Another foamy poop question

[PaperRain]

Hello all! My chicks are very active and it’s happy peeps 24/7. Some have foamy poo once in awhile and it’s too often and too foamy where it’s cecal. I do see normal poops but I know at least one of my 2 week old chicks is having foamy poo. What confuses me is how active they are. They’re eating and drinking great. I did start bringing in a dirt box with various weeds and they’ve been in it all day for the past week. Even the one week old (I have three 2-weeks and one 1-week). I stopped dandelions because they’re eating that too often and I prefer them to eat the medicated feed for now.

No blood in their poop, no lethargy, their eating and drinking is fine. No pasty butt. They’ve been drinking 1qt of water mixed with 1-2 tsp of ACV that’s changed daily. I added in a cut clove of garlic today. I have some Corid and some have mentioned I should grab some Ivermectin and or Wazine. I’m just hesitant right now because they’re not acting strange other than the foamy poo. I do believe in “prevention is better than the cure” but that ship might have sailed and the garlic + acv is preventative only and won’t do much now. I would love to have them fight it off naturally but I don’t want to wait too long and end up with a dead chick. But I also don’t want to give them a medication they do not need and possibly further hurt them.

My game plan is to monitor them since I added the garlic today. I guess with this post, I’m asking for a second opinion. I think this is worms and Ivermectin sounds good except I don’t know if it’s roundworms or another type of parasite. I cannot see any worms in the foamy poo due to the bubbles. I’ve attached a pic of the poop so poop warning

*My yard is absolutely toxic and I forbid my friends from bringing their small children here for now. We inherited a small house recently and just the yard has taken over last years summer to clean up what was once the neighborhood cat toilet. I have bugs and weeds here I’ve never seen in my entire life and I’ve seen some weird stuff in the military. So in other words...Im worried I got my chicks sick due to how toxic my yard is since I’m grabbing dirt and weeds from there. I don’t use any pesticides but the remnants of cat poop seem just as toxic.

 

[PaperRain]

So I smeared the yellow foamy poop between a paper towel and perhaps some small white spots were there...oof.

 

[PaperRain]

Because they’re not acting lethargic, we’ve decided not to deworm them.

I don’t think the worms had enough time for their life cycle as my chicks are about two weeks. But the yellow foamy poo is distressful. After looking at poop charts, my spouse told me that it’s cecal. But many past questions have denied this and said yellow foam = Protozoa.

My chicks have more solid poops than foam and they’re all very active. We’ll see I guess. ^^;

 

[PaperRain]

So I smeared the yellow foamy poop between a paper towel and perhaps some small white spots were there...oof.

It’s possible this is urate and I just happened to smear it

 

[PaperRain]

lol Kinda like my foamy poop journal. I’ve been researching this topic too much and it’s the same thing day after day: foamy poop is Protozoa and is bad. My chicks are now 3 weeks going into 4, and when we got them at 2 days, I’ve seen yellow foamy poop all the way until now. I don’t think worms have had enough time to develop and I haven’t given them Corid because they haven’t been acting weird. As a matter of fact, they’re becoming more and more bold (escaping their brooder to walk around lol) and absolutely cuddly. They’re eating much more and they drink fine. None of them are lethargic and they’re growing at an exponential rate!
I’ve heard of protein causing foamy poop but I haven’t come across a post confirming that nor is there much info on this online. They do have normal poops and we’ve seen each one produce a healthy poop.
I want to say it’s cecal but too many folks who have had chickens much much longer than me says it’s a hard no. My chickens have some sort of Protozoa but they’re acting healthy and happy.
Ever since we got them, I’ve been expecting their health to decline and even rushed to grab some Corid. They’ve done nothing but become more active and friendly each day.

I truly am at a loss. My biggest fear is they’ll just be dead one day without the showing of declining health as a sign.

 

[Punkybrewster]

Could it be the acv? Garlic? Any meds your giving?
Try removing these from their diet and give them plain old medicated feed and plain water for a few days and see what happens.

 

[PaperRain]

Okay, I will! Yes, they have acv w/ a smashed garlic and their other water feeder has probiotics. I’ll be taking those away with just plain water and their medicated feed.

 

[Punkybrewster]

Sometimes too much extra "stuff" can cause digestive problems.

 

[PaperRain]

I posted this in May and it is now Sep. I wanted to do an update for anyone else who has this problem. It was a combo of medicated feed, ACV, in the water, and me over analyzing the situation. As soon as they were all put outside, switched to non medicated, everything cleared up. They were never lethargic or ever showed signs of sickness. It was me being a worry wort. Althought there was foamy poo, it must have been gas or just the medication interacting with their guts. Since then, all poops have been extremely solid and healthy (wonderful compost btw). Occasionally the cecal wet poo but that’s normal. Thank you all who have posted in this and also reached out. I hope this will add to references of foamy poop questions as I was one of the folks to think foam = 100% sickness. Not true. But don’t ignore it, just analyze and pay attention to the entire situation which also means paying attention to the animal. Cheers all.

 

[jeapa]

great advice!