Please help! Orange poop and possible vent gleet 6-week-old pullet

[CharlieBaby]

Symptoms: My 7-week-old Salmon Faverolles pullet has has orange, runny poop for several weeks. I dismissed it as cecal poop but now see that it is always orange and runny, and sometimes foamy as well. Smells terrible, either same or worse than cecal poop. Possible vent gleet with dirty vent feathers. No normal, solid poops.

Health history: She had a rough start from day one but continues to grow and keep up with her pullet friends and eat and drink regularly. All my pullets came down with a “cold” (undiagnosed respiratory illness) when they were less than a week old, with sneezing all around and lil Salmon Faverolles had very thick rales. All pullets have been breathing clearly and hardly sneezing for weeks. Lil Salmon Faverolles has always pecked at her vent area. She used to get pasty butt as a young chick (treated by cleaning as best I could, then applying Green Goo) but for quite a while now she’s had what I described above — runny orange poop (diarrhea?) with wet, glistening poop on her vent feathers.

What I’ve tried: I’ve already tried a round of Corid. Currently doing ACV in water (1 tbs/gal) and supplementing with fermented feed and Probios probiotics. Grit is available. Additionally, I started applying antifungal cream to Salmon Faverolles’s vent yesterday.

Help please! Any ideas? Bacterial? Should I treat with Tylan-50? Fungal? Let it be?

 

[Eggcessive]

Where did the chick come from? Did you have existing chickens at the time? It sounds like they had some respiratory disease, such as infectious bronchitis or MG, and those may cause problems throughout life, even when symptoms lessen. How is she eating? I tried fermented feed years ago for 7 months, and am not a fan, especially for chicks. It would be good to know if there is fungus, bacteria, or parasites in her poop, if testing could be done. Medistatin powder mixed in water, can be given orally as an antifungal the same as prescription nystatin. Some use Monistat cream orally for fungal infections. For now, I would stop the ACV and the fermented feed, switching to a chick starter crumble. Clean water changed each day. If other chicks are having no problems, it may just be something with her. Hopefully, she will become healthier.

 

[CharlieBaby]

Where did the chick come from? Did you have existing chickens at the time? It sounds like they had some respiratory disease, such as infectious bronchitis or MG, and those may cause problems throughout life, even when symptoms lessen. How is she eating? I tried fermented feed years ago for 7 months, and am not a fan, especially for chicks. It would be good to know if there is fungus, bacteria, or parasites in her poop, if testing could be done. Medistatin powder mixed in water, can be given orally as an antifungal the same as prescription nystatin. Some use Monistat cream orally for fungal infections. For now, I would stop the ACV and the fermented feed, switching to a chick starter crumble. Clean water changed each day. If other chicks are having no problems, it may just be something with her. Hopefully, she will become healthier.

She and the cochin came from a local feed store, NPIP certified. The other two came from Tractor Supply. We hadn’t intended to combine from two sources, but one of the local feed store chicks died and we needed at least one more. We have two hens living outside; we've tried to practice good bio security but you never know 100%…

The pullets eat Purina medicated crumbles and I’ve supplemented with the fermented feed twice in the last week. Did you stop because it was too much work, no noticeable benefits, or unintended side effects? I can stop with that as well as ACV if you think they won't help.

Thinking about this odd orange poop…

• Should I add medistatin powder to the shared water for all four pullets, or just the Salmon Faverolles?
• Would you suggest I call local vets (not specialized in poultry) or send fecal sample to the state lab? There are lots of tests I can pay for at the lab, but I don’t know which ones to choose (ahh!). Would you mind saying which one(s) you'd pick?
• I also suspect infectious bronchitis or MG, obviously unfortunate. Do you recommend a broad spectrum antibiotic to control for any unknown secondary infections that may be impacting Salmon Faverolles’s poop?

Thank you @Eggcessive!

