Bresse Chickens

[ronott1]

One question for people getting their bresse from GFF now.
I got 15 babies about two months they were day old.I lost one 3 day after arrival, he start to shake and could not stand, I start to give them Polyvisol (suggested in BYC forum) after 3 weeks I got another the same way, still with polivysol in the water and fallowing that one another I have to cull those about two weeks ago , they were eating and moving around was just to sad to see them falling down and shaking all the time, three days ago another start with the same symptoms he still mobile wobbling all over and eating, I think i will have to put him down as well.
What is going on with this chickens?I don't think is Marek's because they are suppose to be vaccinated for that.
Last year I got some from another person and one had a similar problem,took her to the vet and according to them was a neurological issue.
Is any body having this problems as well?

It is more likely to be Coccidiosis or ecoli.

Did you send on in for a Necropsy? Free to small flock owners in California. If not, the cost is about 80 bucks. It is worth it if you are spending a lot of money on chicks from GFF.

Let me know if you want treatment information for Cocci.

 

[jime]

Thanks for your reply ronott1.
About the coccidiosis. I did try the corid for 7 days, I feed my chickens organic (ranch away brand) but now I am mixing and 1/3 of their food is purina medicated ( for cocci). Should i do another corid / amprolium treatment?
For some reason I thought that if they survive cocci the first time they should have build the resistance ( I treat the first time with the first one I lost)and why only one at the time? They don't have bloody stools neither, and the cockerel looks healthy other wise except for the walking.

 

[TNBEARCHICK]

I am not sure we buy a lot of chicks and chickens from GFF and have always had an acceptable loss rate, except one batch that we lost nearly everyone but that could have been shipping stress. We have no idea what these chicks go through.

 

[ronott1]

Thanks for your reply ronott1.
About the coccidiosis. I did try the corid for 7 days, I feed my chickens organic (ranch away brand) but now I am mixing and 1/3 of their food is purina medicated ( for cocci). Should i do another corid / amprolium treatment?
For some reason I thought that if they survive cocci the first time they should have build the resistance ( I treat the first time with the first one I lost)and why only one at the time? They don't have bloody stools neither, and the cockerel looks healthy other wise except for the walking.

They need a second treatment at half dose to build immunity.

The dosage is for 20% powder: 1.5 tsp per gallon for treatment. Most sources have the dose wrong. The powder is longer lasting and so more economical than the liquid.

Did they seem better after the treatment?

 

[jime]

Ok the dose I gave them was 1tsp per gallon (liquid) I don't had the powder now so will have to do with liquid, should I do the half dose in this as well or just give them the full for 7 days more?
The first one die by it self and the other 2 I put down because they got it after the treatment was done (2 weeks after treatment about) the thing that notice with the other two is that their toes start to curl and the knees gave up so they will just kind of hope, this is still walking kind of reminds me of a CX when is really fat and the legs way open.
I will try to make a video and see if i can figure out how to put in on here, that way you can see what i mean.
Sorry my english does not help much to explain things it makes a lot more sense in spanish.

 

[ronott1]

Ok the dose I gave them was 1tsp per gallon (liquid) I don't had the powder now so will have to do with liquid, should I do the half dose in this as well or just give them the full for 7 days more?
The first one die by it self and the other 2 I put down because they got it after the treatment was done (2 weeks after treatment about) the thing that notice with the other two is that their toes start to curl and the knees gave up so they will just kind of hope, this is still walking kind of reminds me of a CX when is really fat and the legs way open.
I will try to make a video and see if i can figure out how to put in on here, that way you can see what i mean.
Sorry my english does not help much to explain things it makes a lot more sense in spanish.

The liquid dose is higher--I would need to look it up but it is Tablespoons. The percentage of medicine is lower so you need more. Corid is very safe, so they can have a lot over the treatment level and be ok.

Find the dosage for the liquid and treat them with the two courses- 1 at treatment strength and one at half strength.

After the second treatment give them B vitamins--Rooster Booster or Save a chick will work

 

[DCchicken]

I bought like 80+ chicks from GFF this year and probably buy more in the Spring. I have no issues with sick chicks other than the ones that the USPS killed due to poor handling. I did have one issue where the box was opened and the chicks were sick. But I attribute that to someone at the PO opening the box and handling them. I treated with Corid and saw an improvement in a day or so.

