Coccidiosis poops? Should I treat?

[FLChickens]

Hello all. Year 2 in this super-rainy hot summer (Florida)

All my chicks this year are hatched under my own hens from their own eggs. I have some that are a few weeks to a few months old.

Everyone looks perfectly healthy, active, no problems with looks or behavior. It's been very wet (they live in a large run and do not free range) and I'm seeing slightly foamy yellow poop.

Last year it decimated our incubator-hatched chicks, with only a few surviving with intense nursing.

I'm also remembering years of raising chickens free ranged, hatched by their own mothers, and seeing such poop, but never having anyone act sick. So I'm not sure what factors were different for the group last year.

Anyway - I have Tylan 50. I'm wondering, should I proactively treat the chicks even though they look fine? Might they be ok? Is it better or necessary to treat? These are destined (all but one or a few) for freezer camp. We have our laying flock and setting hens.

The older chickens mostly drink from nipple waterers, but there's a large waterer on the ground the chicks use. So I can put something in there that would mostly go to them.

What should I do? I'd rather not give medicine unnecessarily. Especially since I've literally raised hundreds of them free range and naturally and never had them get sick. But our flock is so small I need to be careful too.

Thanks for any suggestions!

 

[Eggcessive]

Tylan50 would not treat coccidiosis, but is more for respiratory diseases. If you would like to treat for coccidiosis, you could start some Corid in their water for 5-7 days. Mix 1.5 tsp of the powder (or 2 tsp of the liquid) per gallon of water. It is not an antibiotic, so very safe for all chicks.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Never prophylactically treat an unknown or nonexistent problem with antibiotics. That's the way to create superbugs that can't be cured.
Also, antibiotics don't cure coccidiosis.
Foamy feces doesn't indicate coccidiosis.

 

[Kevin_87]

Check for moldy food or litter . Check for worms. Yellow foam sounds like excess gas in the GI.

 

[FLChickens]

Tylan50 would not treat coccidiosis, but is more for respiratory diseases. If you would like to treat for coccidiosis, you could start some Corid in their water for 5-7 days. Mix 1.5 tsp of the powder (or 2 tsp of the liquid) per gallon of water. It is not an antibiotic, so very safe for all chicks.

Ah I'm glad I asked. I used both last year iirc. I had such sick chicks. With help from BYC pulled them through once we figured out what was going on.

I see Corid is often used as a preventive and requires a short withdrawal time? I think I'll go ahead then to be safe. Thank you so much!

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Cocidia is a protozoa, not a bacteria.
Antibiotics would have no effect. Nor would they have any effect for a virus, fungus or any other malady except a small number of bacterial infections.

 

[FLChickens]

Never prophylactically treat an unknown or nonexistent problem with antibiotics. That's the way to create superbugs that can't be cured.
Also, antibiotics don't cure coccidiosis.
Foamy feces doesn't indicate coccidiosis.

Absolutely I agree with you. I've always been opposed to doing that. It just swept our flock last year and I ended up tube feeding for many weeks and one with so much systemic infection she lost an eye. It was horrific. So I thought I'd seek some wisdom.

My normal approach is to take good care of them and keep hands (and meds) off unless there's an emergency. And in years of keeping hundreds of free range chickens I had very rare problems. Incubator chicks in a run last year was terrible though.

Thanks.

 

[FLChickens]

Check for moldy food or litter . Check for worms. Yellow foam sounds like excess gas in the GI.

No mold I can find. The coop is very dry and we still don't put too much food out at a time because it does clump and mold with the humidity.

Worms? Nothing visible but you mean something else? One of our hens came with leg mites (treated long ago) and we just noticed the roo has them and have been treating him for several days. But I see nothing else out of the ordinary.

Not all the poop is yellow. But it looks like the chicks and this is how it started last year.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

To determine if there are worms or any other digestive tract parasite, have a fecal sample read.

 

[FLChickens]

To determine if there are worms or any other digestive tract parasite, have a fecal sample read.

Ah ok thanks. Just wanted to be sure I understood you. I'll check into where might be able to do that tomorrow before the weekend shuts everything down. Thanks!

(Just read a post on here about eye worms before I asked you so I wanted to be sure I understood what was meant. Thanks again.)