5-day-old chick with coccidiosis symptoms, please help!

[Winderdear]

Hello! Please forgive me for making my first greeting here and not in the welcome section. This is a lovely community and I’m so glad it exists, especially now when my baby chick is unwell and I need advice!

This is my first time raising chickens. My four mixed breed female chicks were hatched 5 days ago and arrived from the hatchery the next day, so I’ve had them in my care for 4 days. I noticed yesterday that one of my girls (a little dominique chick) was drinking a lot of water. She is smaller than the others and seems to eat less often. Initially she was not the runt of the group, but even the smallest one surpassed her on day 3. I fed her some egg yolk on day 3, because she was small, though I had seen her eating, but haven’t done so since. I noticed some runny droppings yesterday. My girls were not vaccinated, nor are they on medicated feed. After seeing that she was the one (or one of the ones) with the runny droppings, I did some research and decided to give her corid in her water. Initially I isolated her in a separate brooder, but I noticed there was another runny dropping in the newly cleaned brooder where only the other three girls had been, and as she was so distressed to be alone, I figured I should keep them all together and give them all corid in their waterer. Turns out the runny droppings are from my biggest and most active chick (a welsummer). She ate a fly yesterday, so perhaps that is the cause?

The girls are in a large cardboard box with paper towels as bedding (puppy pads underneath). I feed them scratch and peck grower feed and use a quart nipple drinker with 1/2 tsp liquid 9.6% corid added. I started medicating last night, before which they had been on electrolyte water. I have been obsessively removing droppings from the brooder and looking them over to see if they’re normal, trying to keep track of who made them, but sometimes they hide under their brooder plate and I can’t tell.

Initially I had been giving them a few fresh organic herbs and edible flowers from my garden: thyme, oregano, savory, dill and fennel flowers, calendula petals, radish petals, purslane flower buds, and a couple blueberries. Also freeze dried minced garlic. Today I have tentatively decided to stop giving them anything but their feed because I want them to get the nutrients they need if they’re fighting off a parasite. Do you think giving them herbs and garlic would be a help or a hindrance at this point?

The little sick one is still eating occasionally and drinking, but she’s sleeping a lot more today. Her poo now is more solid but has a bit of blood in it. She hasn’t been on corid for even 24 hours yet, but things seem worse than before.



I would like some advice please about how severe you think the infection is with this level of blood in her feces. Am I doing the right thing by not separating her? My other chicks eat and drink normally and don’t seem listless, and they are all drinking the corid water, since this morning.

This is the welsummer chick’s dropping. Do you think she has the same thing, but not quite so severe yet? She has had multiple droppings like this today.

Should I be giving my little dominique and welsummer or the whole flock anything stronger than corid? How soon should the bloody stools go away if it’s working? Realistically, in how much danger is my dominique chick in from cocci now that she is on corid? Should I do one week of corid before trying something else? I’ve read in other posts that there is a sulfa option, as well as something that actually kills the coccidia, though I can't find the name of it now. I want to source these asap if they’re needed.

I’m sorry for the slew of questions! I’m woefully ignorant, and am trying to do my best for my sweet darlings. Here are some pictures of my little sick girl, her name is Juin (June in French). You can see that she’s smaller than my blue cuckoo marans chick who was hatched at the same time, and who is the second smallest of the group.

Thank you to anyone who is willing to help me

 

[Winderdear]

Ah… I meant starter* feed, not grower

 

[Eggcessive]

I doubt if it is coccidiosis at this early age, but there may be some shipping stress. Stop all extras except chick starter and clean water. Chicks do not need herbs, garlic, etc. Make sure that she is eating and drinking. Adding some water to a tiny dish of chick crumbles changed to keep it fresh may encourage eating. Finish the Corid since you started it. Give not vitamins while on Corid. Hopefully, the chick will become active.

 

[nuthatched]

Looks like normal cecal poops and intestinal shed.
The herbs will not help them at all as the benefits require higher doses than they’ll ever naturally eat, and will dilute the nutrients they're getting from their feed. Garlic is toxic so I wouldn't add that to small chicks feed, period.
Do they have grit? There's a lot of big prices of grain un their feed. If not, they need a crumble.