 

[Eggcessive]

You can use the dosage at the bottom of this link, either for feed or more accurately mixed in water and given orally by weight:
https://jedds.com/products/medistatin-medpet

My problem with FF is that it was so messy, and mold could be an issue on the ground. I had a lot of chickens at the time, and they got it everywhere. It actually killed the grass, LOL. After 7 months, I didn’t see any benefits for all of the work involved. It froze in winter, and mold was a problem in warm weather. With plain chicken crumbles or pellets, I found that I could just add a little water to a small pan occasionally, and they ate it in a few hours.

Honestly, I would ask your regular vet (not the receptionists,) if you could bring in your dog or cat, and have them run a fecal float on the collected chicken droppings in a baggy. Just say you want to see what is in there, no treatment is required.

 

[CharlieBaby]

You can use the dosage at the bottom of this link, either for feed or more accurately mixed in water and given orally by weight:
https://jedds.com/products/medistatin-medpet

My problem with FF is that it was so messy, and mold could be an issue on the ground. I had a lot of chickens at the time, and they got it everywhere. It actually killed the grass, LOL. After 7 months, I didn’t see any benefits for all of the work involved. It froze in winter, and mold was a problem in warm weather. With plain chicken crumbles or pellets, I found that I could just add a little water to a small pan occasionally, and they ate it in a few hours.

Honestly, I would ask your regular vet (not the receptionists,) if you could bring in your dog or cat, and have them run a fecal float on the collected chicken droppings in a baggy. Just say you want to see what is in there, no treatment is required.

Thanks for the ideas! I’ll place an order at Jedd’s and try giving antifungal orally to just the Salmon Faverolles. I’ll call around to find a vet who will do the fecal float test.

I was wondering about mold and FF. My girls have liked “fresh” FF as a treat in a little dish, but to do anything large scale like it sounds you did would be tough. They go crazy over regular water and feed mush which is obviously much easier to make.

My husband said he saw a solid-ish poop today, but I haven’t seen one. Her vent area is still sticky. Onward!

 

[aliris]

Can you-all please point to an article or two about poop issues? I purchased 2 young hens from a store and they were not healthy, I believe. Things are better but one still has this "orange" (I would have said "caramel-colored") shiny poop. Is this a problem? There is probably much to know but I am having trouble navigating this site. If you could possibly point to a url about the subject that would be great. ty!

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Can you-all please point to an article or two about poop issues? I purchased 2 young hens from a store and they were not healthy, I believe. Things are better but one still has this "orange" (I would have said "caramel-colored") shiny poop. Is this a problem? There is probably much to know but I am having trouble navigating this site. If you could possibly point to a url about the subject that would be great. ty!

You may find this helpful.
If you wish, start a thread about your pullets and post photos of the poop and them.
https://the-chicken-chick.com/whats-scoop-on-chicken-poop-digestive/

 

[aliris]

You may find this helpful.
If you wish, start a thread about your pullets and post photos of the poop and them.
https://the-chicken-chick.com/whats-scoop-on-chicken-poop-digestive/

VERY helpful; thank you very much! And - oops - that "caramel colored" poop is evidently entirely normal cecal poop. Why didn't I ever even notice this before? smh.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

VERY helpful; thank you very much! And - oops - that "caramel colored" poop is evidently entirely normal cecal poop. Why didn't I ever even notice this before? smh.

LOL That Cecal poop will get you - it's stinky and sticky!
Now that you've noticed this, onward and upward to finding something else new to learn - always learning!

 

[aliris]

LOL That Cecal poop will get you - it's stinky and sticky!
Now that you've noticed this, onward and upward to finding something else new to learn - always learning!

Here's one. That pecking order thing seems to be reciprocal to some extent. Following the trauma you were so helpful with, I decided everyone was morose and lonely following those two birds' demise and we purchased two young 'uns. Integrating was an eye opener, with the #2 being the bigger bully, as described by many to be expected. What I didn't expect is that after everyone has settled in, the youngers let the #2 older still "peck" at them to show place, but they're not spooked or intimidated particularly anymore. They just sort of let her do it; it's like they're humoring her. Everyone knows their order, they're all down with it, but #2 just has to keep re-stating it. It's quite amusing. The youngers are indulging the olders' crotchetiness.