- Apr 11, 2009
- 1,436
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- 171
My friend Nathalie Ross wrote this for me some time back
Glenda
I think it might be helpful for you all to know that coccidia are
very VERY hard to trace in a fecal. When I worked as a vet tech, it
was common procedure to go ahead and treat with a combination
antibiotic/antiprotazoan medication like Sulfa products (Sulmet being the most
common) based on symptom diagnosis rather than physical evidence of the
oocysts. iF YOU CAN GET SOME AMPROYLIUM PRODUCT USE IT.
This is less true of other parasites like roundworms and such,
but still true. Often vets recommend a routine worming program to kill
worms not found.
Worms aren't always shed into the fecal matter, nor
are their eggs, but that doesn't mean they aren't up there chowing down
on your birds' food in the gut and leaving scars which make it harder
for the birds to digest feed in the future.
So, think about a twice a year worming program. My personal program is
to worm in the fall with Ivermectin, in the spring with either
Ivermectin or another BROAD spectrum medication like tramisol or worm-ex.
Note: I didn't mention piperazine. Piperazine is a one-worm wormer -
round worms only. You'll want to use it for your very first worming to decrease
the parasite loads (which are undetectable unless they're really very heavy)
to prevent the possibility of the bird going into anaphylactic
shock or being blocked. These two last dreadful things can happen if
there are parasites up there you don't know about, and you use a
super-wormer (like the 2 mentioned above) which kill everything all at once. So
do piperazine the first time, or with new birds with unknown histories,
then use the super-wormers from then on.
Anyway, back to your problem. At 7 weeks, the babies are still in the
process of getting their gut bacteria in order. See, they're born
without any bacteria at all in their gut. So they eat at day 2, and put
food in there as a food source for themselves but also for bacteria.
Basically, it's first-come-first-serve for bacteria. If the bad ones get
there first, they take over and your birds get ill.
IF there are some
good but mostly bad, the same thing happens. If you give your birds
probiotics (substances containing live beneficial bacteria) your GOOD
bacteria will have the advantage.
Those good bacteria crowd out the bad,
make it impossible for the bad bacteria to live in anything but minimal
numbers, and thus help your birds to stay healthy.
So I always
recommend giving probiotics weekly from week 2 til point of lay. Then I move
to once a month or as needed. You can use live-culture yogurt (1
teaspoon per 8 newly hatched, moving up to 1 teaspoon per point of lay
bantam, 1 tablespoon per point of lay large fowl - no more please).
You can
also use powdered livestock probiotics (Probios dispersable powder
being my absolute favorite - it's the choice of exotic bird breeders, and I
also have hookbills). Or, you can go to the human health food store
and pick up a human supplement like "acidophilus" (Lactobacilus
acidophilus), or a combination of acidophilus and B. bifidum sold to combat
yeast infections.
The latter is a particular useful thing for a poultry hobbiest to have. The addition of b. bifidum helps combat thrush.
Thrush is essentially a yeast infection that is common to birds because of
the way their crops store feed in wet conditions. Things tend to get
fungus and yeast there, and thus the yeast infection.
That infection
goes throughout the bird's system and is really a mess, so that
bifidum/acidophilus mix is the best. Try to find a non-dairy liquid, and you'll
have the ultimate probiotic.
So, there are some options. I'd tend towards those. Also, if you're
prescribed antibiotics for your birds' infection, you'll want to give
PRObiotics daily during treatment. Antibiotics are unfortunately going
to kill the good bacteria which are having such a difficult time getting
established in y our babies as it is.
The antibiotics will possibly do
as much harm as good, so combat that bad effect with probiotics. Try
giving them daily for about 3 days after the last batch of medicine.
In case your babies are said to have an infection of E. coli (most
likely case) then you can try putting some vitamin E in their feed.
Vitamin E helps fix E. coli overpopulations. You know what else helps fight
E. coli? Guess: b. bifidum. It secrets a substance that E. coli just
can't stand. See where this is going?
Anyway, I'll just give you that to chew on. Let me know what you
think or if you need more help. I'm here if you need me.
Good luck, and please let me know how things go.
