coccidiosis in baby chick?

[brennamae]

I posted about one of our small baby barred rocks here: https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/657891/pecking#post_8879732

Well, we're less concerned about her picking on others now as we are now concerned about HER. Over the past 24-36 hours she has been very "sleepy". We find her standing away from the others, and kind of gently rocking back and forth and then waking up. I did some searching and found that it could possibly be signs of cocci? Some threads also mentioned ruffled feathers (which she's had for a week or so).

She does walk around and get food/water, but not as actively as the others. We checked her latest stools and those seem fine, no signs of blood.

Should we treat her separately for cocci? (If so, what is recommended...our local feed store doesn't carry corid, but they have Duramycin and Sulmet...but we could go to a TSC) Or should we wait and see how she is tomorrow before treating.

We're giving them non-medicated chick starter and they've been fine for the first few weeks except for this one's episode.

Thanks!

 

[leadwolf1]

Use corid and treat everyone for 5 - 7 days.

 

[brennamae]

My apologies, I believe we were using medicated starter for the first week or so, and then just recently bought a larger bag of organic non-medicated starter. I went to TSC today and picked up another small bag of medicated starter crumbles, and a bag of Corid.

The little one seems a bit more alert today, but I have caught her a few times standing up and dozing. So I'm wondering, is it better to be safe than sorry and put them all on Corid for a week, or should I just switch over to medicated again and see if that helps? Obviously we'd prefer not to medicate unless absolutely necessary, but we also don't want to lose any of these wonderful little ladies.

Some reading on here has me thinking that maybe the antibiotics is not necessary and may actually harm them if they don't have coccidiosis. Maybe I'll just put them back on the med feed until the small bag is empty and start introducing them to soil from their future home in the back yard?

 

[leadwolf1]

Medicate with Corid...if it's coccidia, waiting a week could be deadly!

 

[brennamae]

leadwolf1 thanks for the continued replies, I appreciate it. I definitely don't want to make a deadly decision, but I also want to make sure I'm making the right decision. In searching I came across this thread:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/487806/medicated-water-vs-medicated-feed/10

"speckledhen" mentions that antibiotics aren't necessary and may even be harmful. I'm not trying to argue with your advice, just trying to reconcile all of the info I am getting from the BYC forums, which is quite varied on this subject. Thoughts on this?

I guess are there any tell-tale signs of cocci? As I said, she sleeps standing up maybe...30-40% of the times we check on her. Sometimes she is just like everyone else, pecking around the brooder, feeding as normal, drinking as normal, etc. So far, no signs of blood in any stools in the brooder that we've found.

 

[leadwolf1]

All your symptoms point to coccidia and if you wait, it can be deadly. It doesn't take long and if you wait to see bloody poos, it is usually too late as the coccidia have already done major damage to the intestines.

Of course, it is your call and you need to follow what you think is best. I just want to offer you the best advice that I can cause it is heartbreaking to lose little ones. I would treat and treat everyone. But, that is just what I would do.

I am not a big supporter in the wait and see attitute...I want to catch things quickly so that they can be treated and cured. I'm not afraid to use antibiotics..however, amprolium isn't an antibiotic..it's a thiamine blocker that stops the cocci from flourishing.

Good luck in what you decide to do. We all have to sift through the advice and decide which is the best for us and our animals.

 

[brennamae]

Well, we're on our 7th day of Corid and she seemed to be doing better up until yesterday when she began falling asleep standing up again. Not as much as she had been last week, but it's still happening. Could this just be...her own personal quirk? Should we continue treatment, or stop and see?

We also thought of taking her and putting her in a separate brooder by herself so she has her own food and water. She's still the smallest by a long shot, so this might help with that too. I just worry about reintroducing her and her getting picked on..

Maybe it's just her own personal weirdness though? We have another who drinks too much, but temperature seems fine for everyone else in the brooder.

 

[amberflea]

Well, we're on our 7th day of Corid and she seemed to be doing better up until yesterday when she began falling asleep standing up again. Not as much as she had been last week, but it's still happening. Could this just be...her own personal quirk? Should we continue treatment, or stop and see?

We also thought of taking her and putting her in a separate brooder by herself so she has her own food and water. She's still the smallest by a long shot, so this might help with that too. I just worry about reintroducing her and her getting picked on..

Maybe it's just her own personal weirdness though? We have another who drinks too much, but temperature seems fine for everyone else in the brooder.

Do you have a thermometer in your brooder? Sure fire way of making sure the temp is fine, that way there are no questions. Also make sure they have room to 'move away' from the heat if need be...
I would not separate the one by itself, put another one in with it if you do.... they shouldn't be left by themselves... if you have treated them all for the recommended time for cocci I would just wait it out, perhaps its not cocci and some other problem that it was born with, that does happen, and being it was small to begin with very likely could be the case..