Normal poop with drops of blood.

[Shawn Wilder]

My family has 2 NHR that are about 4 1/2-5 months old, and 3 Buff Orps that are about 4 months old. All of then are acting fine, problem is today found normal looking poop on driveway while they were free ranging. Normal except a couple of small drops of blood in it. Again chicks are eating, running, acting fine. None of them are laying yet: hopefully any day now. I was wondering could this be one of them getting ready to start laying? Kinda like "bloody show" in humans?

 

[lauralou]

I don't know a whole lot about it, but cocci causes blood in the poop. I think it tends to affect chicks younger than yours, though. Do a search on cocci or coccidiosis, and see if it seems like what you have. In case you don't know, the Search button is in the blue bar at the top of the page. It took me a while to figure that out...

Something I have been seeing in my birds lately is purple poop, from eating pokeberries. Mine free range, as do yours, so I thought it was worth mentioning.

Hopefully my reply will bump you back to the top of the list, and someone with more knowledge will see your thread and help you.

 

[silkiechicken]

Is it really blood or something else? Before cocci causes blood, it usually comes with a day or two of lethargic chicks and older birds losing weight. My guess is it is something they are eating .

 

[Shawn Wilder]

Not sure if it's their food or not. It really looked like blood. Everybody is acting like their own goofy self though. Guess I'll have to keep an eye on them. Thanx for the reply though.

 

[beakkeeper]

Keep us posted!

~beakkeeper

 

[Guinea Goonie]

There are a lot of things that may cause a small amount of blood in the poop. They could be eating something rather rough in the diet and the gizzard is just not taking it down to the point it should be. Cocci usually has a pudding like poop along with the blood. The poop is a bit loose and it is a bit off color.

I would just watch the chickies and make sure they have LOTS of water to drink and do not discourage them from drinking before they go to roost. A lot of birds will not drink during the day while free ranging and when they get back to the barn/coop/pen they drink like a fish just before they go to roost.

You would be suprise how much a chicken will drink in a days rations. Watch for a lethargic bird in the morning or ones that do not come down from the roost. Some are just late sleepers and some are just slow in the morning. Chickens are just like people in this way, each one is a bit different in getting the motivation to get up in the morning. I know my late sleepers and getty uppers I have about 4 or 5 of them. They are usually the ones I catch and do the morning looksie, lucky them.