Constipation and Red Poop

[KiwiBean]

I have a 1.5 week old chick who had mild pasty butt that I cleaned away and blow dried most days but then this week she seemed to become extremely constipated, crying out in pain and straining her vent to try to poop. Her vent ended up slightly prolapsing with her effort of pushing so last night I gave her coconut oil, a warm soak, and lubed up her vent and helped her pass lots of drier poops. I made sure she drank lots of water too. She seemed feel a lot better after a couple hours and even passed some poop on her own without crying.

I dried her off and put her back with my 4 other chicks in the brooder last night and woke up to this poop. Is this cause for concern? I read it could be worms or just intestinal shedding. I do not know which chick it is from since they were all together last night. Please help, Im a first time chicken owner and very stressed out after last night! TIA!

 

[rosemarythyme]

That's intestinal shedding.

 

[KiwiBean]

That's intestinal shedding.

When intestinal shedding happens does it point to something being wrong? Or is it normal and should be expected every week or something? I called the place I got my chicks and they recommended treating the whole flock with Amprolium so that’s what I did starting this afternoon… they didn’t say anything about intestinal shedding

 

[rosemarythyme]

When intestinal shedding happens does it point to something being wrong? Or is it normal and should be expected every week or something? I called the place I got my chicks and they recommended treating the whole flock with Amprolium so that’s what I did starting this afternoon… they didn’t say anything about intestinal shedding

Intestinal shedding is a routine but pretty infrequent thing. With adults you may not even really see it at all, since their poops are bigger.

Amprolium is for treating coccidiosis. It doesn't hurt them to treat for it, but extremely unlikely for an indoor chick at that age to have coccidiosis. It may show up as bloody poops (which look different than the poop you have, think a splatter of blood) but top sign would be lethargy.