Green Watery Poop? I'm Really Worried.

[ForestAlice]

My birds are some kind of Ameraucana mix. They're about two years old, this is their second winter. I've noticed that all of them, Duchess starting first, have been molting. Duchess seems to be done, while Biscuit Bird and Mary have been molting a lot and aren't done yet. Their armpits are pink and they're missing tail feathers, but I'm assuming that that's normal. Now onto the part that's really worrying me-

I heard Mary poop this morning while I was giving them warm oatmeal- and I looked at it to see how she was doing and it was green and watery. I knew this probably wasn't good. I also saw Biscuit Bird's poop- but it was more solid than Mary's was, and wasn't as intensely green. She was eating the oatmeal, she was eating a little bit of normal food, mealworms and drinking the fresh water I gave them just fine. I usually put about a teaspoon of ACV in their tupperware of water, (I give them a fresh bowl two times a day) but I decided not to today because I was anxious about a possible reaction with the oatmeal. (I've got chicken mother's anxiety, even after 2 years. It's bad.) She even showed me that she wanted to go out of the run and roam the yard- but because her poop was green I decided to keep them inside. I have an oil heater set on low inside the nesting part of their coop. Its separate, and kept a little bit warmer than the outside temperature. When I checked, it was about 46F in the coop, which is about 1 degree warmer than it is outside. So I decided to turn up the heater just a small bit in case they were cold.

I keep their nest boxes filled with pine shavings, (in which spider crickets like to hang out, but I don't mind them and I'm sure the girls like to eat them.) and every week I'll clean them out and compost the pine with the dirt in their run. I also sprinkle the run of pine-dirt compost with DE every so often. They also sleep in and poop in their nest boxes. They've stopped laying eggs and we don't eat them either way- but I keep their nest boxes as clean as I can.

I have medicine stocked up- like Wazine and a first aid kit-- but I'm not sure what I should do. If you have any kind of recommendation or idea as to what could be going on- please let me know.

I'm really worried about Mary and Biscuit Bird. Mary especially- because I've never seen green watery chicken poop before. What could it be? Should I bring her into the house and watch her? Should I turn up the heat a little bit more in the nesting area, or was it a mistake to turn it up?

I'm so worried- I don't want to lose another one of my babies.

 

[azygous]

Green watery poop signifies a chicken is eating little to no food. The green is bile unless all they've been getting is green grass and spinach.

It's a symptom. It can't tell you why your chicken isn't eating. They stop eating for many reasons. You need to figure out why.

The most common reason is crop issues. So the first thing is to monitor the crops on the chickens you are concerned about. Are they full? How do the contents feel? Mushy, spongy or lumpy and hard? Any odor? Or is the crop totally empty? If it's full now, is it still full come morning before the chickens eat anything? How does the crop look when you're looking at your chicken? Like a bulge tight against the right side of the chest or does it hang low and swing like a balloon full of water?

The next indicator is behavior. The poop may be watery and green but the chicken may behave normally. Are any of your chickens lethargic? Standing around in one spot, not moving, not vocalizing, eyes half closed, tail held low and flat?

Where and what have your chickens been doing? Free ranging? Where? What things are present? Any compost piles and soggy garden beds?

Have these chickens been having egg laying problems lately? If so, what kind?

Maybe if we have the answers to some of these questions we can begin to figure out if the green poop means anything or if it's a transient thing.

 

[ForestAlice]

@azygous There's no grass in our yard, and I've never fed them spinach before. They've been inside the run for a few days because it's bee n raining outside non-stop. They have a constant supply of organic adult chicken feed and water. I also feed them cooked and watered down oatmeal to help them warm up when it's cold outside.

I'll go back outside and check their crops now, dump out their current supply of food and give them a fresh scoop of food and mealworms again today.

And no- none of them are lethargic. They're all fully aware of their surroundings and come out of their nest boxes to see me when I come out to see them. They seem to like it in there because it's so cold outside.

Normally the past few days they've spent their time in their nest boxes just resting. But the second I go out to see them, they'll come out to see me. And if I do let them out for a few minutes, they'll zip across the yard and scratch through leaves, and flap their wings while they run. They like to spend their time under a bush, just sitting there and scratching around in the dry dirt there. They aren't going into any compost piles-- but there are a lot of sometimes wet, decomposing leaves around the yard that they scratch through. They also will drink from our pond and puddles of rain water, but they haven't had access to those things recently.

I'll reply to the post again when I get back inside from feeling their crops. Thank you so much for helping out- I hope you'll reply when I get back, too!

I've also attached a picture of a recent (like 20 minutes ago) Miss Mary poop.