Natural Remedies for Cocci

[CowgirlMama]

Just noticed some bloody stools this morning in my chicks run. The chicks are almost 6 weeks old and have been outside in our dog kennel (coop isn't done yet!) during the day and I put them back in the brooders at night. I have 39 and not sure which one/s are affected. I changed their water this morning and gave them a mix of ACV and white vinegar (didn't have enough ACV). Does anyone have any other natural home remedies to help with coccidiosis? My chicks are eating, drinking and seem healthy overall (except for the bloody stools). TIA for your help!

 

[mrszlopez]

YOGURT ! i had a bad run in with Cocci about 2yrs ago. horrible. get some plain yogurt from the store & give them a few good bowl fulls a day. try to clean everything down. clean the pens & brooder. also wouldnt hurt to pick up some of the water drop antibiotics from the feed store as well. good luck !!

 

[Erica]

I don't know any natural remedies (though I've heard on here that giving a lot of powdered milk in the diet can help when there's an active infection). I'm going through a similar thing here — trying to stay natural but up against it with cocci.

There are two levels to treatment, and the natural part is management. This will keep reinfection low. It means either completely changing their litter every 24 hours or moving them to new clean ground. However while this will help stop new infection (cocci in the droppings need 48 hours on the ground to become infective), it doesn't help an active infection.

You can leave the infection to run its course (about 5 days) but you may lose most of your birds, or they may never fully recover and always be small and unproductive. Some may be perfectly fine if it's only a light bout, but it's hard to know how bad things will get when they first get droopy.

This time around I chose to treat with a chemical coccidiocide... But in future I'm going to be more stringent with management (e.g. I'll try to stick with hens rather than artificial brooding, and I'll make sure I don't leave the tractor in one spot to start with). That's just my preference; but once chicks are infected and sick the game changes totally, in my view...

Hope this helps,
regards,
Erica

 

[silkiechicken]

Cocci is a PROTOZOA not a bacteria.

It kills fast, you can let it run the course or just treat with a coccidiostat.

 

[Erica]

Just to clarify a coccidiostat isn't used for treatment, it's for prevention.
A coccidiocide is used with an active infection.

regards
Erica

I just 'corrected' a mod... Sorry about that.

 

[CowgirlMama]

Thanks for the ideas! I just checked the poo chart at Poultry Pages Forum, and looks like what I saw in the stool was intestinal lining and is normal! That's a big relief!! I'm going to keep an eye on it over the next couple days and continue the ACV in the water.