fecies in blood?

[unclejohn]

My chickens all seem very healthy and happy but i have noticed blood in some fecies. it's like small little balls of blood. like the size of a tiny ball of styrofoam. they have actually been eating a lot of styrofoam because i have been working with it for the past month or two and its all over the place here. I have been feeding them medicated chick starter and medicated chick grower since they were born. they are about four months old now and i have noticed it for the past month or so.

they are in the same coop with 11 bigger chickens that are about two years old ,and those chickens are fine, i never find any blood in their stool at all. 10 laying hens and 1 rooster.

I have found lots of stuff about coccidiosis. but don't want to jump the gun and go steralizing my newly built coop and what not.

is it okay to eat chickens that have coccidiosis? How to i find out for sure if it is this?


any advice please!

 

[unclejohn]

just took these outside. blood in both droppings

 

[cafarmgirl]

It almost looks more like it could be shed intestinal lining. BUT, you've been seeing a lot of it apparently and when it comes to the possibility of coccidiosis you are always, always far better off to be safe then sorry. I very, very rarely see shed intestinal lining. Being on medicated feed won't prevent an outbreak. If these were my birds I'd run a course of Corid just to be on the safe side, just in case they are trying to fight off an overgrowth of cocci. The Corid will take care of it and you won't risk loosing any birds. No need to sterilize anything at all, it won't do any good anyway. Cocci protozoa live in the soil, they are around all the time, it's not physically possible to rid the environment of it. The birds will build up resistence to the strains that are in their environment but sometimes they need a little help along the way to get to that point.

Edited to add: Yes you can eat chickens if they have coccidiosis, chickens generally always have some cocci in their gut at any given time.

You can also have a fecal sample checked by a vet for high numbers of the cocci protozoa.