Hen with jelly in droppings

Hello all,

First time poster in need of some help please! It's been a harrowing few weeks after firstly losing one hen to egg peritonitis, another suddenly dying last weekend and two others currently on antibiotics (baytril) after we noticed runny noses, sneezing a wheezing in them earlier this week. All seemed to be returning to normal until yesterday when our black rocks poops became very jelly like with what resembles overbooked egg yolk within the jelly. I'm guessing the jelly may be mucus, although someone else may know better. She's also very withdrawn which is very unusual for her as she's normally the troublemaker, and although I have seen her eating her appetite seems much less. Drinking doesn't seem to be a problem. Oh and I have checked the very useful poop guide but it doesn't seem to indicate this type of poop unfortunately!

She will be off to the vets again tomorrow anyway, but in the meantime any info to help me understand what's going on will be  really appreciated.

Thanks for the reply. Yes she does have access, I should also have mentioned that her rear end seems to be twitching a lot as well so you could well be right.

Let us know how you get on at the vets. When going round the garden a couple of hours ago poopicking I noticed that 1 dropping had a very small amount of a colourless jelly (though no yolk) in it and my first thought was egg white.

One of mine has been consistently laying softies for a while so this seems to make sense. Hope everything turns out OK for your hen.

thats interesting Lindeggs as I have long been an advocate of apple cider vinegar and garlic 

Update on my black rock - a double blow for her I am afraid, she had become withdrawn due to having a nail wedged in her abdomen so no wonder she hasn't looked happy. Additionally the 'jelly' and yolk type substance in her dropping is because she has developed egg peritonitis. So faced with the moral dilemma of do we operate or do we put her to sleep, we opted for the former to at least give her a fighting chance and depending on your point of view I'm either crazy for going to the expense or I'm truly devoted to my girls! Funny how I (and I am sure many others) bought chickens purely thinking of eggs, yet become so attached to them when you see just how much personality they have!

She is still at the vets so fingers crossed Molly makes it and resumes normal service shortly!

All the best of luck.

Will kepp my fingers crossed thet Molly does well.