Hi All! I have a 6 week old chick who seems to be showing signs of cocci - lethargic, neck stretched, drooping wings, laying down. I've brought her inside, started all chicks on Corid & electrolytes - using a dropper on the weak chick. The other chicks seem fine, but treating all anyway. My questions is this: All the chicks have been on medicated crumbles since day 1. Has anyone ever had a chick get cocci, even when on medicated feed? I though that medicated feed was "enough" for prevention. Does corid work better? Could this be something else? Thanks for any info!
Medicated chick feed definitely does not prevent disease in all cases. It is actually intended to help them build natural immunity to cocci, not to prevent the disease as such. If the load of cocci is too heavy, if a strain new to them is introduced, etc., they can definitely get sick and even die of cocci without Corid or other medication. It sounds to me like you are doing just what they need! There are loads of threads about cocci here. Here are acouple, in case you want to read more: https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/778478/sick-chicks-post-2/0_20 https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/792579/just-found-a-dead-chick/20_20#post_11436103 (this post in particular)
Ok, so the chick did die (actually, we had to take it out of it's misery in the morning. It couldn't even swallow the water, poor girl). My next questions is, How long do I need to treat the rest of the flock before I can assume they have immunity? All the others are doing great, no symptoms, and have been on corid since I found the sick chick. I read the first link, and saw a rough schedule. I only have corid - should I just do corid for 1 week, skip 3 weeks, then another week until 6 months old? Thanks!
Corid is used for 5 days for treating an acute case. For prevention, wait 3 weeks and use the preventative dose (1/3 the treatment dose) for 5 days, then wait 3 more weeks and repeat until the age of 11 weeks. After that they should be gaining immunity, but watch them for any signs of illness. Here is a link for Corid dosing: https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/818879/updated-corid-and-amprol-amprolium-dosing
