15 Dead So Far... Bloody Stool in 6 Week Old Chicks....

[dejavoodoo114]

We ordered 100 rooster chicks from Meyer Hatchery 6 weeks ago. We lost 2 or 3 the first few days. Since then the 102 (they sent extra) have been doing great. No problems, very healthy and happy until the morning of Tuesday the 2nd... I went out to feed and water them and found 6 dead. Some had smeared blood on their wings but no wounds that I could find. I then found piles of bloody diarrhea. Some of the other chicks did not look well. I tried to give them milk (just because I put it in there for the others that morning) but they wouldn't drink it. I left to visit family for the day.

My friend stopped by to take care of them that night and found 6 more dead. She said none of the rest looked sick like that morning. When I checked in the morning 2 more were dead. At this point it was Wed morning and we had lost 14 roos that were healthy on Monday... Wed night we didn't loose any but this morning there was 1 more. A total of 15.

I am off work today so I am cleaning out the coop and using Simple Green. All the remaining chicks seem happy and tore up the weeds I put in there and keep pecking my shoes etc... Our chick coop is built off the garage and is a few feet off the ground with plywood floors. We use sand and shavings for the bedding. They have a nipple watering system. The plywood is coated with some kind of adhesive paint so the wood would not take in the smell etc.. DH knows what kind... There were no holes ripped in the chicken wire but the outside is tin and there are chicken wire size openings where the tin meets the floor so a snake could get in there. However, none of the chicks were eaten and I don't think an animal could have taken any out of the small openings.

I do not like loosing my future dinners to some unknown but I also have chicks I hatched in a separate pen in the chick coop. If this is a disease I REALLY do not want to loose any of those. I do not know how much a vet necropsy would be but today is the 4th and no vet is open to take this last dead chick. The others are in the compost pile already. I live in East Tennessee if that helps any. If I need to get you more info let me know. I can get pics of the coop setup as well if it would help...

Please help me!

 

[applegal]

Are they on medicated feed?
Bloody droppings can be a sign of cocci, although I never seen it so bad that it is smeared.

 

[theeggcamefirst]

make sure your water and coop are clean

 

[dejavoodoo114]

Yes, they are on medicated feed. I was trying to find non-medicated but our co-op only carries medicated. Guess I am glad now. Can it still be cocci? The smears were on the wings of some, not all of the dead chicks. They could have just brushed by the ones with the bloody stool... I thought they get cocci from the being outside and such... I will look it up.

 

[Island Roo]

Bloody droppings is a classic symptom of coccidiosis.

You should start them on Ampolium asap. Corrid is one brand of amprol. Get it at your feed / farm store.

Check this for dosage:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/418035/corid-dosage-no-more-confusion

 

[sumi]

Cocci can spread very easily through contaminated waterers and feeders, wild birds visiting, your clothes and shoes even. Medicated feed only helps prevent it. They can still get cocci when on medicated starter. Good luck with them!

 

[chickencrazy888]

Not sure why they would have it smeared on the wings, but it sounds like coccidiosis to me. Just went through it myself with a batch of chicks . First time I ever experienced it. Walked out to their pen and saw one chick dead and a bunch of bloody droppings. They weren't eating much and looking pale and lethargic. Coccidiosis kills fast once one has it, it's easy to lose the rest. I had Corrid on hand and gave it to them immediately. I ended up only losing one more after giving them their first dose. 6 wks old were the age my chicks were when they got it too. I would give them Corrid. I used a liquid 9.6% solution. I think it comes in powder and a higher concentrate as well though. You can buy it an any local farm store. It's almost 5 ml of corrid/ gallon of water. I put it in their water for five days. Worked great! They've been off the medicine now for a week and they are running around eating me out of house and home again.

 

[RonC]

It is in a rather advanced stage to be seeing blood in the droppings. Treat them all immediately.

 

[dejavoodoo114]

Wow, this definitely sounds like cocci. Today is the 4th so the co-op is closed! I am going to call my neighbor and see if he has any corrid on hand. We probably spread it with our boots going from barn where chickens are to the coop where the chicks are. Our chick coop is cleaned regularly but our chicken coop is not as often. Our chickens free range and only go in at night. Will Simple Green do the trick on sterilizing our boots and the chick coop? I don't want to use bleach because of the fumes. Will it spread by air to our 6 day old chicks?

ETA: All the waterers and feeders were new for these chicks and birds can't get in. Must have been us.

 

[Mehjr10]

I would personally use the bleach over the simple green.. Simple green is good for a degreaser but not much of a sanitizer, Mix it to a 200 ppm solution or 1 tablespoon 6% bleach to 1 gallon of water will do this.. By the time the solution dries they should be good to go back in the coop.
You can add a bit of dish soap to the bleach to help with the cleaning .. or use the simple green to clean then sanitize with the bleach.

http://www.clorox.com/pdf/5813-50_service-bulletins.pdf

http://pods.dasnr.okstate.edu/docushare/dsweb/Get/Document-963/FAPC-116web.pdf