22 chicks with loose, foamy, brown diarrhea HELP PLEASE

[vetgirl00us]

They are on starter feed but they are outgrowing their current brooder. Could it be stress or something else? These are hatchery chicks that have not been outside on the ground yet.

 

[vetgirl00us]

Oh yeah, they are 2 weeks old.

 

[SkyWarrior]

Sounds like they caught something. (People bring stuff in on their shoes all the time). Maybe you should look up chicken diseases and try to treat them. Maybe they need yogurt and antibiotics?

 

[OrpingtonManor]

Is it happening with every dropping, or just every 8 to 10 droppings? It's normal if it happens only periodically. It's called a cecal dropping.

Here's a link. Scroll down to see the normal foamy brown poo...
http://www.chat.allotment.org.uk/index.php?topic=17568.0

 

[zatsdeb]

what breed of chicks are they?

 

[vetgirl00us]

Not every single chick has it every single time. I just happened to notice that many of them were at about the same time! I have 17 silver sebrights and 5 white faced black spanish bantams.

 

[Elite Silkies]

It could be cecal poo and that has a pretty good stink to it.

 

[vetgirl00us]

OrpingtonManor! Thanks for the link! That was fabulous lol! It is cecal in origin but it just seems like more often than every 8-10 poops but when you have 22 chicks they are pooping alot lol! I will look into it. Maybe it's normal.

 

[NewHen]

When my four were chicks only one kept pasting up and had droppings unlike the other 3. She looked ill and wasn't as lively as the rest. I switched her from organic to medicated chick starter and she perked right up and the poo normalized to what the others had.

 

[minaayindra]

I lost a chick a few days ago at age 1 week. I took her to Penn State University's Animal Pathology lab and they did a necropsy. I wondered if she had anything that might be transmissible to the other chicks. They discovered she had an infection of the yolk sac and also had omphalitis, which is where the navel opening isn't completely sealed (many times from forced hatch at a hatchery) and the bacteria gets in that way. What I am now waiting for is analysis of the bacteria- the pathologists were more concerned that she might have been infected with salmonella, which is highly transmissible to other chicks. I have seen foamy brown diarrhea with one chick and intermittent diarrhea with another. I only mention this because I was unaware of these conditions and the DVM sounded somewhat ominous if it is salmonella. I'm not sure if it is of any application to your issue but just something to keep an eye on if it starts spreading to others. Good luck!