Cocci mystery. Please help!

[epmchickens]

ok... about 3 weeks ago my brooder chicks contracted cocci. I don't know how but they did. At the time i had 2 brooders running and both brooders managed to get it. Maybe because I wasn't washing my hands in between brooders i guess? but anyway... I treated them with 9.6% liquid corrid right away. I also ended up treating my outside birds because there were some bloody messes up at the coop so all 90+ ended up being treated. thankfully all of them accept for one survived. We got soooo lucky! That being said about 4-5 days after I stopped the medicine one 2 week old chick had a seizure and died. It was a really hot day and i thought it may have been because of heat stroke. 2 days later another chick the same age had a seizure and died. So I began to get worried that maybe I had done something wrong during treatment. They didn't all seem to be cycling at the same time so i treated for 10 days instead of 7. was this a bad thing to do? a few days later one of my 6 week old silkies had what i thought was a stroke because it couldn't open it one eye and its wing and leg were very droopy on the same side and its cherps were very muffled. within an hour it began to have seizures every few minutes but it survived 4 seizures before my husband was able to put it to sleep. The poor chick was miserable and it couldn't stand or walk and its neck and head pulled back over its body so it looked like it was trying to tuck its head under its wing but its neck was so stiff that i couldn't even correct its head! it was bizarre! So i started doing some reading and found out that cocci can cause neurological problems in cattle and dogs. I didn't find anything saying that this could happen to poultry but it makes sense based on whats been happening. has this ever happened to anyone else? should i be looking into other things? what is going on with my birds?! Then today I lost another chick. This time there was a lot of blood. Not so much the typical cocci poops but just blood like it hemorrhaged and it happened quickly. There has been no blood since treatment stopped and now today I found it dead within 10-15 minutes of giving them fresh water. Can someone please help me?! I'm going crazy over this.

 

[Noobchick]

Please don't overmedicate- this is a case where too much is a BAD thing. Never go over 7 days with Corid. In the future, treat 5-7 days only. Then give them a rest of a few days to see if their symptoms are gone. If they have bloody poops at that point, you can give Corid again for 2-3 days.

How much of the 9.6% did you give per gallon of water?

Were your chicks vaccinated for Marek's disease? Some of the symptoms sound like it could be Marek's. (The droppy wing.) Wondering what other people on here think.

 

[Eggcessive]

This is a very interesting thing that is happening to your chicks. I hope more people read your post, and can give some insight into what is going on, and if the 3 extra days of Corid could cause this. I would put some baby vitamins (PolyViSol) into their water and give a little plain yogurt to them. Sorry that you have lost so many.

 

[ten chicks]

ok... about 3 weeks ago my brooder chicks contracted cocci. I don't know how but they did. At the time i had 2 brooders running and both brooders managed to get it. Maybe because I wasn't washing my hands in between brooders i guess? but anyway... I treated them with 9.6% liquid corrid right away. I also ended up treating my outside birds because there were some bloody messes up at the coop so all 90+ ended up being treated. thankfully all of them accept for one survived. We got soooo lucky! That being said about 4-5 days after I stopped the medicine one 2 week old chick had a seizure and died. It was a really hot day and i thought it may have been because of heat stroke. 2 days later another chick the same age had a seizure and died. So I began to get worried that maybe I had done something wrong during treatment. They didn't all seem to be cycling at the same time so i treated for 10 days instead of 7. was this a bad thing to do? a few days later one of my 6 week old silkies had what i thought was a stroke because it couldn't open it one eye and its wing and leg were very droopy on the same side and its cherps were very muffled. within an hour it began to have seizures every few minutes but it survived 4 seizures before my husband was able to put it to sleep. The poor chick was miserable and it couldn't stand or walk and its neck and head pulled back over its body so it looked like it was trying to tuck its head under its wing but its neck was so stiff that i couldn't even correct its head! it was bizarre! So i started doing some reading and found out that cocci can cause neurological problems in cattle and dogs. I didn't find anything saying that this could happen to poultry but it makes sense based on whats been happening. has this ever happened to anyone else? should i be looking into other things? what is going on with my birds?! Then today I lost another chick. This time there was a lot of blood. Not so much the typical cocci poops but just blood like it hemorrhaged and it happened quickly. There has been no blood since treatment stopped and now today I found it dead within 10-15 minutes of giving them fresh water. Can someone please help me?! I'm going crazy over this.

Do you know if your chicks were vaccinated for Coccidiosis? What was the dosage you were using? Should have been for Corid liquid 2 tsp per gallon of water,treat for 5 days. Did you give them anything else with the Corid medication? What feed are they on?

 

[MrsBachbach]

The leg, wing thing sounds like Mareks to me also. You could have multiple problems going on. E-coli is also a possibility
.I just got through treating a small batch of 5 wk old chicks that I had turned out to be with others that were a week older than them. In just five days they were close to death. I treated them for cocci and a round of antibiotics, not knowing what was really going on. Two of them were so bad they couldn't even stand. They also displayed neurological symptoms. They had been vaccinated however. I am not so sure they suffered from cocci as much as just dehydration, stress and hunger and maybe chilling. There was a heat lamp in the coop, but maybe they didn't get under it at night. I did see the older chicks picking on them and they stayed huddled in their own group most of the time. I guess they never even went to the waterer. I had several feed dishes all about, so I didn't think they wouldn't have a chance to eat. In fact I had seen them eating just three days earlier. I guess they still were not getting enough to eat though. Anyway, I brought them all back in to their brooder and proceeded to give multivitimans along with their medication. The worst ones I separated and syringed medicated water and liquid food down them for about three days every few hours. Happy to say they are now standing again and starting to show interest in food again. I had almost given up on them Sunday and wondered if I should put them down. Glad I gave them one more day. The others are now fine also, not being chased from the food in their own brooder. I'm not sure where I'm going to put them now, but they can't stay in the house forever.

 

[epmchickens]

They are on medicated purina chick crumbles and I read that 7 days was the right amount of time. Thanks for telling me to give them a rest. I know now for the future. I did however only go 10 days in the one brooder and that is the group of chicks doing the best. All the weird seizures happened in the brooder where I treated for 7 days. I also gave them 2 tsp per gallon. I read a few places that was correct. I hope it was. And yes they were vaccinated for both mareks and cocci which frustrates me the most! If over medicating was the cause wouldn't they have had problems sooner? Maybe not because its neurological as far as I can tell. But I won't do 10 days in a row again. Thanks everyone for responding. Any more ideas or info is greatly appreciated

 

[epmchickens]

A bunch of them were very skinny when it was over so I made a mash out of their feed and hand fed the bad ones until they perked up and I did offer yogurt as a probiotic. They are all nice and plump again and luckily they all kept drinking. I did syringe water to the really weak ones though. Hmm. I'll look into e coli. I also did some reading on giardia? But it doesn't seem to fit right.