4 day old chick w/ diarrhea

[MaggieRae]

I don't know which one it is, but I could probably find out. What do I do? Can I give them anything to stop it or is this normal???

Another one's poo is all solid, nothing liquidy, is this normal too?

Thanks in advance.

 

[MaggieRae]

Anyone?

 

[FarmerDenise]

The morning poo is often liquidy, please give more info.
Do try to isolate the chick. If it is sick, you don't want the others to "get it". When in doubt, I usually add apple cider vinegar to the water. About 1/2 tsp per quart. I don't worry too much about being exact. Others do.
Make sure the cage is as clean as possible. Same goes for feed and water.
There is often some "loss", when aquiring new chicks, that are unavoidable or unexplainable.

 

[Judy]

sometimes the poo is funny without being abnormal, especially in hot weather.

Look here:

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

 

[MaggieRae]

Well, the poo is really dark brown and it's kind of solid*foamy sort of*, then melts into a liquid. I see all sorts of stages of it. I think it may be a stress issue cause I only see them when I clean the brooder. There are really old ones *dry on the paper towels* and then brand new fresh ones when I place the chicks in. I don't see any new ones after that...
What I was thinking is place one chick in the fresh brooder and watch as each one gets 'used' to the clean brooder.

 

[Windchyme]

Quote:
It can be normal, the runny poo often contains the wastes that we urinate out, the non runny poo can also be normal and could be likened to a normal bowel movement in a mammal.

It also could be the sign of a problem. Sometimes some of my chicks get runny for no explainable reason. Make sure their little bottoms aren't blocked off by dried poo or they will get impacted and stop eating and drinking and die. I don't seperate them out unless I have other signs of illness. I give active culture yogurt and vitamins in the water or a probiotic powder in the water with the poultry vitamins. I watch and keep fannies clear. If you see blood or blood tint it is coccidosis most likely and you'll need a drug like Amprol or similar to add into the water and coccidosis takes them down quickly so you have to act very quickly and get the meds in the water right away. If you feed medicated chick starter this ought not be a problem as the coccidosis med is added into the feed. I don't feed medicated starter as I don't see coccidosis very often but the medicated starter makes most of my chicks have runny behinds. I don't know why, I just know it does. I just treat the coccidosis when it comes up.

 

[annek]

it may be cecal poo that you are seeing, every few poops they will have one. it is brown and stinky and perfectly normal. take a look at the poop pictures in the post above from ddawn, it will show you normal and abnormal poo

 

[MaggieRae]

No red. That was the very first thing I've checked. I also check for pasty two to three times a day. I think it may just be a random thing since I only see it once or twice a day(no idea which birds, but I've been able to cancel out half). The good news is I think since I've started offering a small amount of crushed hard boiled egg and organic active culture yogurt every day, that it's getting better.
I only saw one today... Maybe the chick starter just wasn't doing it...

Hm. Thanks everyone. I'll update again tomorow!

 

[MaggieRae]

Quote:
I did. I didn't recognise any as this. This is entirely brown, so I think it may be cecal, just not like that shown in the pictures.