diarrhea but no other problems?

sangel4you

Songster
10 Years
Apr 11, 2009
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Halifax, Pennsylvania
Hello all, I am brand new to the board as this is my first time raising any chicks. I have 5- 16day old white leghorn (supposed to all be hens) and we got them when they were 10 days old. All healthy and happy. If anything abnormal, they all prefer a slightly lower temp than normal for their age (they're averaging about 81 degrees). They've all been vaccinated for Marecks and are on started feed from my local supply store (Idk if it's medicated or not as we didnt buy the entire bag so we dont have the label). Since the beginning with us though, there's been one chick that sleeps a little longer than everyone else when they get up to eat, and she usually comes back first to sleep. However she does get up and eat and drink and is actually the same size as the rest, so much so that I can't tell her apart when they are all up playing. There is also one chick that has diarrhea. no blood in it, but it's certainly softer and more runny than the typical "white capped strands". I am assuming this is her also...any ideas? No pasty butts either. I change their water at least once and sometimes twice a day, and add fresh litter daily. There was also something else I noticed. When I first got them, they all were eating, etc but they also had this thing for was around and pecking at and sometimes eating their poo. I tried to clean it out more frequently to stop them, but they've seemed to slowly grow out of the habit. I'll still occasionally catch them pecking at it, or carrying it around making a game out of "look what I've got" but that's it. Any ideas would be helpful. There's only one feed store locally, and they don't seem to know much about chickens nor do they (I don't believe) carry any medicines. Is there anything I can make here that I should try that won't hurt them all since I can't specify for sure which one it is that has diarrhea? And since she's not exhibiting any realy problems besides the dairrhea should I even be concerned? Thank you all so much in advance!
 
May want to get a dewormer... it's a little early for chicks.... you usually don't de-worm until they are at least 16 weeks old.

Try and isolate the one with diarrhea
 
Try feeding them some yogurt. Yogurt will help the gut of the chicken work at peak efficiency. Then if the diarrhea doesn't go away, look into worming them.

And, just so you know, chickens will eat anything that doesn't run away, and this includes poop !
 
I don't have a lot of experience. I'm a newbie too, but someone gave me this link to a chicken poop guide (with pictures) when my chicks started pooping funny.

Hope this helps.

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

If you can get some of the runny poop when it's fresh, use a stick or something and see if you see any worms in it. That could be your answer if anything really is wrong. And if it were me, i would just keep watching the quiet chick to see if she seems to get progressively more lethargic.
 
dont know if this will help or not but try giving them vitamin/minerals. i use Red Cell. its a horse mineral but its better than vi-tal or the other powdered solutions which dont really dissolve well. its a liquid and has a sweet flavor to it(experimental me had to taste a drop of it). has all the vitamins any livestock needs maybe more but ive had no problems with it. ive had similair problems with my chicks and when i got them into the regimine their intestinal problems worked out. i like the yogourt idea though. might have to try it. i heard gro-gel works good too
 
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I had similar problems with one of my 1 year old hens and Apple Cider Vinegar seemed to work great. It was suggested to me on this forum and the folks at the farm supply near my house said that they also use ACV in their chick's water too.
 
so I did check out the poop pictures, and it's a mix of like the ceacum and a watery brown which would make sense because I don't ALWAYS notice it. I also tried the yogurt this morning and left it in there for almost two hours, they walked all through it, etc, but none of them actually seemed interested in eating it. The only thing that still concerns me is she's still sleeping/resting more than the others. I also tried to check out her poo and saw no evidence of worms. IF I can over the next day or so... I'll try to get a picture of the poo to show you.
 
The apple cider vinegar is a good thing. All the chicks get it in there water all good poo. Even after treats. Egg yolk, yogurt, and the occasional clump of sod. Now the turkeys I have do get the bit of the runs after their treats but they do not get the apple cider vinegar due to the metal waterer. They act normal though and it clears up after a day or two. Unfortunately they do not get treats as often.
 

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