Sanitizing after a cocci outbreak?

[Sonia]

We have had severely wet/humid conditions for quite awhile and I had an outbreak of cocci run through one of my outside chick pens. How would I go about sanitizing the pen before allowing other birds in there?

 

[ten chicks]

We have had severely wet/humid conditions for quite awhile and I had an outbreak of cocci run through one of my outside chick pens. How would I go about sanitizing the pen before allowing other birds in there?

Use cleaning ammonia,bleach will not disinfect for cocci. Have you used ammonia before,if not be warned it is smelly,add a bit to bucket of water and wash everything,let dry and air out before allowing chickens back.

 

[Sonia]

I'm more worried about the ground itself. I didn't know that bleach wouldn't kill it though. **** :-(

 

[Sonia]

What about DE for the ground? Or should I just use that pen for nothing for a year or so?

 

[Ridgerunner]

You can’t. It’s in all your soil. Even if you somehow sanitize that bit, the rest of your area has it and it will come back. The problem is not that it is in your soil but that it got out of hand when it got wet.

There is nothing wrong with having some of the protozoa that causes cocci in your soil or even in your birds. In normal conditions they will develop an immunity to it and you’ll never know it is there. The problem comes in when the number of those protozoa gets out of hand. Wet manure is a bit part of their life cycle. What often happens when you have a problem with cocci is that they eat enough extra stuff out of the wet manure for the numbers to get out of hand.

Some strains of cocci are a lot stronger than others. With some it doesn’t take much for them to get out of hand. If you have one of those strong strains you can still have serious problems even if things are pretty dry.

Instead of trying to eliminate the cocci, which I really don’t think you can do, approach it from another direction. Try to develop their immunity. It generally takes about 2 to 3 weeks after they are exposed to it to develop immunity. I don’t know how you are set up, but what I do is to introduce dirt from the run to chicks in my brooder when they are a couple of days old. They are supposed to be able to develop that immunity better when they are very young. I keep the brooder somewhat dry. Not bone dry but let a bit of their manure build up enough to be a bit damp so they can share any bugs they have. By the time they are out of the brooder and hit the ground where they are going to be exposed to it, they already have immunity.

You still have to watch them. A wet run is still an unhealthy run, but for a lot of us in wet weather, we can’t do a lot about that. There are no guarantees with any of these things since we are dealing with living animals and Mother Nature, but a few people I trust on this forum have said their cocci problems were greatly reduced when they started introducing dirt from the run to young chicks in the brooder.

 

[Sonia]

Thank you. Perhaps I did the chicks a disservice by keeping their brooder spotless. Problems may have been inevitable though, the run hasn't had a chance to dry out completely in over a month.

 

[ten chicks]

Thank you. Perhaps I did the chicks a disservice by keeping their brooder spotless. Problems may have been inevitable though, the run hasn't had a chance to dry out completely in over a month.

No, a clean brooder is always good,chicks just get cocci,very common for this to happen.

 

[Sonia]

I'm just bummed because we have had a very hard year with losses. Had a coop crushed and lost adults there, lost juveniles to flooding and chicks to wet/damp/cocci. I've never had losses like this before. Very discouraging.

 

[ten chicks]

I'm just bummed because we have had a very hard year with losses. Had a coop crushed and lost adults there, lost juveniles to flooding and chicks to wet/damp/cocci. I've never had losses like this before. Very discouraging.

I agree,life can sometimes be very discouraging. Try not to think of all the bad things(i know not easy,i should take my own advice)but focus on what you are doing now. Your chicks are ok now,that is a good thing,enjoy,love and have fun with them.

 

[Sonia]

They are not ok though, the cocci has spread to my inside brooders and I am unable to ger any corrid till Saturday.