I have a question about Clostridium perfringens

[mithious]

I have only 8 chickens right now, so you may need to use more feeders than I have depending on how competitive they are at feeding time. I also only add the amount of feed that seems right for them to eat in one day. I feed a mash, which they sure do pick through and TRY to rake out and spray everywhere! At first I made a home-made gravity fed PVC pipe feeder with holes drilled but they found ways to poop in it from time to time, and they could get all the feed to flow to the bottom because I have a few clever birds. Then they would rake it out and waste it. Mine also rarely will eat spilled feed!

What I did is actually very simple and DIY. I just searched online to see if anyone else has done it, and it seems a few folks have.
This is the closest I can find. If you can give me a day or two, I can get photos of mine as well.

(not my site or photos

http://toolmakingart.com/2008/06/10/chicken-feeders/

Anyhow, I took a clean 5 gallon bucket and cut holes for the birds to stick their heads into. Now, the key to preventing waste, is to cut the holes higher than shown in that image, and a bit smaller. Tall, narrow holes with all rounded edges and no sharp burrs seem the best. You will have to judge the height and size of your chickens as you don't want them to get abrasion from the edges of the holes. You want the holes just large enough to comfortably stick their neck and head in, and high enough that they can not "shovel" feed out with their beaks, but not so high that they rub their throat on the hole in order to feed. Does this make sense?

The above image also has a gravity fed PVC pipe and/or inverted water bottles placed into the middle. This would make them gravity fed as well. If you feed a LOT of birds with few feeders, this might be a good idea. For my small flock, I get away with two buckets, with holes, and NO PVC pipe. I just dump half a day's rations into each bucket and put the lid on. I place the buckets under my "poop board" so that the chickens can not jump onto them or roost/poop on them. I have some cinder blocks that elevate them out of the bedding. It is just right for my large fowl. You could also hang them if you have room for it. If you do hang it, make sure it is low enough that they won't harm their throats to peck "down" into the bucket at the feed.

The bucket makes it so that they can't get a foot in there to scratch it out with a foot, the holes are high so that as they fling it, the sides of the bucket contain the feed. The lid keeps poop out and also excess dust and litter. It is very easy to clean, keep dry, and monitor how much feed they are eating and what, if anything, they leave behind.

Oh wow, AWESOME Nambroth and HUGE thank you for this. Right now, after the bear attack, ( I thought I was at least done with building, sigh ) I had to reinvent things to get them all inside an electric fence set up, so have many smaller coops, with smaller lots of birds in them with runs that lead into a large one. It was a quick, temp solution until we can get more fencing and get it up. So I have only one feeder per coop. So far, and I stand and watch them, or go out if I hear a noise that someone is not happy, no one is being kept from the feed. They DO take turns though. It's pretty funny to watch the "waiting line" as they impatiently wait their turn.

I went to town today, a bit of a drive and no one had the antibiotic casportpony suggested might work nor did they have any Duramycin-10 and no idea when they will. I am very rural so don't have many options. I was able to get the last bag of corid though. Must be lots of cocci lately as our TSC usually has plenty. It's been really really wet here. I live in the mountians, near the summit of a mountain, which is great for drainage, but bad for rain as it's usually a deluge and goes on for days lately.

I decided to give everyone a "maintinance" dose of the corid. The little pullet in the house was showing signs of re-infection with the cocci and some of the young-un's also. We must have a pretty resilient strain here. That cockerel is still eating and drinking, so maybe some more corid will help him out? His comb, and this may be wishful thinking, looked a tad more pink today. The heat broke, so we are in the lower 70's right now with last night being 46 F. That link that casportpony put up, if I read it correctly, said some forms of that infection? can resolve on it's own I believe. Maybe I will get lucky and read it right and some prayers might give us a break on this??? I sure hope so, as I have used up most of my med kit really fast this year. The whole bear attack sure did mess up more than a few chickens and me too. It actually attacked me, as well as getting 5 birds before I could get the fencing and get it up.

I grabbed all the feeders, they are also DIY

and scrubbed the heck out of them again. I picked up some more barn lime to do the runs again also, although lime does not get rid of the cocci just incase, whatever those blood red, near 2 inch worm are, is the issue or a contributing factor. Picked up some more shavings too. I have been cleaning coops for while now. This is getting overwhelming for just me. I am not young any more!!! I was going to pick up some more sageguard too but they were out of that also, and I am close to being out. Our feed store doesn't carry any kind of meds, so TSC one way, and Agway the other, are our only options and as I said, a bit of a drive. Wasn't a very successful trip this time unfortunately.

