MEDICATED vs NON-MEDICATED

[Ridgerunner]

It might help you if you understand the life cycle of the protozoa that causes the problems with Coccidiosis and when the problems occur. The Cocci bug lays eggs in the chicken’s digestive tract that get passed out the rear end. Those eggs can last a long time in the environment, but if they go through a warm moist period for a couple of days, they develop to a point that if a chicken eats it, it can develop into a new bug. That new bug digs into the intestinal walls and sets up shop laying more eggs.

If there are only a few of these bugs the chicken develops immunity to that strain of bug in two to three weeks. As long as the numbers don’t get out of hand the chicken is not harmed. But that bug thrives in warm wet soil. Especially if the brooder is wet, the number of the bugs can explode and cause damage or even death. The bugs thrive in the wet conditions, the chicken eats a lot of them, and you have a serious Cocci outbreak.

With the Amprolium dosage in medicated feed (if the medicine is actually Amprolium) the bug can still reproduce enough that the chick can develop immunity by exposure, but it severely limits how many of the bugs reproduce. That is no excuse for a wet brooder. A wet brooder is still a danger for Cocci and other things. Amprolium is also the ingredient in Corid which is used for treatment, but that is a much higher dosage. Don’t confuse the two. Dosage is important.

Feeding medicated feed does not give them immunity. They have to be introduced to the bug before immunity can develop. Medicated feed makes it less likely they will get sick when they are exposed to the bug.

A very common occurrence on this forum is that people feed medicated feed to the chicks while they are isolated in the brooder and never come into contact with that bug. Then the medicated feed is stopped as the chicks leave the brooder and come into contact with the ground. They are then exposed to the bug for the first time, do not have any immunity, and they are susceptible to Cocci.

If you read about this you will occasionally find a source that says younger chicks are more likely to come down with Cocci than older chicks. The good sources will tell you why that is. The older chicks have already developed immunity. It’s not them being older that protects them, it’s that they have developed immunity.

Personally I don’t use medicated feed. I keep my brooder fairly dry and feed them dirt from the run at Day 2 in the brooder so they can start working on their immunity. I am not going to say there is anything wrong with medicated feed. I don’t think there is, it won’t hurt your chicks. I just have not had a need for it.

 

[de kippendame]

So would you say it is a good idea to use medicated feed for chicks with a broody hen who is in the coop with other chickens, and non-medicated feed would be okay for chicks in a brooder away from the flock.

I thought I would throw my two cents in. I have raised both hatchery chicks and broody raised (all layers) and have not used medicated feed for either. I do give yogurt here and there, but I'm not very consistent. Both of my hatchery batches developed cocci, I treated w/ a round of Corid which cleared it up. All (3) of my broody batches had absolutely no problems with cocci. It is my understanding that the chicks w/ a broody are exposed to cocci bugs from the git-go from dirt in Mom's feathers and her poo. My broody raised chicks are also put out to free range much sooner than I have put out my hatchery chicks. I plan on raising my next hatchery batch as close to broody raised as I can to try to reduce their chance of developing cocci. In my opinion if you wanted to feed medicated, I would give it to the brooder chicks and non for Mama and chicks(as Mama would be eating the same which she would not need).