Sorry I've been away for so long yall...between these grandbabies and my Bearded Babies I'm exhausted and limiting my time on the phone so I go to God more for strength and guidance as opposed to social media which has whole set of issues for me!
Anyways wanted to let yall know I took in fecal samples to the vet yesterday that bought our house and has helped us with so many of our pets through the years!
I was thinking some kinda worm was what I was dealing with...nope they said coccidia positive.
So from what I'm reading and researching there is a "normal" amount of coccidia in the flora of their gut...but it's when there's too much that there is a problem?
Am I understanding this right?
I've got the Corid and going to begin treating them today.
I'm wondering about the ground if there is anything I need to do pertaining to it.
The run was completely cleaned out after Lizzie having to be put down from auto immune reproductive issues which made her succumb to several other things.
I'm guessing she probably had this on top of all of that too.
So DE and fresh pine shavings are in the run and I'm raking through it all every day or so.
Anything I'm missing?
Last year when the Buff Silkies were born they got coccidia cuz I had a hatch 5 days apart with cochins and I thought I was being wise in placing the cochins 5 days older down in run brooder...but when I brought them back it must have introduced coccidia to the silkies.
Could the damp area I am dealing with in run have caused this now?
Or why aren't my adult babies able to handle this? They are on 20% protein feed, most snacks consist of veges and fruits.
So here is what I have learned and experienced so far with coccidia. Hopefully my experience helps!
- damp areas that are also warm aid in the growth of all number of things, including parasites, protozoans, bacterium, etc. so they will always be an issue unfortunately. Whatever you can do to dry up damp areas will help. If you have First Saturday Lime, I would use that instead of DE because it is useful for the bugs AND also has more of a drying capacity. I have also read that DE is less effective in wetter conditions, so you want something with more capacity to dry things out, FSL will not only dry out the soil it will also dry out the bugs and bacteria by dehydrating them. DE is just too one dimensional for your situation. It makes a good source for their dust baths but not for your soil conditions.
- too many birds per sq foot increases the amount of chances they can come in contact with more coccidia and this increases the volume in their gut, this is often why chicks get it the most often, because we don't always know when the right time is to move them to a larger brooder or can't due to weather or safety. I know this isn't your issue, just something I have learned from my own experiences with it lately.
- coccidia is always in their gut flora, so even if you minimize it in the ground, they will always come in contact with it in the dirt, their poop, etc. so they can even get it from each other, it doesn't necessarily need to be introduced to them by other birds. They just eat it when they peck and eat their flooring and poop off their feet, etc.
- stress alone (molting, not eating enough, not having a body that absorbs nutrients well, being picked on, being hot, being cold, laying an egg, being broody, ALL the things that stress chickens haha) can shift their gut biome and allow coccidia to begin dominating the gut flora more and begin causing more issues
- CORID is not a medication it is simply a thiamine blocker--which starves the coccidia so while you CAN OD your chickens on it if you give them too much, it is not easy to do and you can treat aggressively if needed. If I have an outbreak, I give each bird 0.1 mls straight via oral syringe to ensure they are able to rapidly begin starving the cocci. I do this 2x a day for 2-3 days depending on severity of outbreak.
- coccidia happens in adults most often that struggle with issues (underlying health problems, minimal good gut flora to fight it, naturally nervous chickens that are easily stressed, etc.). You can help them out by keeping them up on good probiotic supplements, extra vitamins, and good access to feed and clean water (which I KNOW you already do!!). The underlying health issues like Lizzie had you just can't always help enough.
I think because you have beautiful, likely more in-line bred silkies/satins...you may find that they are more sensitive to stress, may struggle some with internal health issues that are exploited more by bugs and bacteria, and may have more high maintenance needs than your other breeds that are known to be hardier like cochins. That has been my experience with birds from breeders that have beautiful birds...they aren't often the MOST hardy...breeding carefully to avoid inbreeding issue is hard and not always well understood. I don't blame breeders, I think it's a big learning experience that some don't learn as well or easily--and since silkies are soooo popular I think they sometimes come with more issues due to improper understanding of genetics.
