New chick mom worried!

[dodgewoman]

We just go chicks last night. We got six Ameraucana chicks(1-5 days old) and six pullets(around 5 weeks old). The older guys are for a friend. Well, I noticed last night some red poop! It seems to be quite watery and red. I'm worried that I have a case of coccidiosis on our hands. It is one of the older ones as I saw her actually going. They all seem pretty peppy and her not fluffed or droopy as of yet. The place we got them was clean and looked like he took good care of them. Should I run to Tractor Supply and get some of the meds to treat this? Will it harm them if I treat them and they don't have coccidiosis. I have included pictures...
See how it soaks into the pine shavings? The next one if older and dried....


Any advide is great appreciated, I don't want my new babies to die

 

[cooped up]

Hopefully , you'll get more opinions than just mine. I kinda had different poops in the brooder also, but only when I change their enviroment a little. Since they just had a change in life , this might be normal. I would continue to observe for a couple of days to see if it continues.

 

[bnjrob]

Are you using the "medicated" feed that has Amprolium in it? If so, then you don't need to get anything extra at this point.

If you want to be on the safe side, you can get some Amprolium - frequently found sold under the name "Corid", and put it in their water.

Amprolium is not an antibiotic, so it is safe for using as a preventative if you don't have a firm diagnosis of coccidiosis. Amprolium interferes with the way that thiamine is used by the body - coccidia are very sensitive to this (more than chickens), and this can get the overgrowth of coccidia to start dying off. They have different ratio levels of Amprolium to use for prevention and then higher ratio amounts to use for an actual diagnosis.

Chickens can shed intestinal lining and have bloody poop on occasion without an "outbreak" of cocciosis. Even though the place they came from was clean, coccidia is still around and always present, it's the overgrowth that causes the problems - like a vaginal yeast infection.

 

[dodgewoman]

Never thought about the change affecting them, good point!

I looked through the list of ingredients in our feed, it's not there

My husband bought a huge bag of starter/grower food that says it's good for 0-10 weeks. Guess it's not fully medicated. I think we will be picking up some medicated food and Corid just so I won't be so worried. Thanks!

 

[bnjrob]

If you use the medicated feed, you don't need to use the Corid. Putting Corid in the water is easy so you could just do that and continue to use the feed you have and not waste any.

 

[dodgewoman]

Ah, so both would be a bit of overkill? Our Tractor supply didn't have any Corid right now so hubby got the medicated feed. It's only a 5lbs bag so hopefully they will go through that quickly(I'll have 15 chicks going by tomorrow!) and then we will be able to get the Corid. I'm just so worried about the little guys, they seem healthy right now though

 

[bnjrob]

Too much of the amprolium can cause thiamine deficiency in the host animal, so you don't want to be double - dosing.

 

[dodgewoman]

Good to know! Thanks. I won't be double dosing then, yikes!