Puzzling losses - Coccidiosis confirmed by necropsy

[srothove]

Oh no. How are you treating?

 

[HudokFarm]

The vet said Corid for 5 days and repeat in two weeks or so. He also said its not a bad idea to treat twice a year (beginning of spring and end of fall) since we have a grown flock known now to carry it. He had some great info and advice. I am relieved but also frustrated. We always think we could have done more. And I am at work until 6:30 so I can't get home to medicate the for a few more hours.

 

[srothove]

I wonder if I should prophylactically treat my hens? There was a troubling loss last week and another hen was sick this week. With no chicken vet within 6 hours, we are on our own.

 

[Eggcessive]

Here is info on coccidiosis--a bit dated, but still good info: http://www1.agric.gov.ab.ca/$department/deptdocs.nsf/all/agdex4616Corid is the best treatment, and would do more good than harm if you suspect it.

 

[srothove]

Picked up some Corid at the Co-op today. What is the dosage?

 

[BigECarter]

In another post, Dawg53 says, "Corid 20% soluable powder dosage is 1/2 teaspoon per gallon of water for 5 days. Make a fresh mixture daily." A couple of threads listed dosage for liquid Corid as 2 tsp per gallon.

 

[Eggcessive]

Yes that is the correct dosage for treatment. Some will use a smaller dose for a preventative treatment when bringing in new chickens to the flock.

 

[HudokFarm]

That is the dosage I am using. Hopefully we get on top of this. Corid's website has this dosage listed and half this dosage for a preventative run on it. Both durations are 5 days and the vet advising me suggested discarding eggs for the 5 days of treatment and 5 days after. I think the eggs are safe, but we cannot sell them for that period of time. When treating you also must mix water with the Corid new each day. Pretty simple.

This is happening on my flock of 16 month old hens. They have never had health issues and we haven't lost one since they were 8 weeks old (and that was due to stress in the move to the coop). We fed medicated feed, but they were likely not exposed to coccidia during that time and so never built up immunity. Being in an enclosed run it just built up over time. We have lots of thoughts in retrospect on our flock and have new ideas for management of our next batch of chicks. We wonder if our birds are smaller than our flock of older hens partly due to this. Could they have been fighting this for a long time but never got bad enough to actually get sick until now? We had a feather picking problem with them and many just never seemed to get feathers back. Perhaps if they've been fighting this for a long time it affected the nutrition they could glean from their feed.

These are just some thought we've been kicking around and I thought I would share. Even with all the research I do, I thought that coccidiosis was only a concern with young chicks. I know much more now.

 

[BigECarter]

Thanks for the update - and answering some of the questions I had but had not gotten the right words to ask.

 

[HudokFarm]

As of this morning, we are still doing well! I will feel much better when we've gone a week with no losses, but I am cautiously optimistic at this point. I have a few with very slightly pale combs, but they've been on Corid now for a few days and hopefully we have caught them all in time.

If anyone reading this thread has dealt with coccidiosis in an adult flock, could you post a bit about your experience? Most of what I find is about chicks and I am very interested in anyone who has dealt with this in adult birds. Has anyone discovered how and why their adult hens got it? I know it is in the environment, but how would 16 months go by with no problems and then all of a sudden everyone gets sick? I would appreciate anyone's input!