I do now have the phone number of that store that sells cat and dog stuff, so will call and check to see if they order any baytril. The lady wasn't sure if they carry it or not. It's a small mom and pop kinda place and mom and pop were out.

I'll look over that link and reread your post and see about getting some more 5 gallon buckets. It's a really great idea and especially for this winter, probably a must anyway. I really wasn't sure if the FF was gong to be a viable option this winter. Thanks again for taking the time to explain in detail and for the link. I sure do appreciate is so much!!!!

 

[chick-chica]

Hello, all!

I recently lost an 8-week-old barred rock pullet. I suspect it may have been C. perfringens. I though it had been coccidia. She suddenly became lethargic and would not eat anything. I tried to treat with Corid, but she died. Her sick-baby poops were just clear water, except after I fed her some mashed chick feed. Then it was water with a bit of greenish solid.

I have two other chicks that I have been treating with Corid based on what I have read here on BYC. They look and act fine. But I am worried. What if it wasn't Cocci and it is Clostridium instead? How/where do you get antibiotics for your birds? Sorry. I am a newbie. The other two chicks are not exhibiting symptoms, but I don't want them to die like the other one. The one thing I do notice is that their poop is different since I started treating with Corid. Anyone out there have some insight? Their poop now has some water and a blob of greenish solid. And somehow their poops seem bigger than before.

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

 

[Eggcessive]

Coccidiosis would be much more common in an 8 week old chick. Enteritis from C. perfringens is more common later on, and an underlying coccidiosis infection can be one of the causative factors. The problem with coccidiosis is that chicks may not show symptoms of it for 3 daysafter contracting it, and not all strains of coccidia cause blood in stools. Sick chicks do not drink enough of the medication to help, so they must be fed the Corid to help. Some give a few drops of the undiluted liquid Corid at a time to very sick chicks. Most people get their antibiotics at feed stores, but a vet would be a better source since they might be able to diagnosis enteritis, and give better antibiotics for it. Amoxicillin is a good drug for treatment of enteritis, although many other antibiotics are used too. Here are a couple of links about enteritis, although I think cocci may be more of your problem:
http://www.thepoultrysite.com/diseaseinfo/101/necrotic-enteritis
http://www.merckmanuals.com/vet/pou...verview_of_necrotic_enteritis_in_poultry.html

 

[KayTee]

I agree with eggcessive - cocci is much more likely than clostridium perfringens. With any medication you should dose the birds directly on a small piece of food or by dropper into their mouth - water dosing doesn't guarantee they will get enough.

 

[chick-chica]

I agree with eggcessive - cocci is much more likely than clostridium perfringens. With any medication you should dose the birds directly on a small piece of food or by dropper into their mouth - water dosing doesn't guarantee they will get enough.

I have liquid Corid. I should use a dropper and give them this full strength?

 

[casportpony]

You can give small chicks a small drop or two of the undiluted Corid liquid.

 

[casportpony]

That's in addition to two teaspoons per gallon.

 

[seminolewind]

Since the thread is still alive, I'll post here. I've been obsessively studying NE. There's the acute , that causes death soon, and a chronic type that just hangs out for years and the hens do not keep good weight on, and lay less eggs. An early case of coccidiosis can give the NE a nice entrance, but the theory now is an upset of the chicken's gut bacteria. Maybe change in feed, stress, antibiotics. Seems chickens do carry a bit of bad bacteria in their gut like NE(clostridium) , e. coli, cocci.

The med du jour is Tylosin, which is Tylan.

3 years back, I lost 3 pullets overnight. They had no symptoms, just gushed blood out when I picked the bodies up. I thought Enteritis. I threw together what I had on hand, Corrid and Tylan. The rest didn't get it the NE. Little did I know at the time the Tylan was what probably saved the rest.

Now I've had 6 hens and 2 roosters die in the past 8 -10 months, all unrelated reasons. Or are they? 2 have already had the Enteritis word in their necropsy, including one necrotic areas in the liver. This last one so far is massive liver and spleen. Got to wait for the rest. The word has just come up a few times but makes me think mine carry low grade (chronic) NE. I could never call any of my chickens fat. Or brag about their laying. In fact now I question why so many of mine appeared to waste away prior to dying. I always thought it was Marek's.

So right now, I'm treating the whole flock with Amoxicillin 5-7 days and see what happens. Maybe one day I'll have fat birds!

 

[casportpony]

That's a great drug for it. Are you giving I twice a day? That's what my vet recommended.

-Kathy

 

[seminolewind]

I am mixing it in water, that' what the directions say.
I've also read that aspirin helps (?)