Chicken poo....

[Jkmsell06]

My daughter's silkie roo just pooped this:

Any idea of what it is? They are indoor chickens. He has a check up scheduled for friday

 

[I Love Layers]

Looks like the silkie has coccidiosis. I would get him in ASAP if he is not vaccinated for it

 

[rebrascora]

How old is he? It looks like shed intestinal lining which is often normal, especially at 7-10 weeks of age but there does appear to be a bit more of it than usual in that poop Is he acting normal? Is this the only poop like that? Has he done any more normal looking poops since? Have you fed them anything unusual recently?

 

[Lolacan]

Yea, how is he behaving?

 

[Rusty Rooster MAC]

It IS shed intestinal lining. How old is the silkie rooster?

 

[Jkmsell06]

Thanks everyone! I was so scared for this little guy today! I ended up taking him in to an emergency vet! It is coccidiosis. He had stopped eating and didn't have much energy. After this poo, it was water and bloody poos...only 4months old! He is doing much better now. Started eating and grooming himself again he is on meds now and I will be watching him very closely!!

 

[LoveChooks9000]

Congratulations on being responsible enough to take your bird to the vet. Many on here don't bother, and rely on advice from people who have no idea what could be wrong with their pets, and there is usually no way of knowing without tests being done.
For the people asking, "How is the rooster behaving?", and questions along those lines, that isn't relevant when it comes to any type of bird. Birds hide their illnesses and pain, and by the time any bird shows ANY sign of pain or illness, they are in a VERY bad way, often already close to death. That's a part of why many people don't take their birds' illnesses very seriously. They don't have any understanding of the fact that they are suffering.
Congrats again on being a responsible pet owner!

 

[micstrachan]

Yes, good job. However, @LoveChooks9000 , we’re all doing our best, not everyone has the means to get to an avian vet, and vets don’t always do what’s in the best interest of the bird. I spent almost $2000 (with our main avian vet plus a couple urgent visits to other avian vets when ours was unavailable) over a period of six months trying to help a sick hen recover from egg yolk peritonitis. The last time she went in, it cost over $300 for her to receive her second dose of hormones to prevent laying. She died a few days later. Had the vet actually EXAMINED her and been honest with me about how sick she was, had he been more interested in my girl’s well-being than his pocket book, euthanasia would have been a more humane option.
Now I have a flock of nine and could not justify (nor afford) to spend that much on one chicken. So I try to learn as much as I can to be better prepared to help a sick beloved chicken. And I try to give back by doing a check in most nights before I go to sleep in case there is a desperate new chicken owner out there who has nowhere else to turn at the time and a little advice could make a difference in saving a pet. There are a few especially knowledgable peope on these forums whose advice I would actually rate higher than my vet’s, because of their level of experience, not because of their degree.
I’ll get off my soap box now. I was just trying to make the point of how valuable these boards are and that everyone’s definition of “responsible” may vary.

 

[rebrascora]

@LoveChooks9000
If the OP had included the information that the bird was acting unwell rather than just the poop picture, then diagnosis/suggested course of action would have been different. We all try to help each other here but we can only be as good as the information provided, allows us. I have had many young birds pass intestinal lining and not have coccidiosis, so it is not, in itself, a symptom.

If everyone who posted here was told to take a sick chicken to a vet then many people would not be part of the forum as lots join specifically because they need help/advice/support with a sick chicken. This section is also a wonderful learning tool as reading the many threads about different illnesses and combining it with my own experience has greatly improved my knowledge of chicken health and illness.
Would you really like to see this whole section replaced with a line that reads " If your chicken is sick, take it to a vet"?
There are many that cannot afford veterinary treatment for their chickens. In such situations it would then be a case of let the chicken live or die perhaps suffering without treatment or euthanize it.

There are also very few vets who will treat chickens and some of those that will, take people's money but know very little about chicken anatomy or diseases and sometimes misdiagnose. Yes there are a few avian vets but often they are hundreds of miles away, so telling people to go to a vet is often not practical.

@Jkmsell06

Pleased to hear you have him on medication and he is looking better already. I hope he continues to make good progress.

