Blood in poo, can chicks eat too much grit?

[robbdebbie]

Hello and thanks for looking this over. I know that blood in the poo has been discussed a lot on here, but I didn't really find a post that answered my questions.

1) What type of bird , age and weight. I have an assortment of banties and three buff orpingtons. They are all about 6 weeks old.
2) What is the behavior, exactly. They are all acting normal.
3) Is there any bleeding, injury, broken bones or other sign of trauma. No
4) What happened, if anything that you know of, that may have caused the situation. Nothing
5) What has the bird been eating and drinking, if at all. I have clean water with acv, medicated chick feed, free choice chick grit, a few green scraps, and some scratch.
6) How does the poop look? Normal? Bloody? Runny? etc. I found one spot of really bloody poo. It was runny with a pool of blood underneath it.
7) What has been the treatment you have administered so far? Nothing yet
8 ) What is your intent as far as treatment? For example, do you want to treat completely yourself, or do you need help in stabilizing the bird til you can get to a vet? Will do whatever needed
9) If you have a picture of the wound or condition, please post it. It may help.
10) Describe the housing/bedding in use They are in a 8x8 coop that is brand new. I have only let them outside once. They are on pine bedding about 4-6" thick. They have been in this coop for about two weeks now. I have a fan on the ceiling, two large floor to ceiling windows open, and the window on the door open for ventalation all covered with hardware cloth.


It seems like whenever I put new chick grit out (the red kind from TSC) they go crazy and eat it all up like a treat. I know that there are some bugs getting in there at night that they like to catch, and my son gave them some earth worms about a week ago before I told him not to. I have given them a small amount of greens last week. They are on medicated feed, so I don't think that it is cocci and their area is clean.

So my question is can they eat too much grit, what else can cause blood in poo, should I mix the grit in the food to make sure they don't eat too much or too little, should I give them some corrid or something else?

Thanks,Debbie

 

[robin416]

One of the signs of a vitamin deficiency is eating excess grit. But if you are not leaving it there free choice they may be going at it because its not always there.

Are you certain it was blood? The single trip to the dirt is enough for exposure to cocci.

 

[One Acre Wonder Farm]

When I was concerned that my chicks could have cocci, I did a search here and found that a course of corrid wouldn't be harmful if they didn't have cocci, so I treated just in case.

Not sure if they can eat too much grit? I assume they'd eat only as much as they needed, but who knows what goes on in their tiny little brains... Perhaps you could try sprinkling just a bit over their food as opposed to leaving grit out/free choice if you are concerned that they are eating too much? As long as they are eating mainly their feed they probably won't need much for grit. When they start eating more bugs/greens/treats then they will need more grit.

Hope they all do well!

 

[Sillystunt]

I am not an expert by any means! Are you sure blood was in the poo? From what i gather, that is a sign of cocci! Might want to treat for that asap. But don't freak out, someone will chime in with more knowlegde~

 

[robbdebbie]

Yeah it is blood. They are eating medicated feed. Does this not always protect from cocci? Also, shouldn't they be getting all of their vitamins from the chick food?

 

[Quillgirl]

If you are feeding them chick grit that has the reddish orange coloring on it, then I believe this plant dye is being expelled with the grit. I thought it was blood too, but determined it was the color from the grit. (Poo went back to normal after expelling the grit color.)

If you've ever eaten a lot of beets, you know what I mean about colors being expelled with poo... (TMI, I know.)

Watch to see what happens, then decide if it's an infection.

 

[Sillystunt]

Take the grit away! See if the poo changes, give them yogurt, spinkle some feed on top and maybe some poly vit from the infant section at a drug store. Yogurt helps to regulate and the vit will perk them up(even though they are doing fine) If the poo changes color it might be the grit~ Only way to find out

 

[cluelesschickmother]

I know this is an old post, but what you described is EXACTLY what’s going on with my chicks. They are super perky, running around, eating and drinking but ONE of the chicks stool is REALLY bloody - like a solid poop covered in a thick mucus of blood.

My chicks eat SO much grit, they also treat it like it’s a treat. They eat as much (if not more of it) than their food, I think they like how fine it is. What should I do?? I added a little bit of ACV, 1/2 teaspoon of B12 and electrolytes today.

They are showing no other sign of coccid (such as fatigue, etc) so I am leaning towards their digestive issues being torn up from eating the pine shavings and a copious amount of grit. What should I do?? Should I treat for coccid just in case?

If the OP is still around... what happened with your chicks in the end?

 

[coach723]

The OP hasn't been on the forum since 2015, so I doubt they will respond.
Do you have pictures of the dropping in question? I personally would treat with Corid if I saw blood from a chick, particularly as much as you say it was. Cocciciosis is very common in chicks and the main cause of bloody droppings. Corid is very safe and very unlikely to do any harm. Do not give vitamins during treatment, amprolium is a thiamine inhibitor and giving thiamine at the same time can reduce the effectiveness of the medication. You can give vitamins after treatment is complete.
Treat for 5-7 days, make sure that the medicated water is the only water they have available.
Dose for the 20% powder is 1.5 tsp per gallon of water, make fresh daily. Dose for the 9.6% liquid is 2 tsp per gallon of water, make fresh daily.

 

[cluelesschickmother]

The OP hasn't been on the forum since 2015, so I doubt they will respond.
Do you have pictures of the dropping in question? I personally would treat with Corid if I saw blood from a chick, particularly as much as you say it was. Cocciciosis is very common in chicks and the main cause of bloody droppings. Corid is very safe and very unlikely to do any harm. Do not give vitamins during treatment, amprolium is a thiamine inhibitor and giving thiamine at the same time can reduce the effectiveness of the medication. You can give vitamins after treatment is complete.
Treat for 5-7 days, make sure that the medicated water is the only water they have available.
Dose for the 20% powder is 1.5 tsp per gallon of water, make fresh daily. Dose for the 9.6% liquid is 2 tsp per gallon of water, make fresh daily.

Okay, thank you for your response. They only have the 20 percent power at the TS nearby. I have them with a small mason jar feeder, so I imagine they would need VERY little of it. I’ll figure out the math, but will that still work?
I don’t have pictures of the poop, I threw them out when I cleaned out the entire brooder an hour ago and there hasn’t been bloody poop since.