[caralouise1974]

Hi everyone - good to meet you all!

After some lurking and lots of searching around the forum, I've finally got to the point where I have to have the courage to actually post and ask all you good people for advice!

My buff orp has been doing what look like caecal poops... but far more regularly than normal - about 8 droppings out of 10 (ie 8 caecal to 2 normal), instead of one caecal out of every 8 to 10 droppings. This has been going on for a week or so but she's otherwise very active and healthy. She had a minor crop impaction last Saturday, which I fixed with olive oil/ACV (quite a lot of each - she really liked the taste of them and took rather more than I had foreseen she would!) and crop massage, and it seems to have been going on since then. Her poops are also generally smaller and less frequent.

I suspect e-coli (she's had mycoplasma in the past and I hear that makes her more susceptible to stuff like e coli) but would like a second opinion. What makes e coli seem not quite right is that she hasn't got diarrhoea (ie it isn't frequent or especially runny), it's just a greater number of caecal-looking/smelling poops. And the fact she isn't acting ill either doesn't seem to really fit with it being e coli. Or am I wrong?

I've got her on probiotics in any case, in the hope that if it is e coli those will sort her out without the need for a vet appointment.

Anyone got any other ideas for me? All thoughts much appreciated!

[Aunt Sally]

Probiotics are a good idea.  I use Avipro Plus when ever I think they will benifit from it.

No mor advice from me I'm afraid but do post poo pictures if you can.

If she seems fit and well she may be fine but hens do hide problems well !

[caralouise1974]

Probiotics are a good idea.  I use Avipro Plus when ever I think they will benifit from it.

No mor advice from me I'm afraid but do post poo pictures if you can.

If she seems fit and well she may be fine but hens do hide problems well !

Thanks Aunt Sally. I will try and get some poo picures tomorrow and post them up so you can see what I mean. Do you think e-coli might be a possibility? And am I right in thinking that if it is, then the probiotics might cure it without the need for further medication?

[Aunt Sally]

I think if she has e-coli, probiotics may improve her but only antibiotics would cure it. 

E-coli is a normal commensal organism.  I'm not sure what causes an over growth of whether it's a different strain which is pathogenic.  I should read up a bit about it 

[caralouise1974]

Thanks for the advice Aunt Sally - I will also post some poo piccies up to show you later today. (Once it stops raining out there!)

[Foxy]

Poor conditions, namely damp bedding, stress, immuno-compromised chickens may trigger an enteris due to e-coli infection, however the bird would be obviously under the weather so I doubt it. Pro biotics as aunte suggests will keep the gut healthy. I would also keep them on ACV in their dirinking water 25ml per litre for 5 days out of 7. I also add a crushed garlic clove.
Any change to their diet will cause increased ceacal droppings while the gut adjusts to the new diet or change in proprietry feed for example, also feeding a lot of greens may temporarily cause a change in droppings -bit runny and greenish.

[caralouise1974]

Thanks Foxy - great advice there. And a relief to hear that e-coli would make her seem under the weather - on the contrary, she's actually looking completely fine.

We just had a lovely cuddle outside in the sun - she fell asleep on my lap so I had a good opportunity to give her a thorough examination. Vent looks clean, feathers tidy and glossy, crop nicely full (but not over full), eyes bright (when she wasn't asleep!) and comb red, and body weight feels healthy. I couldn't see anything outwardly wrong with her. She has not laid an egg since Thursday morning, but that's not necessarily of concern to me yet, as she usually only lays 6 days out of 7. Her bottom feels a little rounded, which I'm hoping is in any case suggestive of a waiting egg...

I already use ACV, but tend to only have it in one of the two drinkers, as one of them is galvanised and the other is plastic. She may prefer the galvanised drinker, so I shall have to ensure she takes water from the plastic one too from now on.

I also give occasional (twice a week) Respite (garlic-based supplement) and Ropiadar (oregano-based) in their water, and they seem to really like a splash of Battles Poultry Drink too. I top up their calcium levels with Davinova C if I notice anything strange about their eggshells (especially as our other hen, a bluebelle, had Infectious Bronchitis, so she went through a nasty bout of laying soft shelled eggs, which sometimes burst inside her and made her quite poorly - she's on prescribed calcium supplements from the vet now, but I do like to sometimes top-up with soluble calcium in their water too.)

Anyway, the only thing to note is that our buff is certainly immuno-compromised, having had mycoplasma a couple of months ago, which is why I'm always watching her so intently! Perhaps I just need to chill out a bit!

It seems that I should suspect the cause of the extra caecal poo is all that olive oil then - a change in diet. And the funny thing is, she hasn't done one today yet, not that I can see anyway!

Will post a poop pic if I can catch her in the act, but fingers crossed she was just full of olive oil and it has worked it's way out now...

Thanks so much!

[Aunt Sally]

Thanks for that information Foxy.  I've files it in me wooden noddle