1 bloody poo, should i be concerned?

[OHChick]

i picked up 2 ameraucana hens from a backyard breeder a few towns over. when i got them home, they had pooed several times in the cage and all looked good. i got them up at the house (to isolate them from my other chickens for a few days) and found 1 bloody poo. these girls are about 7 mos old. the breeder said they were on medicated feed as youngsters and were recently switched to grower as they're not laying yet.

my question is, should i be worried? should i treat for coccidia just in case? what else could cause bloody stool? could it be the stress of the 1.5 hour car ride? or stress from my dog barking at them?



thanks in advance.

 

[speckledhen]

Worms can cause that as well.

 

[OHChick]

ok, can they have the paste wormer or just the injectible? are there other symptoms of worms? one of them is sneezing now too. ugh. i'm stressing out that i brought trouble home. my DH told me not to go buy chickens to add to the flock because i could introduce disease and here i am home less than 3 hours with one who's sneezing and one with bloody poo.

 

[greyfields]

The best, cheapest and easiest thing to do is take a fecal sample to a vet to check for parasites. You will then know with 100% certainty if it's parasites, cocci, or something else and will then be prescribed the correct remedy.

In the long run, this is the cheapest way to go, since you're not falsely treating animals for things not wrong wit them.