Fluffed up, blinking chick

[JacksonPearce]

Hi all!

I am legitimately SHOCKED to say that this boy is practically good as new! This morning he's happy, has stopped fluffing up, and clearly wants to go outside and be with his sisters. I'm going to keep him in and under a heat lamp one more day, but I think he may be out of the woods. I didn't think he would even make it through the night when I first posted.

I think the electrolytes were absolutely essential in his case, so I highly recommend doing at least a day of electrolytes to anyone who has a chicken that is especially weak, even if it means going off corid for a brief time. I think getting the electrolytes into his system made him strong enough to fight off the coccidiosis and essentially bought him some vital time. I'm still pretty shocked that such a heavy dose of corid didn't knock the coccidiosis out sooner-- to be safe, I did a day of electrolytes for his sisters, too, before returning them to corid. If I treat with corid again, I might give a higher dose orally and then provide electrolyte drinking water rather than just doing corid drinking water.

I've always heard that corid can't be mixed with anything else under any circumstances, which is why I didn't try mixing it with the electrolytes (Rooster Booster). That said, I'm no vet, so it's possible mixing isn't really that big of a problem. Does anyone know for sure? I am definitely going to order an alternative to corid though, since I'm pretty disillusioned with it-- they were on a heavy dose for at least two days before he went downhill, and during that time another chick died. Clearly, the strain is either resistant to corid or the corid just straight up isn't working.

Thanks for everyone's help! Unless things turn around suddenly, I think he's out of the woods. I'm worried about the two girls, but they aren't exhibiting any symptoms, so I think they're just fine. I'll keep an eye on them, though.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

That's a different story. Rooster booster isn't just electrolytes. It also contains vitamins and anything containing thiamine will negate the effectiveness of the Corid.

Congratulations to the chick.

 

[JacksonPearce]

That's a different story. Rooster booster isn't just electrolytes. It also contains vitamins and anything containing thiamine will negate the effectiveness of the Corid.

Congratulations to the chick.

VERY good to know, thanks! I didn't give them in conjunction-- just one day of one, then the next day of the other. What electrolyte mix wouldn't negate the corid? I've also got Sav-A-Chick on hand, but it looks like it's got thiamine in it too!

 

[Eggcessive]

I have said this before, but I have always been skeptical of avoiding thiamine when using Corid. Corid doesn't block thiamine, it only mimics thiamine to the coccidia organism, causing the organism to die of thiamine deficiency. Chicks eat feed with thiamine, and that doesn't affect Corid. When chicks needs electrolytes, there is always Pedialyte, Gatorade in a pinch, or homemade electrolytes that can be used:

Homemade Electrolyte recipe

1/2 teaspoon salt substitute--potassium chloride (optional if you don't have any)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon table salt
1 tablespoon sugar
1 gallon water

 

[JacksonPearce]

This is all really interesting. I looked up info on thiamine and corid on the company's website:

http://www.corid.com/CoridProducts.html

It does indeed only mimic thiamine/B1 rather than block it. I imagine that therefore anything containing thiamine doesn't exactly render the corid useless, but does mean the chicken is taking in more legit thiamine for the corrid organisms to ingest rather than them exclusively getting the fake thiamine from the corid. Thiamine is indeed in chicken feed, as it appears to be not just present, but prevalent, in most grains, seeds, and beans (https://www.livescience.com/51721-vitamin-b1-thiamine.html and https://www.healthbeckon.com/vitamin-b1-rich-foods/).

I suppose the real way to make the corid ultra effective would be changing the chicken's diet to foods low in thiamine/b1, though I'm not sure what chickens would eat in that case, especially since when you've got a sick chicken you wouldn't want to change up the diet or feed them something that's nutritionally incomplete...