Another post of poop pics - coccidiosis?

[Debbie292d]

I've seen some people have success with pelletized bedding. I'm pretty sure it's compressed sawdust pellets, so there's also the risk your chickens might sample some, but it absorbs a ton of water and turns to sawdust. Might be worth experimenting with!

I could attest to this. We've used horse bedding pellets in our coops for nine years, and for the past year, in our brooders. The first few days in the brooders I put paper toweling over half of them. Do chicks or chickens eat them? Of course they all try one, just like they do any bedding, but they quickly learn dried pine is yucky!

Once when an outdoor pen got flooded in one corner, we filled the low side first with dirt/sand, then piled a bag of pellets on top. That sucked up all the water, changed to sawdust, which eventually dried out and got scratched by the chickens.

 

[newchickychick]

We have not seen any more bloody poops still, which is surprising to me with how bad the two we saw yesterday looked. But we are of course following through with the treatment! Still no signs of anyone acting funky either. I've seen a lot of posts all around (not just here) today that coccidiosis has been rough this summer.

Is there anything else we can do preventative-wise, outside of keeping everything as dry and clean as possible of course, to help give them a hand in hopefully avoiding it again? Does it make sense to do like poultry cell or so in their water once a week? It makes me extra nervous as we've got young Silkies, and our Polish should be hitting their new run within the week too. I know both can be a little vitamin-deficiency prone and I worry about them!

Thanks so much for the dosing advice. I'm really hopeful we did indeed catch it early.