Apart from feeling a bit gutted by the whole thing and that the new year has kick started poorly with my chickens, I am now keen to get to the bottom of why she may have died. I appreciate this is going to be difficult but any opinions are very welcome.

 

She was a Bluebelle who was almost a year to the day. I got her in May and she started laying by the end of May. She was always a pretty good layer in fairness. On New Years Day I noticed that she was behaving oddly. Very quiet, not much motion in her and she was more than happy for me to approach her and pick her up. Whilst she was never unfriendly, she'd always make an effort to escape my grasp! I also noticed around her vent and in her feathers in that area that they were covered in what looked like runny poo. It was an odd colour, mainly 'mint' green for want of a better description.

 

I decided to clean her and keep me eye on her. The next morning (yesterday), she came out of the house and then wandered over to the side of the run and layed down on her side. I decided she was getting worse so put her into my shed and under a suspended heat lamp. I did this to isolate her and give her a bit of warmth which I thought may help. She died a few hours after this.

 

So basically she went noticeably downhill and died within about 36 hours. She had the funny poo round her vent AND she had not layed for 6 weeks. I had assumed the laying may have stopped due to weather, temperature and time of year. My other layers have continued but are very very infrequent now.

 

I appreciate this isn't a great deal to go on but wondered if anyone had any ideas or indeed questions which I could answer that could generate some more ideas. The run contains another 15 chickens, all of whom are fine.

 

Cheers

Justin

[Plum]

I'm sorry to hear it and I really don't have much experience but was thinking green dropping I believe can be due to lots of things like veg, starvation and gastroenteritis but bright green ones can also occur with the type of Newcastle Disease affecting the gut. Its contagous but you say the others are fine so doubt it's that

 

Had she shown other signs or lost weight?

[Jools]

Hi Justin, sorry to hear about your Bluebelle

 

There's a school of thought that this harsh weather sorts out the poorer-doers, which is probably true. Chickens are pretty good a hiding symptoms as they're prey animals and showing a weakness leaves them vulnerable.

 

I think you'll be a little late for a post mortem as they're most effective with fresh birds. By that I mean that they can identify problems more easily when the bird is freshly dead. I've had two pm's done, one with two youngsters delivered live and the other with one that was less than 24hrs dead. Neither yielded any clues as to the cause, although they did rule out lots of things, which was helpful in itself.

 

If none of your others have any symptoms, you may have to just put it down as "one of those things". I'm sorry to say that is does happen with poultry keeping, usually with your favourite chicken of course.

[sandyhas3chucks]

pants isn't it that "favourite" one bit, wonder why it seems like that?

Green poo I "think" can also be a sign of worms.

As already said they hide things too well.

It is possible she laid a softee and the shell did not pass and was rotting inside.

As already said it is too late for a pm. and may not show anything, she might have had a bacterial infection too.

I am really sorry for your loss, keep a close eye on the droppings of the rest incase there is an infection lurking .

And hard as it is try not to fret or beat yourself up over it, they go down hill so flippin fast!!!

[chick wiggle]

Hi justin, cant help with any reasonable causes either Im afraid as said unfortunately too many times, it could be 'one of those (blasted) things' . Keep an eye on your other girls and fingers crossed everythings fine.

So sorry for your loss