Possible Causes for diarhhea in baby chicks

[PandoraChick]

Hello,

I am hoping for some help with my baby chicks and also hoping this thread could serve as a good tool for new chick owners, as one place for various causes and diagnostic tools to figure out what the problem is. I tried searching the past forums on my own, but am just more confused now.

Here is the background info:

About 3 weeks ago I started week old leghorns and two 3-4 day old RIR chicks together in one brooder. They all seem to be doing well, but I didn't notice loose poops from almost day 1...It seemed to only be the leghorns at that time. I thought maybe it was the transition and added the electrolytes to their water.

One week after I started them, I started 12 more few day old chicks in a separate brooder. They were all doing well and none of them had loose poops, but I added the vital-mix to the water for the 3 days as normal anyhow.

Two weeks in I am noticing the leghorns are still have these loose poops. No blood, but caramel like in texture...Not really foul smelling, but not pleasant either. It is not all the time though..it was nice out and these older chicks are pretty well feathered, so I brought them out for a bit. I noticed there first poops while out are liquid and then it seems to get normal.
I did some research and decided on adding probios/probiotics to there water. When I mix up a batch, I mix it by the gallon and figured it would be good for the others in the second brooder. I am very careful with cross contamination issues and wash there waterers daily, etc.

Now, the little ones are having loose poops. They are all on medicated started feed. I have not seen any blood in the poop of any of the chicks. Not really seeing mucous either, just liquid, runny caramel colored poop.

I have city water...I am wondering if it could be the water? I am going to pick up 5 gallon jugs of purified water just to be safe.

As of right now, they are acing fine and seem to growing normal.
What I am hoping for is a list of possible causes of loose poops in baby chicks, any tests that I can do and treatments.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. If it is warranted, I could possibly bring in a stool sample to my Vet. He will see poultry if needed and will do a fecal no problem.

Last year when we started chicks, I don't remember dealing with loose poop this long. Maybe just a cpl days in the beginning.

Thank you in advance.

 

[PandoraChick]

Found this chart while searching for answers and posting it here if someone should need it in the future.
http://chat.allotment.org/index.php?topic=17568.0%3Cbr%3E

None of these poops look like what I am seeing with these pullets

.

 

[Mtn Laurel]

I've got the loose, watery poops going on in my brooder, too. The poop is dark tan to brown in color and very watery. They're 5 days old. All are active, alert, drinking well, eating up a storm. I didn't notice the loose poop the first day but noticed it the second. There was evidence of a lot of it yesterday but everyone appears in good health. They're on non-medicated crumbles, have sav-a-chick electrolytes in the water along with ACV. I'm afraid to stop the sav-a-chick until I get the runny poops under control.

The loose poops reminded me of how my hens acted last summer during the heat wave. They drank a lot of water and had really loose, watery poops. I've had trouble regulating the temp of the brooder. Couldn't find my thermometer and was thinking they'd move away from the heat if it got too hot. I was only heating one section of the brooder so they had the option to move. Well . . . wrong . . . they didn't move. I finally found my thermometer and they were all snoozing away in a 100 degree spot! Moving the light up resolved that issue.

I read on here that some oatmeal would help solidify their stools so I made some this morning. I wasn't sure if I was to give it raw or cooked so I defaulted to cooked. That was funny as one baby got her foot stuck in the stuff! They ate on it for a bit and I then removed it. Between the cooler temp and the oatmeal, their stools began to firm up. Except for one chick. I've sat in there and watched them but - NO - they won't poop when I'm around so I haven't been able to identify the loose-pooper. Sigh . . . the things we do for the chicks!

I'm hopeful that it will continue to improve and am thinking the cause was the high brooder temp making them drink a lot of water. Will be watching this thread to see if anyone else has the same problem and how they resolve it.

 

[howfunkyisurchicken]

What you're probably seeing is a cecal poop. Its normal
If they're drinking more water than they should, the poops are usually just mostly water. Those cecal poops can range in color. They're gross, but normal. Not every dookie is the classic brown clump with some white (urea) mixed in.
If this weirds you out, wait until your pullets start passing some intestinal lining. ACK!

 

[Mtn Laurel]

What you're probably seeing is a cecal poop. Its normal

If they're drinking more water than they should, the poops are usually just mostly water. Those cecal poops can range in color. They're gross, but normal. Not every dookie is the classic brown clump with some white (urea) mixed in.
If this weirds you out, wait until your pullets start passing some intestinal lining. ACK!

