Prevention of COCCIDIOSIS and other poultry diseases in chicks~ ACV.

Thank you for this very informative post and subsequent postings! I live in rural Alberta Canada and so sometimes the items and products that are talked about here are not available to me here. I called to my local store and found out that they do indeed carry Bragg's so I will be stopping by and getting some tonight. My chicks are a week old and are incredibly healthy but preventative items are the key to KEEPING them healthy!

Thanks everyone!

I've been putting ACV in the water of my newly hatched chicks and have started adding it to my older chicks and adults water as well. So far, so good. I found the idea on another thread started by you Beekissed, but I can't remember which one. I'm very grateful for the advice, though, as I've dealt with cocci and just various health issues with some of my hatchery layer birds, and any natural thing I can do to minimize health problems is something I'm for.

Quailsong said:

Bee (can I call you that?), I want to thank you for this detailed response. It is well-thought out and I can see the kindness you've put into it. I've read a lot about calcium and nutrient intake, although in the end more for humans due to my own struggling health (I'm sure most of my vili are shot, from Gluten issues). I've always been told by doctors that too much vinegary foods cause acid that do what I said in the posts before. Now I think I'm starting to see how they're getting the misinformation, ACV is rather different from processed vinegary foods.

I strongly believe alkaline-blood is good for the body, the same with chickens, but I'm starting to understand ACV has properties that even if acidic, outweigh any negatives.

I'm rather skeptical about studies myself, I try to be as balanced as I can and not jump into fads or extreme diets for animals or my own health. Sadly, when time after time I read the same thing (even if it turns out to be myth or misinfo) I tend to think it's truthful. Thanks to your response, even if I can't personally verify your truth/experience, you've opened up a better way of thinking things out in this matter.

In the end, I am a big fan of cultured/fermented foods, due to all the beneficial bacteria. I will naturally be giving FFs to my quail this summer when they come in, and because of your post I will see just how much they can take (up to your 'doses'). In fact, I may see about doing this for my own body as well.

The note of your mother's current health is an inspiration; if the story of her can help me defy my genetics and potential poor diet (in comparison, with very limited ACV / week) then I'll be very grateful.

Thank you again for your response.

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You are too kind!

I'm a nurse, so the medical field is a familiar battle ground for me....every month the AMA comes out with new studies on this or that that will negate the study results from the previous month. It's all in cycles, sort of like fashion...if you wait long enough, they keep rolling around and being tagged "it' again. First eggs are good, then they are bad, then good again but only if free range, but then they are bad again. This food will interact with this drug one month, but new studies will find it doesn't but it can link to cancer if taken while standing on your head in the middle of a field full of land mines.

See how this works?

Because of this constant flow of information and studies, I always look back for the truth...back to when folks were eating healthier foods and lived to be in their 100s on nothing but pork fat, whole milk, fermented foods and fresh eggs~no drugs except headache powders.

Because more people are turning back to the old ways of eating and getting healthier because of it, the medical field must discredit these old diets...they see the danger of even one dollar escaping their coffers. Raw honey is bad! Vinegar~bad! Eggs? BAD. Backyard chickens? Salmonella, shigella, e.coli!!!! Vegetarian diet? Won't get enough calcium for strong bones!!! (cows eat a vegan diet and have enormous, strong bones ) Must eat red meat for calcium and protein in your diet, not veggies...NO, not red meat, it can cause cancer!

I'm tired of studies and tired of the scare tactics of the pharmacy companies...they rule the medical field and all the advice therein, so when they say something is bad for you, you can bet it isn't. If you are healthy, they make no money.

My best advice to everyone is to throw away those drugs and get back to the basics....eat healthy foods straight from the farm, exercise more, go to bed early and wake up early, drink more water, turn off the TV and get some sunshine(throw out the sunscreen, it's another scare tactic). Same for chickens...eat good, drink good, exercise much and the health will follow. TV and sunscreen is optional for the chickens, but I don't recommend either one.

Blue said:

I've been putting ACV in the water of my newly hatched chicks and have started adding it to my older chicks and adults water as well. So far, so good. I found the idea on another thread started by you Beekissed, but I can't remember which one. I'm very grateful for the advice, though, as I've dealt with cocci and just various health issues with some of my hatchery layer birds, and any natural thing I can do to minimize health problems is something I'm for.

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May I ask how much ACV do you put in the water for the chicks, I just have on of the little waterer. I have a chick with diarrhea.

