Projectile diarrhea in otherwise healthy chick

[CasparAntrim]

Hello all,

We have a three week old BLRW chick who is on her third day of diarrhea. Temperature is okay (and lowering it does not resolve the problem), nor does she show any other signs of parasites including cocci. However, she's been separated from the rest so that we can treat her singularly.

So far we've given her electrolyte water, and a healthy helping of zucchini which she wasted no time in devouring. She was pulled from protein while we ruled out parasites as best we could. It's now been an hour since the zucchini and she is still having very watery stools only sometimes containing some solids that look a little like her starter. No signs of the zucchini yet despite her very full crop.

It must be stressed that this is an otherwise very healthy bird. She is very active, alert, curious, and just as much as a cute pain in the butt as always. What other things could be causing this diarrhea? Information on this is very difficult to find online as it seems the consensus always leans towards cocci very quickly and that diagnosis does not make sense here.

Any other information can be provided upon request. Please advise.

Thank you so much in advance,
Tyler and Jen

 

[newwestchick]

I would try some probiotic sprinkled on the food (from human probiotic capsules) or apple cider vinegar in the water, or both. Can't hurt! Sometimes I even mix apple cider vinegar in with cooked oats or other "sticky" glutinous materials for diahreah. As long as she is drinking water and active I wouldn't be too concerned... If she gets worse or lethargic it could be parasites.
Cheers!

 

[CasparAntrim]

Thank you for the reply.

Yeah, the vinegar is definitely going in her water. I had no idea about the oats! I think we'll be trying that one immediately. We were especially interested to know if this was out of the ordinary enough to be considered an emergency or grave concern. I feel a little reassured. We'll be monitoring her constantly and will report back on the oats' results. Thanks again.

 

[newwestchick]

How's your chickie?

 

[CasparAntrim]

She's doing much better as of midday yesterday! We haven't had a chance to give her oats yet but we made her some fermented feed with probiotics sprinkled on top followed shortly by a couple yogurt treats. It wasn't an hour until she had her first normal stool. Her demeanor had sunken a little bit prior to the probiotics and she peeped a lot due to the gas pains, even refusing to lay down.

We have a sneaking suspicion that this was due to Clostridium Perfringens. The diagnosis makes the most sense though I wouldn't have expected such a rapid recovery. We'll be keeping a close watch until we're sure she's fully recovered.

Thank you for the information and for checking in! We'll update any changes.