3 day old chick has diarrhea, please advice

[fivelittlechicks]

one of my baby chicks has bubbly yellow/orange watery diarrhea. What should the consistency be at this age? She is in with 3 other chicks and there are 3 older chicks in the bin next door. I haven't watched to see if they are all doing this as of yet. They all get chick starter and granite. Fresh water 2-3x a day. And even some play outside the last 2 days. I did have a chick die on Sat. night but it was sick since Mom left it by door in coop.

Thanks for any advice~

 

[annek]

take a look at the poop page and see if it looks like one of those, if you can post a picture.

http://www.chat.allotment.org.uk/index.php?topic=17568.0

 

[fivelittlechicks]

Thank you annek that was helpful. It does look like the kind in the normal range for every 8-10 poo's. So I will monitor and

for the best. Cuz I would hate to have all my chicks exposed to something life threatening at this age. This is my first batch of chicks and they came from my small flock of 5 I got in Sept 08. So It's all new. Thanks

 

[annek]

Do you have them on medicated feed for cocci, that would be the only thing I would worry about at that age. Get the kind with amporilum (sp) not the other stuff. It is safe for them to eat and will help with their immunities. I assume this is not a constant poop but the cecal poop. If it is cocci, you will see fluffing and drooping wings and bloody poop. Anyway, that is my 2 cents.

 

[fivelittlechicks]

no they r are not on any meds. let me know if they should be. the feed supply gave me duramycin-10 antibiotic but i didnt feel comfortable treating them for something they didnt have. Please advise me if chicks need certain meds im unaware of. thanks

 

[annek]

Don't give them the duramycin, my feed store sold me the same stuff. We don't need to be giving antibiotics for no reason, it is why we are in the situation we are today with resistant bugs. If your chicks were not vaccinated for coccidia then I would put them on medicated feed with the amporilum (I never get the spelling right). TSC doesn't sell it, I had to go to a store that carried Purina and they have one called sun fresh or something like that (other companies make it but I couldn't find anything other than purina here). You can go to purina's poultry web site and see if there is a distributor near you.

http://www.purinamills.com/OurProducts.aspx?product=poultry

Good luck!

 

[threehorses]

Quote:
Yes, don't use that. Use either Corid or Sulmet. Corid is preferred.

Also, give them all probiotics (plain unflavored yogurt works. prepared probiotics work. Livestock probiotics work). In any case, they get about 1/4th a teaspoon per chick.

They really do best on medicated (with amprolium only, nothing else) feed. But if you can't get medicated, do the probiotics daily for the first week, weekly for weeks 2-6. Keep Corid and/or Sulmet around. (Corid is preferred for young chicks - it's gentler and not an antibiotic, only an anti-cocci medicine).

Duramycin is an antibiotic and should only be used if if if you know your birds have a specific type of bacterial infection listed on the duramycin package. Coccidiosis, which it really sounds like the bird might have, is a protazoa and antibiotics won't touch it.

Also clean out the brooder, clean all the feeders and waterers just in case.

The live bacteria in the probiotics will help establish more good bacteria in the gut. The living bacteria in the digestive tract of a chicken are literally the workers that feed your bird and protect them. So make sure those good bacteria get established in the first week to help your birds thrive.

Incidentally, the bacteria are what also produce many of the vitamins that baby birds need to grow - particularly those of the B vitamins.