 

[LoveChooks9000]

@LoveChooks9000
If the OP had included the information that the bird was acting unwell rather than just the poop picture, then diagnosis/suggested course of action would have been different. We all try to help each other here but we can only be as good as the information provided, allows us. I have had many young birds pass intestinal lining and not have coccidiosis, so it is not, in itself, a symptom.

If everyone who posted here was told to take a sick chicken to a vet then many people would not be part of the forum as lots join specifically because they need help/advice/support with a sick chicken. This section is also a wonderful learning tool as reading the many threads about different illnesses and combining it with my own experience has greatly improved my knowledge of chicken health and illness.
Would you really like to see this whole section replaced with a line that reads " If your chicken is sick, take it to a vet"?
There are many that cannot afford veterinary treatment for their chickens. In such situations it would then be a case of let the chicken live or die perhaps suffering without treatment or euthanize it.

There are also very few vets who will treat chickens and some of those that will, take people's money but know very little about chicken anatomy or diseases and sometimes misdiagnose. Yes there are a few avian vets but often they are hundreds of miles away, so telling people to go to a vet is often not practical.

@Jkmsell06

Pleased to hear you have him on medication and he is looking better already. I hope he continues to make good progress.

"If the OP had included the information that the bird was acting unwell rather than just the poop picture, then diagnosis/suggested course of action would have been different. We all try to help each other here but we can only be as good as the information provided, allows us."

People deceive themselves in the first place, thinking they can "diagnose" anything on here, except for things that are clearly visible such as mite infections and such. Whether the bird is acting unwell or not is irrelevant. As I said in the first post, birds hide their illnesses until they're on their deathbed, so any symptom needs to be taken as their "sign" of sickness. Many people on here think it's relevant that any bird LOOKS sick. This is not the case. If it LOOKS sick, it is nearly dead.

"If everyone who posted here was told to take a sick chicken to a vet then many people would not be part of the forum as lots join specifically because they need help/advice/support with a sick chicken."

True, and so what? The world doesn't revolve around this forum, and what they need is medical advice, not a bunch of people who suggest NOT taking it to a vet and want them to hang around here talking to them about whether it has this or that complaint which are all complete guesses. Meanwhile, the bird suffers on, and most times, the owner has no idea it's suffering because it doesn't "look sick". Oh, back to that again.

"This section is also a wonderful learning tool as reading the many threads about different illnesses...."

Not really. There is only so much you can "learn", esp. on a site like this, but anyone who has any education on the subject KNOWS that any bird that is very sick or very badly injured needs to be seen by an avian vet. I'm not talking about a tiny cut or a few mites. Yes, people can give advice about that here, but you will notice that the people who really don't know what they're talking about are the ones suggesting that chatting on here can fix their birds and that they shouldn't be taken to a vet. Even the sticky before this forum says that this forum is NOT a replacement for a vet, and that if the bird looks like it needs to be seen by a vet, then it should be.

"Would you really like to see this whole section replaced with a line that reads " If your chicken is sick, take it to a vet"?"

Yes, it's common sense to anyone who has any understanding of bird health, but as I've said in other posts, two things in fact, "If you can't afford a vet, don't have pets", and secondly, "If you have a pet that needs a vet and can't afford to go, or won't go for whatever reason, hit the animal on the head yourself and be done with it." Letting an animal suffer on and on is not right, nor is it legal or moral. This forum should only be used for basic first aid and minor problems, not for anything major.

"There are many that cannot afford veterinary treatment for their chickens. In such situations it would then be a case of let the chicken live or die perhaps suffering without treatment or euthanize it."

Exactly what I have said on other threads. If you can't afford it, don't have pets. If you can't afford a vet and you need one, euthanize the chicken yourself. People want it both ways. Too tight or can't afford to take the chicken to a vet, but won't euthanize it either. Come to this site, and get encouraged to prolong the suffering more and more.

"Yes there are a few avian vets but often they are hundreds of miles away, so telling people to go to a vet is often not practical."

It amazes me the lengths people go to to justify not seeking a vet's advice. I know for a fact you have a hell of a lot more avian vets in the US than we do in Aust per head of population, but it's funny how the people who want to find one can always manage to do so. There is nothing like a lack of will to make things seem impossible. It takes five seconds to find one on the net. And, I don't suggest taking birds to a normal vet, only avian vets. If none are nearby, at the very least be in touch with one for emergencies by phone.