Do chicks need coccidiosis treatment if no symptoms?

[lingon]

We have three barred rock chicks 11 days old from a feed store. I noticed a little bit of red in their poop this morning and I’m worried about Coccidiosis.

They are all behaving normally eating drinking running around tweeting and one even made it to the top of the feeder last night.

I gave them some grass with dirt early on and they’ve been outside for a few minutes in the warm. They have non-medicated feed and I’ve given them probiotics in their water every other day along with normal water so they can choose.

The picture shows the top of their heating pad, the flat poop in the middle left has some specks of red

and the right poop has a few as well.

 

[Folly's place]

It may not be blood at all, just something they found outside. Make sure they have chick sized grit! They need it because they are getting more than chick feed.
Mary

 

[lingon]

oh - right! I watched them the whole time outside (maybe 5 minutes each time) and they kept eating dried leaf flakes, which might look reddish when moist in poop. I was hoping they would eat enough pebbles when outside, but I will get them some grit, too.
Thanks.

 

[chickens really]

I feed medicated feed till 8 weeks.

 

[lingon]

Medicated feed is probably a good option, but I decided that I would rather not mess with their vitamin absorption for that long. It seems that treating for a short time would be easier on the system than medicated feed for 8 weeks. And my chick probiotics came with some vitamins in it, so maybe it would mess with the medicated feed's function?

 

[chickens really]

Medicated feed is probably a good option, but I decided that I would rather not mess with their vitamin absorption for that long. It seems that treating for a short time would be easier on the system than medicated feed for 8 weeks. And my chick probiotics came with some vitamins in it, so maybe it would mess with the medicated feed's function?

Huh?...Clear water and medicated feed is all they need..too much hype about probiotics and what ever else for Birds..

 

[casportpony]

Keep a close eye on them and if you see any blood you should consider starting amprolium (Corid, Amprol, AmproMed, etc.).

 

[chickengeorgeto]

ALL baby chicks need chick sized grit of a type of rock that is NON-SOLUBLE which means largely unaffected by digestive juices and acids. Limestone rock, construction sand, paving gravel, sandstone, and almost every other type of sedimentary rock on this planet does not meet this definition. After 4 to 8 weeks you can change over to a larger size grit maybe a 3/16th inch size. However adult hens and roosters will continue to utilize chick grit in the absence of a better alternative.

Furthermore It is extremely painful to your hens reproductive track to incorporate small stones (about 1/16th of an inch each) into each fertile egg while these small stones are rattling around in the old hens' nether regions. Therefor every chick that hatches is born minus their teeth.

Believe me when I tell you that I have been involved in every type of chicken husbandry known to man. The advise about baby chicks not needing grit is only applicable to broiler-fryer birds who at most only live for 6 to 8 weeks and even then only eat a diet of pre-milled (mechanically chewed up) chicken feed.

 

[casportpony]