A couple of important steps with Corid:

1. Only give water with Corid and no fresh water next to it.
2. Mix some Corid into their food to make a paste. That way you can make sure that they get some of it.
3. Clean everything and change their litter several times a day. You might be the source of the infection.
4. Treat EVERY chicken you have, regardless of sick or not.
5. And most important, do not give any vitamins, ACV, probiotics, supplements, etc. while treating with Corid. Corid works by blocking thiamine uptake. Some vitamins have thiamin in them so you defeat the Corid treatment.
6. Raise their temperature a little. Let their bodies fight the infection not the cold.

Also, make sure that is cocidiosis. You should see blood in their droppings. It will be obvious and smell really bad. If no blood, you might have something else.

 

[TNBEARCHICK]

Yes we also bought at least a 100 chicks from them and have very great experiences also. Know doubt more in the future.

 

[ronott1]

I bought like 80+ chicks from GFF this year and probably buy more in the Spring. I have no issues with sick chicks other than the ones that the USPS killed due to poor handling. I did have one issue where the box was opened and the chicks were sick. But I attribute that to someone at the PO opening the box and handling them. I treated with Corid and saw an improvement in a day or so.

A couple of important steps with Corid:

1. Only give water with Corid and no fresh water next to it.
2. Mix some Corid into their food to make a paste. That way you can make sure that they get some of it.
3. Clean everything and change their litter several times a day. You might be the source of the infection.
4. Treat EVERY chicken you have, regardless of sick or not.
5. And most important, do not give any vitamins, ACV, probiotics, supplements, etc. while treating with Corid. Corid works by blocking thiamine uptake. Some vitamins have thiamine in them so you defeat the Corid treatment.
6. Raise their temperature a little. Let their bodies fight the infection not the cold.

Also, make sure that is cocidiosis. You should see blood in their droppings. It will be obvious and smell really bad. If no blood, you might have something else.

This is great!

The Lab at the University of California that I send samples to will test for Coccidiosis. This is from my notes:

Corid Dosage:
all chicks should be treated there is 9 species of this disease and ONLY 2 that have blood in the stool. Critical time is when chicks are between 4-16wks. of age. Chicks need to be treated when they are 3-4wks of age. CORID POWDER....1.5TSP. PER GALLON FOR 5 DAYS and then another 5 days at 1/2 tsp per gallon and to repeat it every 3wks if they have symptoms until they reach 9mos. of age. After this its a good idea to put it once a week in there water.

The Test said there is a small amount of Coccidiosis at my place. I give my Layers a dose of corid once a week now and if the next test does not find any coci I will stop giving them corid. Once it is at your place it is nearly impossible to get rid of. Some Breeds are very sensitive to cocci and will die more quickly from it. I did have to treat the Bresse but I did not have to treat the Basque Hens or the Pita Pintas.

 

[bayocum]

One of the most difficult pieces of free-range management is exposure to wild birds. At Sunbird Farms, we have tried very hard to keep our birds as healthy as possible, joining the NPIP for testing, providing constant access to pasture, feeding soy-free organic feed, and vaccinating for Mareks. One piece we've tried to avoid is medicated feed. However, we have come to the conclusion that its better to use medicated starter early on, than to have to keep our birds in totally "contained" environments. So we make the trade-off, early use of medicated starter for the benefits of long-term access to open pasture. If you have free-range birds, you will have contact with wild birds. If you have contact with wild birds, you will get various "bugs" that will attack your flock. We have found that Mareks vaccinations and medicated starter really give our flock a boost. If we encounter any illness, we quarantine, provide extra protection from the weather, and add vitamins to the water. This seems to do the trick for most of these "wild bugs" that get into our flock. So far, all of our NPIP testing has been clean and we've only had to deal with the occasional illness, which has resulted in minimal losses. At the end of the day, its life on a farm. Thanks to everyone for sharing all that great information on treatment, its very helpful.
-Brice @ SF