2 week old silkie chicks with runny poo.

[Teresaann24]

Ok My 2 week old buff silkie chicks have runny poo. This is the first time I have seen them have runny poo since I got them which is when they was about 3 days old.

No blood in poo just runny, They are only eating Mediciated chick starter and grower and plain water.

So why do they have runny poo and should I be worried?

 

[AngelzFyre]

Try some yogurt and see if the probiotics in there will help with the runny poo. If not..you may need more than the medicated feed and have to put them on antibiotics or treat them for coccidiosis. Make sure to keep their little vents clean and I'd put a bit of vaseline around each so the poo doesn't stick to them and stop them up.

This is a post from JennsPeeps about poop that was on 9/25/2008. I bookmarked it so I could come back to it if mine ever got poo problems!

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=91786&p=2

There are a couple different types of chicken poo:

1. normal/typical - it's firm, brown with white urea (bird "pee") on it, and looks like it was excreted through a round nozzle

2. cecal - stinky, stinky, stinky! This is runny and you will know it when you see it. OMG it stinks. It comes from a loop in their intestines. Did I mention it smells bad? It's normal, too. Happens roughly every 5-6 poops.

3. bright green - indicates bird is not eating enough and dropping is green due to bile not being sufficiently diluted by excrement

4. diarhea - different from cecal because of frequency

5. bloody - indicates serious problem, potentially cocci

6. watery - indication of too many treats with high moisture content. My girls get this when they eat too many grapes.

Good info and concise and I could remember where to look for it

...Hope it helps you too!

 

[vfem]

My silkie chicks had runny poo a lot up until about 4 weeks old. I accredited it to stress and food or environment related. There was no strange color, or blood or otherwise.

I did what Angelz suggested around week 3-4. I started giving them yogurt and mixed it with cooked oatmeal. It would get loose again on occasion, but generally I believe it was diet related after that.

 

[natalie1136]

when we got chicks we added ground corn and a bit of grit in the food to keep this from happening. They weren't silkies, but it worked. Add just a little of each to the feed. This is only my opinion, so check with others about this.

Natalie

 

[Teresaann24]

Quote:
Weird thing is it is kinda smelly and I had never noticed a smell from them till they began this runny poo I will try what you suggested and see how it goes. Thanks!

 

[Airilith]

Quote:
Thank you soooo much for posting this!!! I was cleaning out my isolation tank this morning, checking out the poo as I went. I have a 2 week old silkie who is on the road to recovery. Everything looked normal, until I went to put her back in the tank I noticed that she had made a runny little present that stunk to high heaven! OMG it was terrible! So of course I got concerned, until I found this post. Yay cecal poo!

So Teresaann here's to hoping that your problem is that simple! A little ACV never hurt either.

 

[gvilledh]

After spending half an hour isolating chicks and waiting for them to poop, I should have realized I just needed to search on here for the answer! We kept seeing brown runny poop in their box, but couldn't figure out who was doing it. Tonight while I was cleaning their new digs, Lou Ann had them in another box and, sure enough, someone did the runny poop so everyone could step in it. We decided to watch them and see who was doing it (we also knew our kids would die if they knew we were watching chicks and waiting for poop!). Well, each of the seven pooped-perfectly normal poop! That is when I decided to do a search on here. Now I know what is going on, and other than dealing with them getting pine shavings with poop stuck on their feet, all is good.
What a relief. This website is one of the best sites I have ever come across online.