Diarrhea, should I be worried?

[mendozer]

two of my 4 chicks have diarrhea at times. should I worry or is this normal? Babies always have mushy crap so I'm thinking it's ok.

 

[Erica]

Are you sure it's diarrhoea?

Every 4th chicken poop comes from a different part of the intestine (the ceca) and is soft, tan coloured and rather runny. That's normal.

Having said that, diarrhoea in chicks is very serious. It may be coccidiosis (a parasite picked up from the ground/droppings). If they look at all sick or are off their food then it would be sensible to treat as though they have coccidiosis (hunched posture, droopy wings, sleepy, ruffled feathers, sometimes blood in the droppings, pale faces/eyelids, and diarrhoea). The pet shop or feed store should have appropriate medication.

If they're happy, active and eating well, and don't have the 'sick bird' posture or pale faces then you might try some yoghurt with grated carrot and rolled oats as a probiotic treat on top of their usual food, and not worry too much about the odd runny dropping. But take any sign of going off food or having droopy wings or hunched posture seriously.

 

[mendozer]

they all look healthy. believe me, they're not sickly. they're running around everywhere when i let them out. I didn't know the 4th poop is runny. So their poop is a cycle? how many different poops are there?

 

[elmo]

Quote:
There can be quite a range, actually:

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

What comes out is directly affected by what goes in, not surprisingly. For chickens that free range, expect quite a variation.

 

[mendozer]

I won't be eating for a while after seeing that. haha

but thanks because that's a very useful article there. it does look just like the caecal poop without the white.