How to change from Medicated feed to non-medicated.

[ambe0487]

I’m purchasing chicks and they have already been on medicated feed. I choose to not feed medicated feed due to a mixed flock and currently feed flock raiser. How do I transition them to non-medicated feed safely without loosing them.
I lost 4 babies a week a go by not properly transitioning. =(
Thanks!

 

[Pork Pie]

https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...eding-chickens-what-to-feed-and-when.1138895/

 

[Ridgerunner]

Can you please explain how you lost them by not properly transitioning? I don't understand that at all. What happened?

What is the medicine in the medicated feed? The vast majority of the time in the US that will be some version of Amprolium but there are a few other possibilities out there. I hate to make assumptions when it involves the health of your chicks.

If it is Amprolium, Amprolium is not an antibiotic. In the dosage in medicated feed it will not cure anything, it is a partial preventative that interferes with the reproduction of the bug that causes coccidiosis to help keep the numbers of that bug in their system to acceptable levels. When you stop using it the effects are not instantaneous. It takes a while for those numbers to build up, if they do. It only affects coccidiosis.

If you can tell us when you fed medicated feed, when you stopped, how were they housed, what were their symptoms, and how long after you stopped that medicated feed they died we may be able to figure out what happened and a good way forward for you.

 

[ambe0487]

Sure, they were purchased as 2 day old chicks and two stayed with me under my very experienced Cochin broody. The other two went with a close friend under her broody. Both mine and her broody had single chicks hatch had both of those are thriving today with no signs of illness. They are now 2 weeks old. I feed my mixed flock an Purina Flockraiser feed.

When we picked them up they were in a very clean brooder with water and medicated feed (amprolium). They were active but a few had pasty butt that I rectified as soon as I got them home and they were active but did need to clean butts later that evening.

By morning one at my friends had already passed under Momma overnight. She mentioned it’s butt was dirty but no signs of trauma. She lost the other with in the next 48 hrs in the same way.

My first one passed within 2 days of bringing them home. The second passed yesterday morning after fighting with pasty bottom every couple days. It seemed to struggle to pass waste from when I brought it home. It was clean bottom in the evening at lock up but in the morning the wings were droopy and it was very lethargic away from Mom in the run.

They are housed in my shed that connects to the run and coop which has been used for 4 other clutches already this year and 15 last year with no fatalities. I use stall pro bedding through out my whole hobby farm.

What else can I answer?

 

[ambe0487]

After contacting the breeder, she said it sounded like Cocci and to switch to nonmedicated feed and start Corrid. I told her I don’t feed medicated and she began to tell me I was doing it wrong because in her 40 years of showing (and vet medicine degree) she’s only fed medicated feed to chicks.

I’m not new to chickening and have hatched constantly over the last 3 years and never had a fatality but felt shamed that what I’ve been doing is wrong.

She had mentioned when we picked them up that their incubator had a problem with the humidity and was causing curled feet on many. I asked if these were apart of that batch and she assured me they weren’t.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Don't let her lay a guilt trip on you about medicated feed. There are a whole lot of people that don't use medicated feed and don't have problems. Your problem is not due to medicated feed or not-medicated feed.

In the dosage in medicated feed, Amprolium does not treat a dangerous case of Cocci. It does not even prevent Cocci, they can still come down with it even if they eat medicated feed. What it doe is interfere with that bug reproducing. It does not totally stop reproduction, just slows the reproduction down.

Just having the Cocci bug in their system is not a bad thing. In some ways it is good because in two or three weeks the chicken will have developed an immunity. The problem comes when the number of the cocci bugs gets out of control.

A normal sequence is that the chicken eats a few oocysts (consider these Cocci bug eggs). Those oocysts "hatch" inside the chicken and burrow into the intestine walls. After a few days they start developing oocysts that are expelled out the chickens rear end. If these oocysts stay wet in an area that has chicken poop in it, like a dirty waterer or a wet brooder, coop, or run for about two days they develop to a point that they can hatch in a chickens intestines if they are eaten. If the water is clean or the brooder, coop, or run is dry the oocysts don't develop. Coccidiosis is highly unlikely to develop. If the water is dirty or conditions are wet, they can eat enough developing oocysts for the numbers to get out of hand. But this takes time. It's usually at least three weeks after the first infestation before you have a problem, and often longer.

Your timeline does not sound right. If the problem were Cocci and the medicated feed was what was keeping it in check even if they had filthy water or a wet poopy brooder, it should take longer than a day or two for those numbers to grow to dangerous levels. But if the conditions are that filthy the numbers can grow dangerous even with medicated feed. But you said the water and brooder were clean. I'd guess your conditions were not filthy either.

There are different strains of the Cocci bug. Some are worse than others, mainly because different strains attack different sections of their digestive system. That's why some strains cause bleeding but most don't. Some can be more dangerous than others.

I don't use medicated feed. I keep the water clean and the brooder dry and I feed them dirt from my run, starting on the second day they are in the brooder. By the time they get out of the brooder and hit the ground, they have developed the immunity they need for the strain of Cocci I have in my dirt. Your broody hens do the same type of thing, making sure they get introduced to that bug when they are very young.

I don't know what was causing that pasty butt. It sounds like that probably had a big part in your problem. But pasty butt usually doesn't affect chicks over a few days old. So again that's confusing. To me it sounds like they brought the problem with them, it was nothing you or your friend did.

I can't solve your problem, but switching from medicated to unmedicated was not the cause.

 

[ambe0487]

@Ridgerunner thank you for keeping me sane and from blaming myself why it happened.

It didn’t make sense in my mind either but even with 7 years of poultry I still doubt myself with things.

We picked up four new babies today from them as a replacement so we shall see.

 

[lazy gardener]

Agreed with RR. No fault of yours.