eviemethugh
Chirping
Okay, I am trying to understand coccidiosis, but as far as I know we have never had a chicken with it in years.
This year we had one bird that all of a sudden wasn't the same size as the others, I called her "the dumb one" she always had her feathers fluffed and held her body kind of weird. But with a little extra TLC she would eat and drink and everything, until the day I found her not doing anything and brought her inside and tried to giver her boosted electrolyte water through a dropper, and she just died. Well, in my mind she was "the dumb one" and maybe just a runt. Or something. I don't know.
Now in the last two weeks, she has two dumb sisters (out of over 100 birds, half of whom were processed last Sat.) They don't walk or do much but all of a sudden stand out because they were growing at the same rate, and now they are visibly smaller. If I pick them up and take them to feed (which I have every day for the last 2 weeks) they gobble it up, and will walk back to the coop for night. They stand in that same strange pose as "the dumb one" (we loved her in an endearing way, truly) and when I googled coccidiosis, i gasped because the photo...it was her! I honestly never even considered anything because no one else was "sick" and she really didn't seem sick until her final hours.
The original "dumb one" looked dirty all the time, she always stuck out. These two don't...I don't think. I've noticed loose stools and started fermented feed, I haven't noticed bloody (and I pick the two up every single day without fail) but they free range, so it's impossible to know. And now it's the final 24 hours, I'm just trying to figure it out.
But they eat, with gusto! and it's been two weeks. Is it coccidiosis or something else? The rest are being butchered this Saturday, I am pretty sure we should NOT eat the two questionable ones, right?
Last question, the land...if it was in their poop..or if they picked it up from somewhere or whatever...do we let the land rest? Do we spray it with something (preferably natural) It's a hay field that they were "fertilizing" can we use the hay? next year? I can run the chickens (egg layers, summer turkeys, fall broilers, etc.) plenty of other places but they free range and can walk anywhere... although they most likely wouldn't go over there.
Thanks for all the great help on this board!!
This year we had one bird that all of a sudden wasn't the same size as the others, I called her "the dumb one" she always had her feathers fluffed and held her body kind of weird. But with a little extra TLC she would eat and drink and everything, until the day I found her not doing anything and brought her inside and tried to giver her boosted electrolyte water through a dropper, and she just died. Well, in my mind she was "the dumb one" and maybe just a runt. Or something. I don't know.
Now in the last two weeks, she has two dumb sisters (out of over 100 birds, half of whom were processed last Sat.) They don't walk or do much but all of a sudden stand out because they were growing at the same rate, and now they are visibly smaller. If I pick them up and take them to feed (which I have every day for the last 2 weeks) they gobble it up, and will walk back to the coop for night. They stand in that same strange pose as "the dumb one" (we loved her in an endearing way, truly) and when I googled coccidiosis, i gasped because the photo...it was her! I honestly never even considered anything because no one else was "sick" and she really didn't seem sick until her final hours.
The original "dumb one" looked dirty all the time, she always stuck out. These two don't...I don't think. I've noticed loose stools and started fermented feed, I haven't noticed bloody (and I pick the two up every single day without fail) but they free range, so it's impossible to know. And now it's the final 24 hours, I'm just trying to figure it out.
But they eat, with gusto! and it's been two weeks. Is it coccidiosis or something else? The rest are being butchered this Saturday, I am pretty sure we should NOT eat the two questionable ones, right?
Last question, the land...if it was in their poop..or if they picked it up from somewhere or whatever...do we let the land rest? Do we spray it with something (preferably natural) It's a hay field that they were "fertilizing" can we use the hay? next year? I can run the chickens (egg layers, summer turkeys, fall broilers, etc.) plenty of other places but they free range and can walk anywhere... although they most likely wouldn't go over there.
Thanks for all the great help on this board!!
