How to clean after cocci? and how to cut down on chicken smell?

[shelleyd2008]

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Good idea PC, I forgot about the drying it out part. So Teresa, looks like you need to bust out your garden tiller!

 

[silkiechicken]

Cocci is a protozoa. It is not a bacteria, worm, or virus. It thrives in soil and is everywhere, it just thrives more in damp conditions. Keep the birds on dry litter and expose them to the cocci within the first few days of life. Don't overwhelm them with the cocci, but small exposure will go a LONG way in their building of an immunity against it. If you know cocci is abundant where you live, look into giving a medicated feed. A medicated feed containing amprolium is only a thiamine blocker which inhibits the cocci growth in the stomach. No more, no less, as it does not kill the cocci, only prevents it from reproducing. This suppresses numbers in the area so the birds can become immune without becoming sick. No need to try to sterilize everything, that would be a disservice to the birds. Exposure in low levels is key.

 

[Mahonri]

If it's soaked enough, chlorine WILL kill protozoans.... (giardia is a good example and an extremely common protozoan) but it's got to be concentrated and wet (with the chlorine).

A simple wipe, won't do it.

The three most common protozoans are: Entameba histolytica, Cryptosporidium parvum, Giardia lamblia,...Metronidazole will kill all of them, but I'm still trying to find how you would get it for chickens.

I spent two years in Ecuador and suffered from bouts with about all of those. We boiled our water, soaked out kitchen counters with bleach, washed often and had to be careful where we ate and what we drank.

(Just spent some time on some micobiology sites)

 

[Mahonri]

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I'm learning... now where to find amprolium...

 

[PurpleChicken]

You can find amprolium at most feed stores or online. Be careful though as I asked my feed store to order me some and they got me a gallon for $87. I don't need to treat 10,000 chickens.

 

[Mahonri]

I'll probably get some online and spread a little on the ground in the run.

I've got to do this before I introduce my younger ones to the older ones the end of next month.

 

[PurpleChicken]

Amprolium is for the chicken, not the ground.

 

[Mahonri]

Yes... but if you soaked the ground with it, wouldn't it help kill them?

I heard of someone who did that with oxine and said it worked.....

Guess I'll just stick with it in the waterer.

 

[PurpleChicken]

You and SilkieChicken are the ones with advance degrees, not me.

Amprolium reduced thiamin in the chickens gut thereby reducing cocci's ability to multiply.

 

[silkiechicken]

Amprolium is a thamine analog, meaning it basically "pretends" to be thamine, so when the protozoa takes it up, it cannot preform the required metabolic functioning that a "real" thamine would be able to do. Like doing a switcharoo with a key amino acid basically. No matter how much you put on the ground, I don't think it will kill them or stop them for reproducing. Reason being, the cocci "lives" in the ground dormant as an oocyst (egg), and isn't activated till eaten by a host species and pooped back onto the ground. Damp places harbor more just because the eggs last longer without drying out.

Amprolium is in "medicated feeds" at low levels prevents cocci from completing it's life cycle in the bird. It's kind of like the malaria in that it requires different host species to have a full life cycle.

As for introducing the babies to the big uns, give the babies some dry dirt from the adult run and let them play in it. Just a little will expose them and they can build up immunity to the protozoa before they go out and get a full dose.