I never use medicated feed, have never had issues with coccidiosis. Whether you've had chickens on your land or not, cocci are everywhere. I take a natural approach by giving chicks early exposure to my soil so they can build their beneficial gut flora, and get early exposure to the pathogens in my soil during the first 2 weeks of their life when their antibody levels are highest. (chicks receive antibodies from their mothers just as mammals do from their mothers). You might be interested in this quote from Harvey Ussery that I recently posted in a thread about Marek's disease Harvey also mentions coccidiosis:
I'm going to take the time to type a paragraph from Harvey Ussery's book "The Small-Scale Poultry Flock" to give validity to my opinion. I quote Pg. 50, where he speaks of universal exposure to cocci and Marek's dz and how a healthy flock responds to those exposures:
"Marek's is a viral disease that kills more chickens than any other disease.Coccidiosis is caused by any of 9 species of protozoans and can cause weakening of growing birds, slow growth, and death. That sounds pretty scary, and the temptation is to choose vaccination by way of insurance. However, I have never had chicks vaccinated-for any disease, ever. It's interesting to note that both the Marek's virus and cocci protozoans are virtually universal-that is, to be found anywhere chickens are raised. Since my flocks have never had a problem with either, it is reasonable to assume that neither is the cause of the associated diseases (in the same way that we can say that viral organisms do not cause the cold, since they are universally present in the environment). Healthy chicks gradually exposed to cocci develop an immunity to them (just as healthy children develop immunities when challenged by exposure to normally present pathogens). The Marek's virus is called out of dormancy by stress. In contrast to the enormously highly confined (which is to say, highly stressed) flocks of the poultry industry, small home flocks-receiving normal exposure to universally ambient pathogens and managed to minimize stress-do not require vaccinations to thrive.Since there is as well a small chance of harmful reactions to vaccines, I avoid them."
