Help quick bloody poop and chick very ill Please? UPDATE

[ruth]

I forgot to mention one other sign - the awful smelling poop. Long before the bloody poop is a really smelly poop that smells like cecal poo and looks like liquid caramel. If you see this, start them on Sulmet.

I'm still baffled because some of the batches of chicks that have taken ill never left their brooder bin in my bathroom and were on medicated chick starter and never had access to outside, dirt, or the rest of the flock so if it's Cocci, it doesn't fit the "normal" definition of how it's spread. Whatever it is, Sulmet works and usually works fast. I had some chicks that were dropping dead left and right and once I started Sulmet they recovered.

The other mysterious thing is that NONE of the free ranging chicks, or those being raised by their mama, that were running around coop/farm at the same time as those in hutches and bins that were dying - none ever got sick. That's why now my treatment plan is to put Sulmet in their hutch water for a week and then turn them loose and let them freerange. My freeranging chicks are always healthier and even the previously sick hutch chicks get better once turned out.

 

[chickabator]

they have had real smelly poo

 

[OCchickens]

This is a great thread. I was searching "bloody poop" because I was surprised to see some in the cage this morning with my healthy-looking 2.5 wk old chicks. I'm interested in Ruth's experience that the free ranged chicks don't get it or recover once turned loose! I also appreciated hearing about the subtle signs -- I'll look for those.

My question is -- when you turn them loose at 1 wk of age -- do they just huddle to warm up? How do you keep them safe from predators & your other chickens?

 

[mypicklebird]

Quote:
state lab usually gets it's sample in the mail. call your local vet and ask for the phone # for your state vet, or if they have a number for a local poultry extension agent. the cost is generally the cost of the fed-ex package to get the body there.

 

[mypicklebird]

Quote:
I think the free range birds do better as long as they do not run into anything truely terrible, because the infectious material is so spread out- fewer numbers of organisms into the body are less likely to cause severe disease. One can get exposed to 1 coccidia in the dirt and be fine, as opposed to a huge number in an enclosed situation. In brooders, even very clean ones- once the pathogen is in there (however it got in) the chicks are wallowing in it- just because the feces built up so fast, and they poop in their food and water. Just like the flu! I am much more likely to get the flu if a sick person is sitting next to me and sneezes directly on my face, as opposed to sneezing across the park and the breeze wafts a particle to me...