What you describe above - mostly water - is what I'm getting from at least one. It's been really difficult today to keep the temp constant as it got hot fast outside so has gotten hot in the house. I'm trying to keep it around 92 but it was higher earlier in the day.

Gave them some finely ground oatmeal and they went for it like nothing I've ever seen before. They eat plenty of their crumbles but they inhaled this stuff. Will make a boiled/mashed egg later and see if that helps.

 

[howfunkyisurchicken]

You may want to either nix the save-a-chick or the ACV. Just do one or the other. You can have too much of a good thing. Something else that comes to mind (especially if your chicks a heavier breeds) is the temp. I know everyone says 95° the first week, -5° every week after. Most of my chicks don't like it that hot. I usually keep them somewhere around 85-90° the first week. Anyway, just a couple of ideas. Hopefully their dookies firm up for you.

 

[Mtn Laurel]

You may want to either nix the save-a-chick or the ACV. Just do one or the other. You can have too much of a good thing. Something else that comes to mind (especially if your chicks a heavier breeds) is the temp. I know everyone says 95° the first week, -5° every week after. Most of my chicks don't like it that hot. I usually keep them somewhere around 85-90° the first week. Anyway, just a couple of ideas. Hopefully their dookies firm up for you.

Thanks for the advice and I was actually considering doing just that. Just not sure which one to eliminate. I finally identified the one with the problem. Funny, she's the one I would have picked if I had to make a guess. She's a buff orp, eating well, drinking well, but a little more reserved than her buff orp sister. She's the last to join the brooder "reindeer games" and I've found her alone a time or two today. They're such fluffy birds, not sure if she's "fluffed up" or not.

I gave them some mashed boiled egg and they went CRAZY. Also added some ground up oatmeal to their crumbles. Hopefully that will help.

I agree with you on the temp. I've pulled it down to about 87 and they're much livelier. Poor kiddies, I was frying them!

 

[PandoraChick]

Hi again and thank you for the responses. This is not my first time raising chicks, but wouldn't really call myself "experienced" either as last year was our first time and we got really lucky I guess..had zero issues. I just do not feel this is normal due to the frequency.
This morning was a good example. I went to check on them for the 3rd time and cleaned up the liquid poops yet again.

It seems like its only the leghorns having these...there are 2 RIR in there with them, about a week younger.

Its everyday, multiple times a day I am finding these liquid poops.

I have taken pictures(sorry!).

Please let me know if you think is this normal.






Thank you for the help!

 

[Mtn Laurel]

I can't really comment on what is normal but that looks better than what mine were doing for a while. I was getting almost pure water with just a few bits of solids in it. I think they were drinking too much water as they were too hot. I also discovered it was coming from at least two of them, which explains why I was seeing so much of it.

I've made the following changes and things have greatly improved [knocking on wood here]: Quit the Sav-A-Chick as everyone is eating and drinking. Removed ACV from their water. They're now on clean, clear tap water. I've added small amounts of ground, uncooked oatmeal to their diet along with mashed hard boiled egg. WOW! You'd think they'd never eaten the way they go for that stuff. The principal part of their diet is their crumbles and I'm using the oatmeal and mashed egg as a sort of treat, feeding it to them from my hand. They're not as skittish around me as they were and have no concerns coming right up to my hand now - a bonus side-effect.

Their poo has firmed up but I still get the occasional loose one, which is to be expected and I think is probably normal. Right now I'm fighting the heat situation. It went to 87 degrees here today - two weeks ago we had snow! It's to go to 90 tomorrow. Our AC isn't on yet [better be by tomorrow night!] so I'm having trouble regulating their temps. They wanted the heat lamp and peeped and cheeped when I turned it off. So - I turned it back on but put a small fan - blowing away from them - on the top of the brooder to prevent them from getting too hot. They calmed right down and went to sleep.

Funny thing - put a piece of 2 x 4 in the brooder and found them all "roosting" on it. So cute - all lined up sleeping like the big chicks!

 

[howfunkyisurchicken]

That looks like a normal cecal poo to me. They seem to like to be up over or on something before they let them go. Yuck. I don't see anything wrong with them, besides them being gross!