 

[Winderdear]

I doubt if it is coccidiosis at this early age, but there may be some shipping stress. Stop all extras except chick starter and clean water. Chicks do not need herbs, garlic, etc. Make sure that she is eating and drinking. Adding some water to a tiny dish of chick crumbles changed to keep it fresh may encourage eating. Finish the Corid since you started it. Give not vitamins while on Corid. Hopefully, the chick will become active.

Thank you so much! I will avoid giving them any extras. Do you think stress will cause blood in her droppings? She was certainly stressed last night when I separated her. Do you know at what age coccidiosis presents in chicks? I can’t seem to find much detailed information online. Perhaps I’m being a bit of a helicopter chicken mom here, but I worry about her.

 

[Winderdear]

Looks like normal cecal poops and intestinal shed.
The herbs will not help them at all as the benefits require higher doses than they’ll ever naturally eat, and will dilute the nutrients they're getting from their feed. Garlic is toxic so I wouldn't add that to small chicks feed, period.
Do they have grit? There's a lot of big prices of grain un their feed. If not, they need a crumble.

Yes, they have chick grit with probiotics. Thank goodness, it’s wonderful to hear it’s normal! I will certainly avoid anything that isn’t the starter feed and grit. I had read about the herbs and garlic being given to chicks in a book on natural chicken keeping. Perhaps I shouldn’t have trusted it.

I’m so glad I asked here, I feel like I did so much research and reading and still ended up making potentially big mistakes. I’d never even heard about intestinal shed! Thank you for your assessment and advice!

 

[EggSighted4Life]

Do you think stress will cause blood in her droppings? She was certainly stressed last night when I separated her. Do you know at what age coccidiosis presents in chicks? I can’t seem to find much detailed information online.

Welcome to BYC!

You've already been given good information, that's not blood.

Solid (fairly detailed) resource..

https://www.merckvetmanual.com/poul...ination with characteristic necropsy findings.

 

[nuthatched]

Yes, they have chick grit with probiotics. Thank goodness, it’s wonderful to hear it’s normal! I will certainly avoid anything that isn’t the starter feed and grit. I had read about the herbs and garlic being given to chicks in a book on natural chicken keeping. Perhaps I shouldn’t have trusted it.

I’m so glad I asked here, I feel like I did so much research and reading and still ended up making potentially big mistakes. I’d never even heard about intestinal shed! Thank you for your assessment and advice!

People who write books and blogs don't always verify their information. Herbs can help but it takes a concentrated dose which fresh or dried herbs will not contain unless they eat exclusively that, which would cause issues.
Garlic can help in very minor doses but it causes blood thinning/death in doses greater that than 0.05 of the weight of the animal. Considering that chicks weigh so little and dried garlic is highly concentrated, it would be easy to od.
Intestinal shed is happens every week or so in chickens of all ages, it's the Digestive system renewing itself because their diet.

 

[Winderdear]

People who write books and blogs don't always verify their information. Herbs can help but it takes a concentrated dose which fresh or dried herbs will not contain unless they eat exclusively that, which would cause issues.
Garlic can help in very minor doses but it causes blood thinning/death in doses greater that than 0.05 of the weight of the animal. Considering that chicks weigh so little and dried garlic is highly concentrated, it would be easy to od.
Intestinal shed is happens every week or so in chickens of all ages, it's the Digestive system renewing itself because their diet.

Oh lord, I’m glad I didn’t give them much then, just a couple tiny pieces. They pecked at it but didn’t eat it, thankfully!

 

[Winderdear]

Welcome to BYC!

You've already been given good information, that's not blood.

Solid (fairly detailed) resource..

https://www.merckvetmanual.com/poultry/coccidiosis-in-poultry/coccidiosis-in-poultry#:~:text=Coccidiosis is a protozoal disease,combination with characteristic necropsy findings.

Thank you!

I will certainly check this out!