are you using a non-medicated starter?

[dntd]

My girls are on medicated chick feed, the feed store only has medicated as this time of year you would have huge chick losses apparently. When they get a bit older they will not have much of that left in thier systems so i'm not worried.

 

[dumb_cluck]

I also plan on non-medicated. If you have a nice clean (as clean as normally possible) environment and let the chicks build their immune systems normally, then there should be no need for medication.

 

[speckledhen]

If you have a nice clean (as clean as normally possible) environment and let the chicks build their immune systems normally, then there should be no need for medication.

As I've stated before, that is a good theory, but unless you have those chicks on the ground their very first week of life, when they come out of the brooder at four to six weeks, their innocent little systems may be overloaded with oocycsts in your soil. I keep telling folks that you can keep a pristine clean environment, follow them around with a pooper scooper under their little bums and bleach the waterers daily, but they can still get cocci when they hit soil. The level of amprolium in the starter is so low that it does little good if your soil is loaded with the protozoan that causes cocci. I think non-medicated feed is fine, if you can get it.

Chicks raised by a broody are sort of "inoculated" against cocci by mama's poop they taste as well as her showing them what to eat on the ground and letting them build immunity naturally. My broody-raised chicks never get cocci. My brooder raised ones always do.​

 

[Yardbirds286]

This is a long thread and this thought may have already been mentioned. I was planning on feeding a non medicated starter for my batch of six layers. Why not just add a small clump of grass, dirt and all to the brooder here and there to get the little ones accustomed to whatever is living in the soil? I read this advice in a Hobby Farms book, and it seems to me to be a common sense approach to this problem??? My 2 cents.

 

[chickie-is-obsessed]

This thread has been very informative. My day olds are due to come this weekend and I wasn't sure what to feed. There haven't been chickens on this property for about 30 years but the area where we built the coop is where I used to keep my horses. I think I'm going to feed unmedicated and add clumps of sod from the area to their brooder right away.

Wish me luck!

 

[tls_ranch]

Quote:
As I've stated before, that is a good theory, but unless you have those chicks on the ground their very first week of life, when they come out of the brooder at four to six weeks, their innocent little systems may be overloaded with oocycsts in your soil. I keep telling folks that you can keep a pristine clean environment, follow them around with a pooper scooper under their little bums and bleach the waterers daily, but they can still get cocci when they hit soil. The level of amprolium in the starter is so low that it does little good if your soil is loaded with the protozoan that causes cocci.I think non-medicated feed is fine, if you can get it.

Chicks raised by a broody are sort of "inoculated" against cocci by mama's poop they taste as well as her showing them what to eat on the ground and letting them build immunity naturally. My broody-raised chicks never get cocci. My brooder raised ones always do.

I have some 4 week old brooder raised chicks that I want to put outside in a pen with where adult chickens have been. They are on medicated starter right now. If I see signs of cocci, would it be too hard on their systems to add Corid to their water while they are eating the medicated? Would the "double dose" of amprolium hurt them?

 

[speckledhen]

Well, since I can get only medicated starter here, when I use Corid, they are getting a double dose or close to it. It won't hurt them.

 

[tls_ranch]

Quote:
Thanks for the info. You scared me when you said that they still could get cocci while eating medicated feed. I hope they don't, but I bought a bottle of the 9.65 corid to keep on hand if they do. It never fails with illnesses with kids, horses, pets, or livestock..... they always get sick or hurt after hours or on weekends. It's better to be prepared and informed than sorry later.

 

[aveca]

We raise our own so I use non-medicated, all new comers that we buy are pullorum free and wear leg tags stating that and are quarentine until they show no signs of ilnness around 2 weeks at another farm... if you keep things as clean as possible and cleanest water , you shouldnt have any trouble, Mereks disease is a virus and medicated feed will have no affect on weather or not they can get that.Only vaccine and breeds that have a natural immunity work.If you use certian vaccines the medicated feed s can render that vaccine given in eyedropper usless..

Thou we cant do a lot in the winter in the outside pens ,snow will keep covering up the dutys and its frozen the inside is cleaned often and fresh sawdust, spring and rest of summer we lined outside pens with sand gravel mix and scrap the winter pile up off comes right up and every other year we add new sand mix..and compost in a pile with lyme mixed in to help it break down. The chickens also get lots of out free roaming time.

 

[mrbstephens]

I've decided to use medicated chick starter on the chicks I get from the feed store. Once I picked up a chick from there that had cocci. Can never tell what goes on in their brooders. After 8 weeks I switch to organic grower feed.