loose stool - UPDATE now blood - HELP!

[shakecc]

I have (7) 12 weeks old chicks. I am a new chicken owner so am not sure what is "normal". I am unsure of the culprit, but it appears that one of my chickens has diarreah(sp?). It is a very loose watery stool which has been ongoing for a little over a week. Is this cause concern? How should I treat? They have been free ranging alot the last couple of weeks...I don't know if this has anything to do with it or not.

Thanks!

 

[Dar]

what have you been feeding?
any treats?
other symptoms?
colour of poo?

 

[shakecc]

They are all acting normal...eating and drinking and happy. They have not been getting any treats for the last week or so. We let them pick the watermelon rinds about a week + ago. The only real change is that we finally got their run done yesterday and so they became available to them yesterday.

They are still eating medicated chick starter.

They poop is not black in color, but a dark brown almost looks like a dark brown tar.

After observing them today I am thinking that it may be more than one.

Thanks for any help...

 

[DJF]

Could what you are seeing be cecum (or sp. caecum) poo?

I copied and pasted this from crazy4daisy's post :
"Chickens expel two different kinds of droppings. Regular intestinal droppings are firm, grayish-brown, and capped with white urine salts. Approximately every tenth dropping comes from blind pouches in the intestine, called ceca, where cellulose is digested by fermentation. Cecal droppings are runny, sometimes foamy, smellier than regular droppings, and light brown or sometimes greenish in color."
She copied it from her book, Storey's Guide to Raising Chickens by Gail Damerow.

Search for cecum, caecum, caecal, and cecal on this forum. You will find some pictures with which to compare.


The description that comes closest to our pullets is "melted chocolate."
Hope that is all it is.

p.s. I noticed it in our pullets at around 12 weeks of age as well. I don't know if it had to do with my becoming more observant, or if their foraging behaviour was broadened so as to create more of this type of dropping.

 

[shakecc]

Chickens are still acting normally, but I noticed this morning there was one dropping (looked regularly) formed that has blood in it. Should I be treating them with something?

Thank you

 

[kinnip]

If you're sure it's blood, Sulmet is the best treatment for cocci.

 

[Three Cedars Silkies]

99% of the time, blood in the stool is cocci. Treat with sulmet....quickly.

 

[DJF]

Were you able to treat your chickens with Sulmet? How are they doing now?

 

[shakecc]

They are still acting normally, but I have looked and called everyone in this area to fine some sulmet. The only TSC that has the smaller packets was out of them and the other 2 only had the big tablets that were $65.00. (I only have 7 chickens!) I called OSU (Ohio State Vet Hospital) and was sure they would treat chickens but they don't. So the long and short of it is that I ordered it to be overnighted (w/ a Sat. delivery) from online so it should be here today. That was pricey...darn chickens!

Thanks for checking in!