watery poop from a 7 week old chick

[Podnick]

My 7 week old Speckled Sussex has had watery poop for the last three days. Occasionally there are small bits of normal poop in the liquid, but most of the time when I'm look at it come out it's clear liquid. No color. I have seen her drinking, but couldn't say if she is drinking any more then the other 4 chicks. She'd on an organic feed by Modesto Milling and has been for 1.5 weeks. I have been grinding up sunflower, pumpkin, flax, oatmeal + brewer's yeast whcih I give as a treat with fine grit sand from the bird store. A few days ago I added some regular bird gravel to the treat instead of the fine sand. Around that same time I gave them some meal worms. The watery poop seemed to start after that.
She seems to be eating normally, is the first to rush over when I show up at the brooder. She's a very active little girl with a sweet personality.
They are on pine shavings. Today is the first day I added a trace amount of ACV.
I'd like to think this is normal, but none of the other chick's poops look like hers, and it's been going on for three days.
I have looked at her butt, it's fine. I try to feel her crop, can't really say I know what I'm looking for, but when she stretches her neck towards me it looks very much like the other girls.
Does anybody have any ideas what it might be or what I might give her? Thanks.

 

[TwoCrows]

Many times watery poo means that they are not eating enough. So nothing is passing into the poo. Make sure she is really eating. Watch her and if you have to, feed her what ever she will eat until she eats well again. You may think she is eating enough, but she may not be. My girls sometimes get finicky and don't like to eat a lot of their starter feed. So I take some of it and put it in a small bowl and mix in a tiny bit of water to make it moist. Many times this gets chicks to eat more. Good luck!

 

[csummer8882]

Poo chart!

http://www.chat.allotment.org.uk/index.php?topic=17568.0

 

[Podnick]

Thanks, twocrowsranch. From what I can tell she is eating. There is chick starter available all the time. Several times a day I put starter in my hand. She is the first to run over, holds her place at the trough and eats till till there is no more. When I mix the ground seed mixture/sand and feed it by hand, again she is there first and pecks away till there is no more. I've read that it might be a sign of high heat, but I live in San Francisco and in the words of Mark twain "the coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco". I can hear her poop coming out when I'm in the other room, an audible squirt. I pick up as much of the moisture as i can, sometimes there are tiny, smaller then french lentil size bits in it, but mostly clear liquid. Most of it gets absorbed in the litter, but it seems about 1 Tbl. amount of liquid per squirt. I'm worried that she is impacted from the pine shavings, it seems like I see all of them eating a piece of that now and again.

Is there anything besides grit that allows passage of food or other items through the chick or chicken body? Any kind of oil, lard?
Thanks for your thoughts on this. These are my first chicks.

 

[TwoCrows]

My chicks must have eaten an entire BAG of wood shavings! To this day if they get bored they will eat the shavings. But, I would offer them grit if they are eating anything other than starter. The gizzard needs stones to break down anything that is not water soluable. You can't stop a chicken from eating everything.

And as far as the heat, yes you are correct in that heat will have chicks or chickens putting out runny diarrhea! Try to cool them down a bit as she may be getting dehydrated.

Good luck with your babies!

 

[TwoCrows]

Oh and I have heard that olive oil can be given to move things from the crop, although I have never used it. If her crop were stopped up she would no doubt be getting sick. So I doubt you need to do anything there.

Just keep her eating and drinking. You can add pediolyte (sp) to the water to add back minerals and things that she is losing due to watery poo.

 

[Podnick]

thanks twocrowsranch and csummer8882,
Glad to hear about the wood shavings, that they're not always a problem. I'll try adding pedialyte to the water. I'll see if I can concoct some simple meal with a bit of olive oil, see how they all do with it. They don't cotton to yoghurt (yet), but her poop doesn't really smell so it's probably not bacterial.
Thanks, again!

 

[LostMindPleaseFind]

Quote:
Holy Crap!!! Great post. Seriously, I need this information. I'm not kidding. I don't know how to make you believe that this chart was helpful to me.

I give up.