8 week old chick has bloody poop

[HatchingFun22]

This just happened as I was feeding and watering my chicks. They are 8 weeks old and are in the middle of the transition to become part of the flock. At least one of the chicks pooped blood as I was filling the water container.

Ive been letting them roam freely around the coop while the grown chickens are free-range during the day. They’re on a crumble mix but sometimes they get to the egg-layer pellets. None are acting listless, and all are fluttering around, pecking and scratching normally. The adults have normal poop from what i can see.

What should I do?

 

[Tookie]

They most likely have coccidiosis, to treat it use Corid.

 

[CaliforniaMountainChicks]

I would definitely start the chicks on Corid asap, liquid or powder. If they are integrated with the bigger chickens already it won't hurt to treat the older ones too.

The Liquid Corid dose is 2 teaspoons per gallon of water or Powdered Corid dose is 1 1/2 teaspoons per gallon of water given for 5-7 days. This should be the only source of water during the whole period of time.

 

[HatchingFun22]

Thank you both! I hauled my kids to the store with me and have Corid in their waterers (the chicks have their own now and the adults do as well). Dosed as recommended here.

 

[CaliforniaMountainChicks]

Thank you both! I hauled my kids to the store with me and have Corid in their waterers (the chicks have their own now and the adults do as well). Dosed as recommended here.

Awesome, hopefully your chicks will recover nicely! I had a hen who showed coccidiosis symptoms when I moved to a new property (new soil typically has other strains), and she showed improvement within 24 hours with corid and the others never got symptoms since they were treated too. Months later and everyone is doing great!

 

[HatchingFun22]

My husband has discovered one of our 8 week old Brahmas, dead in the pen today. I’m about to fill their waterers with their third dose of meds, but I’m disheartened to say the least. I’ll bury her in a while.

On top of that, I’ve had an adult chicken making strange sounds for a couple of months and recently one of my year-old olive eggers has been making the same sounds and had a runny nose last I checked. At this point, I have no idea what to do. I don’t think it’s flu because they’d all be gone by now, 2 months in, right? There are no chicken vets around to help with diagnosis, and I’m only just beginning my second year with chickens so I’m going off of what I research. I don’t believe it’s gape worm because the chickens are not stretching their necks. Other than that, I feel just awful.

 

[CaliforniaMountainChicks]

My husband has discovered one of our 8 week old Brahmas, dead in the pen today. I’m about to fill their waterers with their third dose of meds, but I’m disheartened to say the least. I’ll bury her in a while.

I’m very sorry to hear about your Brahma I still think the bloody poop was caused by coccidiosis, however when there’s that much blood the case could have sadly escalated too much already. I would still continue with the medication, and hopefully your other chicks make a full recovery. Have you noticed any more bloody poop since administering the corid?

On top of that, I’ve had an adult chicken making strange sounds for a couple of months and recently one of my year-old olive eggers has been making the same sounds and had a runny nose last I checked. At this point, I have no idea what to do. I don’t think it’s flu because they’d all be gone by now, 2 months in, right? There are no chicken vets around to help with diagnosis, and I’m only just beginning my second year with chickens so I’m going off of what I research. I don’t believe it’s gape worm because the chickens are not stretching their necks. Other than that, I feel just awful.

With the runny nose and strange sounds it could possibly be a respiratory disease (not avian flu) however I’m not much help when it comes to those as I have no experience and don’t know much about them. I’ll tag a couple people who have more knowledge about them to hopefully help you out with that! @Eggcessive @Wyorp Rock

 

[HatchingFun22]

I’m very sorry to hear about your Brahma I still think the bloody poop was caused by coccidiosis, however when there’s that much blood the case could have sadly escalated too much already. I would still continue with the medication, and hopefully your other chicks make a full recovery. Have you noticed any more bloody poop since administering the corid?


With the runny nose and strange sounds it could possibly be a respiratory disease (not avian flu) however I’m not much help when it comes to those as I have no experience and don’t know much about them. I’ll tag a couple people who have more knowledge about them to hopefully help you out with that! @Eggcessive @Wyorp Rock

Yes, unfortunately there was a lot of blood in their pen this morning but none from the adults that I’ve seen. I tried to clean up some of the blood, but as soon as I did and picked up my most lethargic chick, she pooped pretty substantial sized blood clots in the same place. We moved her to her own brooder with half a tsp corid in a quart waterer, and some food. She didn’t seem to want the water but did peck at the food. No food in her crop that I felt The others seem to be okay for now.

 

[CaliforniaMountainChicks]

Yes, unfortunately there was a lot of blood in their pen this morning but none from the adults that I’ve seen. I tried to clean up some of the blood, but as soon as I did and picked up my most lethargic chick, she pooped pretty substantial sized blood clots in the same place. We moved her to her own brooder with half a tsp corid in a quart waterer, and some food. She didn’t seem to want the water but did peck at the food. No food in her crop that I felt The others seem to be okay for now.

You can try directly giving her water with a syringe to make sure she’s getting the medication. I usually just drip the water on the side of their beak and they drink it by themselves.

Thanks for those three very important pieces of information. Now we know that the poop does have blood in it, the chicks are old enough to have been exposed to coccidia, but they haven't been with you long enough for them to have picked up the coccidia on your premises.

When blood is present in the stool, it is wise also to treat with an antibiotic since the possibility of intestinal inflammation is high and therefore so is bacterial infection on top of coccidiosis.

If you are in a city, call around to pet stores and try to locate pigeon sulfa. It should come in powder form and can be added easily to the Corid drinking water.

Or order the sulfa here. https://jedds.com/products/trimethoprin-sulfa-medpet?_pos=1&_sid=83dcb7a2a&_ss=r

Meanwhile, get the chicks started on the amprolium. Buy liquid Corid at your local feed store. Mix at a rate of two teaspoons per gallon of water. As an added precaution, give the sicker chick a straight dose of undiluted drench dose of Corid .1ml directly into the beak once a day for three days. Do so likewise with any chick suddenly acting sick. This is in addition to the Corid water.

When you get the sulfa, add it to the Corid water and have all the chicks drink it for the next five days. Wait a week, then treat for another five days, minus the drench dose.

I might add, this is a good time to expose these chicks to the coccidia in your soil. Let them go out to play each day. They will be exposed and hopefully develop resistance to the local coccidia and you won't need to got through this again.

You can also try an undiluted drench as stated by @azygous in this post.

 

[CaliforniaMountainChicks]

You can try directly giving her water with a syringe to make sure she’s getting the medication. I usually just drip the water on the side of their beak and they drink it by themselves.

You can also try an undiluted drench as stated by @azygous in this post.

I also want to add that you can add a container of your soil, or clumps of grass with dirt to your chick brooder as soon as a few days old to prevent coccidiosis in the future. My chicks started pecking in the container of soil and dust bathing in it right away. This gradually makes them immune to your local coccidia strain. Chicks raised by hens rarely ever get coccidiosis and it’s due to this gradual exposure.