one of my chicks has watery poo. Help!

[MikaRoo]

I have 8 chicks and they have been on medicated feed since I got them and I even put them on an antibotic in their drinking water for 6 days when I first got them. Now one of my chicks has diarreha. It a watery brown color. I don't see any blood in it. They are all acting normal and eating and drinking good. What can I do to stop the diarreha? And what could it be?

 

[lotzahenz]

Hi and welcome to BYC! It is normal for chicks to have watery poo. If you search, there is a page with photos of normal and not normal poo to compare. They have a cecum thing that empties once in a while and it will make the poo watery. One thing I worry about is the use of antibiotics. That is NOT a good idea, unless you know for sure they are sick, as it will kill the good bacteria as well as the bad. In that case, you get diarrhea and no normal flora in there to help with digestion. It is recommended to give them yogurt or biotin supplements to re-introduce this good bacteria. I would use plain yogurt and mix it with the crumbles and add some apple cider vinegar, 1 tablespoon per gallon to their water. Keep the chick nice and warm, but not too hot and check for the pasty butt. If it is eating and drinking well, no worries. The yogurt is a good idea anyway though. There is a product you can buy for chicks, name such as "Save A chick" or something iike that, but it would need to be ordered most likely and you would need it sooner than that. Good luck with your little ones. HenZ


Edited to add: The Apple Cider Vinegar (ACV) must be the organic kind with the "mother" in it. I find it in the local organic store and also in our Kroger store in the organic department. It is about $4. per quart. It is natural and has not been processed. The other kind is not good to use. Just FYI, in case you didn't know.

 

[MikaRoo]

thank you. I was using the antibiotics because some of the chicks I had before died and we think it was coccis and the one that survived I did it for her and the new 7 just had to drink the water too. That was 4 days ago that I stopped the antibiotics.