# Sick Chicken - Lethargic and has diarrhea



## Welli

Hi, 

I'd appreciate some assistance with a sick chicken. She is lethargic and pooing green diarrhea. She is normally fed on layers pellets and given some corn in the afternoons as a treat. Other than the lethargy and the diarrhea she has no other symptoms, her crop is empty and I suspect the green colour of the poo is because she hasn't been eating. The flock are kept in a henhouse with a covered run attached. We use dried leaves as a flooring material as they seem to love scratching around in it.

She started looking off colour last night and we have brought her inside, given her some layers pellets mashed up in some warm water and left her in a quiet room. She has eaten and drunk a little but is not that interested in the food. We have had her about a year but she is an ex-battery hen so is probably about 3 years old now. 

She is the 2nd in the flock to show these symptoms, we found the first one dead yesterday morning. That hen had been looking a bit off colour the day before so we were keeping a eye on her and we treated the whole flock (now 9 birds) for worms over the weekend.

Can anyone give me any suggestions??? The first bird went downhill very fast and I am terrified we are going to lose more of them.


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## elevan

I would probably get some antibiotics into their water...maybe tetracycline.

Have you checked out the sister site www.backyardchickens.com ?


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## redtailgal

Elevan is right about the antibiotics.  I'd also be worried about a coccidia bloom.

Hold off on her grain and give her some whole wheat bread to munch on, soak the bread in water, get it soggy.  This will help get some added fluid in her.

I'd be taking some of that green poo into a vet for analysis before my whole flock got sick.


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