3 day chicks, watery poop

[Donchickote]

Hi all,

New chicken mom with my second round of chicks, this time shipped from FL to WA!!

I am seeing liquid poops and I don’t know if I should be concerned!

They arrived this morning. They had fairly solid greenish poops on arrival but now it seems like most everyone has liquid stools. No blood, no lethargy that I can see. One pasty butt this morning on arrival that I treated.

All chicks have been active. Every time I think I see someone sleeping more than the rest, they get up and become active, eating and drinking.

When they arrived, I dipped each of their beaks in water with Nutridrench.this is what they have been drinking all day, and I do not have a separate water source.
I will switch to regular water tomorrow. I let them eat a little cooked egg yolk with nutridrench but removed it after 5 minutes. They have Purina medicated food.

One side of coop measures 100F, the other 74F. They snooze for a bit under the heat lamp then run to other parts of the coop. They are not huddled under the light.

I feel like they have all been drinking more than eating, but it may be location of the water near the heat so I switched location. Is this just from them rehydrating or is something else going on?

So appreciate your help!!

 

[Donchickote]

Everyone is sleeping now so you can see them on the outskirts of the heat lamp

You can see on the towel that there is a fair amount of liquid in stools causing a tea staining to the paper.

 

[Donchickote]

Alright, I think this is in part due to the heat being too hot. I saw two birds panting when they woke up under the heat, and it would explain why they are drinking more water. I checked with a different thermometer and the corner was 106F

To fix this, I raised the heat lamp several inches and I am getting 98F at the center.

Hopefully this helps!!

 

[rosemarythyme]

Makes sense - if they're hot they'll drink more, which can lead to watery poops. Heat also can increase the instance of pasty butt so I'd suggest dropping the temperature even more. 98 is still hotter than I'd want to see, I'd aim for somewhere closer to 90-95F.

 

[SourRoses]

Florida is really hot right now, I would have been scared to ship chicks in these temps.
Good thing they all got to you well

The heat lamp does look very close. I would raise it more. Maybe even above the pen top.
With the radiant heat from those bulbs, the surface they are laying on warms up as well, and chicks are pretty good at finding that one warm spot where the beam heats them up.

IMO, brooding in summer is the hardest, because of maintaining their temperature without cooking them. Sometimes it can help to change the temperature in the room in another way... such as closing the door / windows with a high lamp, so the whole room gets pretty warm. Or (less preferred) with a close light, open the door / windows to insure there's still a cool spot in the brooder.
It's a fiddly balancing act depending on lots of variables, and very soon the chicks will want it a little bit cooler almost every day.

I see you are using a string as backup support for the light. I would replace that with something metal, I found a cheap chain meant for dogs at the dollar store which is a great light hanger with less chance of fire.

 

[SourRoses]

I just noticed the waterer has a very dark liquid. What are you giving them to drink?
Note: If you supplement water with electrolytes, etc. it's important to have another waterer with plain fresh water in it.
People can really overdo it with the water supplements. Their feed has plenty of electrolytes in it already.

The only things I ever put in water are:
- Sugar (to perk them up after stress, for only a short interval because it's a petri dish).
- Probiotics during times of stress.
- Medicine or preventatives such as Corid.
Most of the time it should be plain fresh water.

 

[rosemarythyme]

I just noticed the waterer has a very dark liquid. What are you giving them to drink?

It's Nutri-Drench, the stuff looks like watered down coffee. I also give it as the sole source of water the first 24-48 hours after arrival.

When they arrived, I dipped each of their beaks in water with Nutridrench.this is what they have been drinking all day, and I do not have a separate water source.
I will switch to regular water tomorrow.

 

[Donchickote]

I raised it to the very top of the cage and it is 97Fdegrees now. Not ideal but when I I tried taking it out of the cage entirely it was closer to 86 and they started huddling and chirping loudly.

My original hope was that they could move accordingly since I have definite cool spots to 74F in the brooder

You are right @SourRoses I need to get a metal chain to secure. I’ll see what I can find tomorrow after work.

Yes it is nutridrench. I followed instructions per container of 4 fl oz per gallon. Main ingredient is propylene glycol followed by molasses. Minimal electrolyte content as it is mostly amino acids and vitamins. From my understanding you do not need to offer alternate water source for this, but if someone thinks differently let me know. I will change to 50% concentration tomorrow and plain water after that.

 

[Sofainthefog]

They drink more water when they’re hot and more water = watery bowel movements, but not necessarily anything too concerning because they’re instinctually combating it. I do think while the supplements in the water are good/can be helpful, it’s always good to have clean fresh water available. I feel like chickens “know” what they need and it’s best to let them choose between the supplemental water/regular water. It sounds like you have a good spread of temps for them to move around in so I wouldn’t worry too much at this point