Loose stools in chicks- HELP!

[jaybme]

My nine week old chick and my 3 week old chick have had oddly smooth, brown stools that smoosh all over the pine shavings, sticking to their feet and generally gross. They have always had it, since day two after hatching, and the other chicks in their hatches do not. The two hatches lived in different brooders, and I was very careful to be bio secure.

I treated the older ones with sulmet one time- for three days, and it did not seem to make a difference. I tried yogurt in small amounts for a few days, oats in small amounts a week later, but no change. Now I have not fed anything at all except medicated chick starter for a month and am planning to wean over to growers for the older ones this week. I use clean waters, oxine 1/8 tsp per gallon clean water ( just started that a few weeks ago).

WHat can it be? Should I worry? Get a different med? Otherwise they are seemingly healthy, and active.

I would not say diarrhea, as they are not more frequent, just loose. My chicks are silkies, two different sources, so I have to assume it is something local.

They are getting more and more sticky as they play together, and I am getting grossed out!

Anyone heard about this sort of thing? Thanks, Jayne

 

[mypicklebird]

You can have a fecal done at a vet's if you want to know if it is a parasite or not a parasite.

Other than that- diarrhea can be caused by diet, viral infection, parasitic infection, bacterial ect.
Some types are more characteristic than others- ie bloody diarrhea in chicks is often coccidia, but that usually happens when naive chicks are exposed to dirt containing the organism left there by previous chickens.

Same bag of food as the chicks with normal feces?

Check the waterers- make sure there is nothing in there but water. Fecal contamination of the water, or food that spoils after getting wet can/will cause diarrhea.

Some of the chicks feces will be softer than others, but most of the time they should look like mini adult poops. Green/brown formed with white part. Stinky/sticky brown all the time- something is wrong.
Jess