Nathalie Ross, Houston, TX
Glenda
I think it might be helpful for you all to know that coccidia are
very VERY hard to trace in a fecal. When I worked as a vet tech, it
was common procedure to go ahead and treat with a combination
antibiotic/antiprotazoan medication like Sulfa products (Sulmet being the most
common) based on symptom diagnosis rather than physical evidence of the
oocysts. iF YOU CAN GET SOME AMPROYLIUM PRODUCT USE IT.
This is less true of other parasites like roundworms and such,
but still true. Often vets recommend a routine worming program to kill
worms not found.
Worms aren't always shed into the fecal matter, nor
are their eggs, but that doesn't mean they aren't up there chowing down
on your birds' food in the gut and leaving scars which make it harder
for the birds to digest feed in the future.
So, think about a twice a year worming program. My personal program is
to worm in the fall with Ivermectin, in the spring with either
Ivermectin or another BROAD spectrum medication like tramisol or worm-ex.
Note: I didn't mention piperazine. Piperazine is a one-worm wormer -
round worms only. You'll want to use it for your very first worming to decrease
the parasite loads (which are undetectable unless they're really very heavy)
to prevent the possibility of the bird going into anaphylactic
shock or being blocked. These two last dreadful things can happen if
there are parasites up there you don't know about, and you use a
super-wormer (like the 2 mentioned above) which kill everything all at once. So
do piperazine the first time, or with new birds with unknown histories,
then use the super-wormers from then on.
Anyway, back to your problem. At 7 weeks, the babies are still in the
process of getting their gut bacteria in order. See, they're born
without any bacteria at all in their gut. So they eat at day 2, and put
food in there as a food source for themselves but also for bacteria.
Basically, it's first-come-first-serve for bacteria. If the bad ones get
there first, they take over and your birds get ill.
IF there are some
good but mostly bad, the same thing happens. If you give your birds
probiotics (substances containing live beneficial bacteria) your GOOD
bacteria will have the advantage.
Those good bacteria crowd out the bad,
make it impossible for the bad bacteria to live in anything but minimal
numbers, and thus help your birds to stay healthy.
So I always
recommend giving probiotics weekly from week 2 til point of lay. Then I move
to once a month or as needed. You can use live-culture yogurt (1
teaspoon per 8 newly hatched, moving up to 1 teaspoon per point of lay
bantam, 1 tablespoon per point of lay large fowl - no more please).
You can
also use powdered livestock probiotics (Probios dispersable powder
being my absolute favorite - it's the choice of exotic bird breeders, and I
also have hookbills). Or, you can go to the human health food store
and pick up a human supplement like "acidophilus" (Lactobacilus
acidophilus), or a combination of acidophilus and B. bifidum sold to combat
yeast infections.
The latter is a particular useful thing for a poultry hobbiest to have. The addition of b. bifidum helps combat thrush.
Thrush is essentially a yeast infection that is common to birds because of
the way their crops store feed in wet conditions. Things tend to get
fungus and yeast there, and thus the yeast infection.
That infection
goes throughout the bird's system and is really a mess, so that
bifidum/acidophilus mix is the best. Try to find a non-dairy liquid, and you'll
have the ultimate probiotic.
So, there are some options. I'd tend towards those. Also, if you're
prescribed antibiotics for your birds' infection, you'll want to give
PRObiotics daily during treatment. Antibiotics are unfortunately going
to kill the good bacteria which are having such a difficult time getting
established in y our babies as it is.
The antibiotics will possibly do
as much harm as good, so combat that bad effect with probiotics. Try
giving them daily for about 3 days after the last batch of medicine.
In case your babies are said to have an infection of E. coli (most
likely case) then you can try putting some vitamin E in their feed.
Vitamin E helps fix E. coli overpopulations. You know what else helps fight
E. coli? Guess: b. bifidum. It secrets a substance that E. coli just
can't stand. See where this is going?
Anyway, I'll just give you that to chew on. Let me know what you
think or if you need more help. I'm here if you need me.
Good luck, and please let me know how things go.
Nathalie Ross, Houston, TX
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