*HELP!* Have to go with unmedicated at 4 weeks old!

[gritsar]

I am strongly in favor of feeding medicated chick starter, especially given our moist, hot enviroment here in SW Arkansas. I fed it to my last batch of chicks right up until the first egg (there was no seperate grower available around here then) and never had a problem with coccidiosis.

Today we went to town to buy chick starter for my 4 1/2 week old chicks and not a bag of medicated starter to be found in a 50 mile radius. The manager at the co-op told me they are having trouble getting starter right now. I ended up getting some 17% grower, unmedicated.

Is 4 weeks on the medicated enough to be effective to build a coccidia immunity do you think? Most of the chicks are now on the ground for at least a little while every day, while others aren't yet venturing out.

 

[Bear Foot Farm]

I've never fed medicated feed and also never had cocci problems.

 

[gritsar]

Quote:
Okay, maybe I'm stressing over nothing. However, having lived in both NC (mtns. and the coast) and Arkansas, I can tell you that Arkansas has NC beat on humidity and rainy springs - creating a very ripe enviroment for cocci.

 

[Beekissed]

I would say, if they haven't developed a good immune system by now, they probably won't....I wouldn't worry.

Like BFF, I've never fed medicated feeds and have never had cocci in my flocks....except a few birds I bought off a man who DID use medicated chick starter. His birds had bloody stool and poor health from the get go and I finally had to cull them. My birds never contracted cocci from this exposure.

 

[Supermommy486]

Here in Texas, where it's very humid, we have done both medicated and unmedicated. The one on medicated had cocci. The ones with out didn't.

 

[gritsar]

Okay, thanks. I won't stress.

 

[backwoodsman4life]

I live in central Oklahoma and all I could find was medicated feed.

I wanted non medicated. I want to be as organic as possible. When I ordered them I did have them vaccinated because I was getting then threw the mail. I have a friend here in Oklahoma who hatches his own chicks and never ever medicates or vaccinates his chickens and has never had a problem and they free range most of the time.

 

[AccioSarah]

Quote:
Same here. I've fed un-medicated organic from day one and have beautiful healthy birds.

 

[Beekissed]

I chose to not have vaccines or medicated feeds so that my chicks would get early exposure to barnyard pathogens and it seems to have worked. I've never had a sick bird here except one eggbound girl and a few that had heart attacks and fell right off the roost.

No cocci or any other illness to date and I'm hoping it is due to naturally acquired immune system antibodies. I've introduced new birds here and there and, as mentioned before, a few were ill and had bloody stools that looked very much like cocci. I culled them after awhile but I gave them a chance to heal themselves...this didn't happen. Nothing beats a healthy immune system!

 

[Bear Foot Farm]

I can tell you that Arkansas has NC beat on humidity and rainy springs - creating a very ripe enviroment for cocci

.

There's not enough difference for it to really matter
What matters more is not overcrowding the birds.

http://attra.ncat.org/attra-pub/coccidiosis.html​