Suzierd said:

May I ask how much ACV do you put in the water for the chicks, I just have on of the little waterer. I have a chick with diarrhea.

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You'll need to have mother vinegar and it doesn't really matter all that much how much you put in...I'd say a couple of tsp. per small waterer is fine. I just glorp it in and never measure. You might also consider getting them some buttermilk and mix it in the feed a little and this will help as well.

Bee, your last post said EXACTLY what was on my mind!!! I am not in a medical profession, but feel that all these "studies" are greatly controlled by the drug market!!! If people realize that a more natural way of life will make them healthier, then the drug companies won't make as much money!!

I have not always had that outlook, but the older I get, the smarter my elders are!!!!! My grandparents hardly EVER went to a doctor...... they ate meat, "bad" fats, biscuits, bacon, eggs, you name it......but, the foods were natural (meat from their farm-raised animals, butter churned from their cows milk, eggs from their free-range chickens, etc, etc)....they didn't pump drugs or hormones into their animals.... and they worked hard...physically hard ....we as a society don't do that anymore!!

OK.....I'm done with the rant!!.... I truly feel that I should be living on a farm, but instead I'm stuck in the suburbs!! LOL But, at least I have my chickens and my ACV with the "Mother"!!! LOL

I have been away from the site for some time, but have recently renewed my passion for chickens (after having some frustrating problems that I just let discourage me for too long) , and have spent over a week just reading, reading, reading all the forum posts and articles. My absolute favorite subject has been the Fermented Food!!! I actually started two containers last night....one of starter crumbles and one of scratch grains....and can't wait to see how the chicks and hens take to them!! I also started adding the ACV to the drinking water yesterday, hoping to remedy some of the problems with my hens and prevent as much as possible with my new chicks. AND, I mixed some of my Braggs ACV with some regular, hoping the new "mother" will form in those. (I too am very frugal!! And, I lost my job a couple of months ago and can't get Unemp....so I have to be very careful)

To sum it up...your posts about fermenting and ACV may have just given me back the power I need to keep my renewed passion going strong!! Thank You SO much!!!!!!!

I love ACV! My great uncle swore by it, and drank it in his orange juice each morning. He had his farm into his 90's! Out taking care of his goats & chickens. People couldn't believe it. I put it into our chickens water as well

Thank you Beekissed for another thoughtful response.

I'd love to PM you with some more in-depth questions on health (esp humans) if you're okay with that? I've been doing okay getting my health back on track, but any tips from a wise-OT would be much appreciated.

As a side, I found a big jug of ACV (w/o) mother at a local big-chain last night. I nabbed it right up as I have a half bottle of ACV w/ mother and want to keep the fermentation going. I thought of you for sure. You've got my hopes up.

I know there's never a magic pill or quick fix for anything. Studies are as varied and change as often as the tide, often much more frequent and less predictable. Living healthy means truly living healthy. But sometimes it takes is a good strong nudge or swift kick in the pants to get down that road.

Thanks again, Bee.

Just did some checking on this just last week! How does that Acid help when you want an alkaline healthy body? So I looked into it... ha!

I'm not entirely sure what happens in a chicken's crop when ACV enters but I can assume it is relatable to human bodies. When ACV (weak acid) comes in contact with the stronger acidic digestive juices it ashes out or buffers into a more alkaline blood pH. The body is amazing. And along with ACV's pH is a whole complement of trace minerals and vitamins that in today's mass agricultural factory farming is lost because they only use fertilizers with limited nutrients and minerals....but that's a whole other can of worms.

When you have acid loving bacteria say in a UTI, wreaking havoc drinking cranberry juice or ACV doses helps buffer and alkalize the blood.

Any how. Love ACV. Love what the fermented food does for my chooks.

Ooh I might have to give this a go very helpful! it would appear that the Pediococcus acidilactici acts as a probiotic would in humans, there is a limited space on the internal epithelium of the gut that bacteria can colonize. If the P. acidilactici is colonising that part of the gut then the pathogenic organism can't colonize the same area. There is a very interesting journal article- SH Lee, [FONT=Arial, sans-serif]HS Lillehoj[/FONT], RA Dalloul, DW Park, YH Hong (2007) Influence of Pediococcus-Based Probiotic on Coccidiosis in Broiler Chickens. Poultry Science 86: 63- 66 available online if anyone is interested in reading more about the research into the benefits of Pediococcus bacteria on chicken health