This site has info on diseases, management, etc. in it. Could be useful divided up by topic in sticky notes, but not sure who makes that decision. In any event, good site to bookmark. https://www.merckvetmanual.com/
Merck Manual/veterinary/backyard flocks
- Thread starter Sydney65
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Ya, it’s a good resource! I’m amazed that they can keep this free of charge.
It’s kind of incomplete from a non-production or backyard poultry point of view. For example, there’s a section on anti-parasitic drugs that basically says there is nothing to be used for internal parasites in laying hens. Also, the backyard section in general doesn’t reflect how people really maintain backyard flocks.
However, the Merck Manual provides a pretty comprehensive list of poultry diseases and is science-based. Sometimes a section could use an update. A look at the poultry section shows several diseases we’ve been discussing lately on this forum, like coccidiosis, collibacillosis (E coli) , omphalitis, fatty hemorrhagic liver disease, etc.
https://www.merckvetmanual.com/poultry
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- #3
I assume you just follow gamebird or turkey if noted, as I didn't see guinea specifically. But noticed it said amprolium doesn't work for certain coccidiosis. You'd think there'd be an active card smear for owners to test/determine the type, esp since most of us don't have bird vets near by.
Any vet should be able to do a coccidia test if you bring a recent poop sample. You can pool from several keets to get a decent amount, like a gram is ideal. If you have a regular vet that you have a good relationship with, you could talk to them and ask them to do a fecal drop off. Tell them they can do the same fecal coccidia testing they would for a puppy or kitten. If you have a state animal diagnostic lab near you, they can probably do the same. You can also do the same fecal float test they used for dog/cat nematodes to look for roundworms in your adults if you’re interested. At any rate, if you have coccidia present in the fecal sample and you treat with high dose amprolium, the coccidia (if not resistant) should drop and disappear from the fecal tests within about 3 days, and that’s when the keet should start looking better too.I assume you just follow gamebird or turkey if noted, as I didn't see guinea specifically. But noticed it said amprolium doesn't work for certain coccidiosis. You'd think there'd be an active card smear for owners to test/determine the type, esp since most of us don't have bird vets near by.
Funny story: our third group of chicken chicks were purchased from a well-know breeder. I had used regular unmediated chicken starter for the previous two batches of chicks, but this third batch seemed to have stubborn pasty butt, so I switched to medicated (low dose amprolium) chick starter at one week old. One chick died but I just opened myself and didn’t see much. At six weeks old, the second chick from this batch died, and I took it to our state diagnostic lab for necropsy: coccidiosis had killed it, despite the medicated chick starter. I switched to high dose amprolium in water and the coccidia disappeared.
I think that there are a lot of caveats to using mediciated chick starter. First, the low dose, as in medicated feed, only works as a preventative if you feed before coccidia exposure. It’s easy to accidentally contaminate your brooder with coccidia, so if you’ve already introduced coccidia, low dose amprolium does no good. That was probably my situation since the high dose amprolium still worked. However, it’s possible that I just had moderately resistant coccidia… Second, continuously giving a low dose of any inhibitory drug is a great way to select for resistance, probably explaining why we have so much amprolium resistance around now.
The admins for the FB Guinea group I’ve been talking about strongly advocate that all keets go on medicated chick starter as they feel that keets are very susceptible to coccidiosis. This is probably the largest source of arguments in the group. Every time a keet dies of unknown causes, the admins confidently state that it was killed by coccidiosis. I never see anyone report any testing, so who knows? I’ve stated my thoughts once and got shot down, so I just leave them to it…
For myself, I might look into some other anticoccidial drugs, like diclazuril, to have around before I hatch someone else’s eggs again. Since immunity to one coccidial species may not confer immunity to another, it’s possible maternal antibodies from the egg aren’t as protective against my coccidia if I am hatching someone’s else’s eggs. Also, I think I might plan to do a pooled fecal test for coccidia at one and two weeks old as well next time so I’m more prepared to intervene early if necessary. Since I didn’t do any testing, I don’t know that it was the amprolium that turned my sick little keet around, but the timing certainly fit.
@PeepsCA advocated using medicated turkey or game bird starter feed for keets.
Amprolium is a thiamine blocker. Keets need both niacin and thiamine for proper development.
I never use a medicated starter for any of my chicks, keets or poults. I have not seen any evidence that I have a problem with coccidiosis. One of the things that I do is expose the little ones to whatever is in the ground (sand) here immediately by using freshly dug sand for the brooder bedding.
I lose the occasional keet in the brooder, but I haven’t appreciated a problem with coccidia either. That one little keet was looking pretty rough though, which was why I treated them all. Do you know what medication was in the starter that Peeps used?
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- #7
I think I read similar somewhere, that introducing them to the environment begins to build resistance. Makes sense; again, Rosie's crew, healthy as horses. Likewise, the keets I moved outside at 3 weeks in the summer. But then you get into 6 of 1 and 1/2 dozen of the other, bc material on mushy chicks stresses sanitation of brooder about 20 x before mentioning oh, btw, cracked shells in incubator can cause it, too.
("feeling deflated, guilty? Let us beat you with a broom 40 x before we ease your mind.")- Thread starter
- #8
The co- op here puts amprolium in everything, that's why I don't go there. Some material says we should be vaccinating like chickens, other material says they have remained unaffected to a lot of diseases bc we haven't been doing that.-have never read anyone saying they do vax guineas.
Amprolium
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- #10
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