2 wk old polish and silkie chicks with blood in stool

[shelleypiat]

Hello everyone,

I have two week old silkie and polish chicks that I moved into a larger brooder two days ago. I changed from coop clean to pine shavings in the brooder. This morning I checked on them and there was blood in many of the stools. It was a mixture of dark red and bright red in the stools. They were loose and a fair amount of blood. All chicks were happy playing, running, and eating fine. I put them right then on corrid to be safe. Now there is no blood in their poops and they are acting great still. Could they be eating the pine shavings and disrupting their stomach lining over night? So weird. They have not been outside yet. Should I wait and see how they do tonight. Crazy. Thank you!

 

[KayTee]

When I got my latest chicks at 3 weeks old they instantly decided that pine shavings were far tastier than the crumbles they had to eat! It gave me no end of concern, but they are now 8 weeks old with no harm done at all from the worryingly large amount of shavings they ate. Their poops stayed normal throughout the time they were in the cage, munching away on wood!

Cocci can be transmitted in various ways. I know that it can be transferred from one place to another on shoes or garden implements, so I wonder if it might be possible for you to pick some up when you do some gardening / digging, and then transfer it to the brooder when you care for the chicks. It's only a thought, but I don't think the wood shavings had anything to do with the blood in their poops.

I think you did absolutely the right thing to treat them with corid as soon as you saw it - here's hoping they all grow up big and strong for you!

 

[shelleypiat]

Awesome! Thank you so much!!!