Tiniest amount of blood in single chick poop. Treat for coccidiosis?

[thecatumbrella]

As the title says, I found a tiny amount of blood in a single chick poop. They are 6 days-old and I keep their brooder immaculate and dry. No lethargy. Everyone's running around eating and drinking.

A couple things to mention.

I'm apprehensive to treat them because I have 2 Silkie chicks in the mix, and I know they have a tendency to be B1 deficient. One even shows signs of neurological problems and is being treated with b-complex.

Also, this is the SECOND time this has happened to me this year. My first group of chicks had a bloody stool (which was almost pure blood) 2 days after switching them to hemp. The new chicks switched to hemp yesterday. I give chick grit when I add bedding to the brooder, but some smaller pieces are ultimately consumed by the determined chicks.

They're about to go to bed for the night. Do I see how they're acting in the morning? Do I just treat preemptively (which is what I did last time)? Any help is much appreciated.

 

[BlindLemonChicken]

Did you happen to take pictures of the poop? Are they on medicated feed? Have they been exposed to soil?

 

[thecatumbrella]

Did you happen to take pictures of the poop? Are they on medicated feed? Have they been exposed to soil?

Unfortunately, I did not get a photo. It was a healthy looking poop otherwise. Not a cecal. Tiniest spot of pinkish blood.

They are on unmedicated feed (because of the Silkie concerns) and have never been exposed to soil.

 

[rosemarythyme]

Very unlikely that 6 day olds would have coccidiosis overload simply because they haven't been alive long enough to allow the parasite to reproduce like that.

Without a photo I'm guessing this is just intestinal shedding.

 

[thecatumbrella]

Without a photo I'm guessing this is just intestinal shedding.

I'm looking up photos of intestinal shedding and that's EXACTLY how it looked (paler color with some stringiness to it). Thanks for pointing me in the right direction.

 

[thecatumbrella]

@rosemarythyme @BlindLemonChicken

Found another one this morning. Thoughts?

 

[BlindLemonChicken]

You said this happens after you switch to hemp bedding? I have never used hemp. I would be inclined to switch the bedding to wood shavings and see if it happens again because I think cocci is the least likely culprit at this point. The poop doesn’t look super concerning to me but the fact that your first batch of babies started having solid bloody poops after switching to hemp is a concerning coincidence.

 

[thecatumbrella]

You said this happens after you switch to hemp bedding? I have never used hemp. I would be inclined to switch the bedding to wood shavings and see if it happens again because I think cocci is the least likely culprit at this point. The poop doesn’t look super concerning to me but the fact that your first batch of babies started having solid bloody poops after switching to hemp is a concerning coincidence.

Unfortunately, the reason we're on hemp is because I could not find a large flake supplier in my area that wasn't 50% fines (we tried 3 different places... no idea what's going on). My first chicks were gorging on the fines because they looked like chick feed, especially after it's beaked on the floor and mixed together. I tried to break them with a puppy pad reset and retrain on the feeder, but didn't have any luck.

The good news is that the new chick who was eating bits of hemp has completely lost interest. She has tons of energy. There's no chance the Silkies ate any, as they can barely eat their crumble without me running it through the blender.

But yeah, I agree that the hemp is suspect. I have Corid at the ready and I'll keep monitoring.

The only other thing I can think of is that I treated 2 out of 3 with a bit of b-complex and vitamin E. One had severely curled toes, though she's made a recovery and can probably stop the vitamins. The other shows some neurological symptoms with walking, almost like an occasional stutter step. I can skip dosing her today and see what happens.

Thanks for your help. Sorry for the ramble. I'm just banging my head against the wall trying to figure this out! Whoever said chicks are easy...

 

[BlindLemonChicken]

Unfortunately, the reason we're on hemp is because I could not find a large flake supplier in my area that wasn't 50% fines (we tried 3 different places... no idea what's going on). My first chicks were gorging on the fines because they looked like chick feed, especially after it's beaked on the floor and mixed together. I tried to break them with a puppy pad reset and retrain on the feeder, but didn't have any luck.

The good news is that the new chick who was eating bits of hemp has completely lost interest. She has tons of energy. There's no chance the Silkies ate any, as they can barely eat their crumble without me running it through the blender.

But yeah, I agree that the hemp is suspect. I have Corid at the ready and I'll keep monitoring.

The only other thing I can think of is that I treated 2 out of 3 with a bit of b-complex and vitamin E. One had severely curled toes, though she's made a recovery and can probably stop the vitamins. The other shows some neurological symptoms with walking, almost like an occasional stutter step. I can skip dosing her today and see what happens.

Thanks for your help. Sorry for the ramble. I'm just banging my head against the wall trying to figure this out! Whoever said chicks are easy...

I feel ya. Chicks stress me out. Which is why I have sworn off them for the foreseeable future lol

 

[rosemarythyme]

@rosemarythyme @BlindLemonChicken

Found another one this morning. Thoughts?

View attachment 4121069

Seems a little excessive for intestinal shedding but not out of the realm of possibility. Coccidiosis poop (if bloody) looks very different.

Keep an eye on things but I think it's ok unless you're seeing a lot of this, or more importantly, lethargic behavior with chicks puffed up for no reason.