Sorry, I'm at a loss and about to kill a friend over this, you may want to come help me after you hear the cliff notes of the story! So this friend, who got in over her head in chickens, never owned them before, went to various feed stores and got about 50 chicks, then ordered 100 more. Ages ranging 6-10 weeks on the older ones, and about 4-5 weeks on the younger. Its a bit of a mess to say the least and encountering various problems that I have never had. So to this particular query at the moment:
6 week old birds, 10 of them in one group sorta separate, 8 drop dead, she calls me and asks what happened. (I don't see these birds every day and haven't paid huge attention to her flock so I have no idea about pre-existing symptoms and she doesn't have a clue) I bring 2 home last night, quarantine and start studying. All the birds in this group were boney, no meat on them, its been rainy and cold, low 40s at night, maybe high 50s during the day. My first thought is, partial starvation and not able to handle the cold with bad body conditioning equals dead.
The 2 survivors have no interest in eating though, and according to her, they have been getting what amounts to 1/2 a pound of feed per chick per day the last week or so, which seems pretty reasonable to me?? So I start thinking back to other issues she had.
This group of 10 had been inside until a week or so ago, when over crowding caused for them to be moved outside. They were put in a wire dog crate about 4 ft x 3 ft, that was inside a 10 ft x 10 ft dog run. The run currently housing 7 healthy 10 week old chicks, mixed with 8 birds that are 6 weeks old. Those 8 birds had previously been 11 total, and she lost 3 of them suddenly about a week ago, after moving them outside, to the same pen. Again they were boney and we had a severe cold snap, I told her to put them inside, quarantined with heat, and food and water, why they are back outside is beyond me...
So my current thinking is, 10 week old birds carrying cocci, and living healthy and fine, exposed the first 11 birds to it, made them sick killed a couple, but cocci count increased, new group of 10 birds killed by it, what do y'all think? Current symptoms of the 2 after 12 hours in my watch are listlessness, sitting hunched in the corner, drinking not eating. poo appears fine, just loose I assume from lack of food in the systems at this point. Some of the "8" birds that had issues before were walking around fluffy yesterday, I assumed they were cold until I started reading on cocci, any ideas?
After 5 years in chickens, and on an organic-ish management I have never seen coccidiosis present enough to effect my birds, I know its in the ground and birds themselves, but this is truly a first for me. At one point my friend was feeding Purina medicated feed, but the last bag she bought was Dumor which is unmedicated, and while I don't like med in feed, maybe she should switch back?
6 week old birds, 10 of them in one group sorta separate, 8 drop dead, she calls me and asks what happened. (I don't see these birds every day and haven't paid huge attention to her flock so I have no idea about pre-existing symptoms and she doesn't have a clue) I bring 2 home last night, quarantine and start studying. All the birds in this group were boney, no meat on them, its been rainy and cold, low 40s at night, maybe high 50s during the day. My first thought is, partial starvation and not able to handle the cold with bad body conditioning equals dead.
The 2 survivors have no interest in eating though, and according to her, they have been getting what amounts to 1/2 a pound of feed per chick per day the last week or so, which seems pretty reasonable to me?? So I start thinking back to other issues she had.
This group of 10 had been inside until a week or so ago, when over crowding caused for them to be moved outside. They were put in a wire dog crate about 4 ft x 3 ft, that was inside a 10 ft x 10 ft dog run. The run currently housing 7 healthy 10 week old chicks, mixed with 8 birds that are 6 weeks old. Those 8 birds had previously been 11 total, and she lost 3 of them suddenly about a week ago, after moving them outside, to the same pen. Again they were boney and we had a severe cold snap, I told her to put them inside, quarantined with heat, and food and water, why they are back outside is beyond me...
So my current thinking is, 10 week old birds carrying cocci, and living healthy and fine, exposed the first 11 birds to it, made them sick killed a couple, but cocci count increased, new group of 10 birds killed by it, what do y'all think? Current symptoms of the 2 after 12 hours in my watch are listlessness, sitting hunched in the corner, drinking not eating. poo appears fine, just loose I assume from lack of food in the systems at this point. Some of the "8" birds that had issues before were walking around fluffy yesterday, I assumed they were cold until I started reading on cocci, any ideas?
After 5 years in chickens, and on an organic-ish management I have never seen coccidiosis present enough to effect my birds, I know its in the ground and birds themselves, but this is truly a first for me. At one point my friend was feeding Purina medicated feed, but the last bag she bought was Dumor which is unmedicated, and while I don't like med in feed, maybe she should switch back?
