What's the Dosage of Duramycin-10 for healthy Chicks?

[ThePolishPrincess]

I've been brooding small numbers of chicks for 3 years, 1 brood each spring, and have never used medicated starter. We've only had one casualty and the chick was a day old from our first hatchery-shipped brood. He died almost as soon as he came out of the box. Had NOTHING to do with feed.

Chances of sickly chicks are slim so long as you keep an eye out to make sure everything is okay.

Also, we've never vaccinated any of our birds either, and over the course of 2 and a half years, lost only 2 birds. And a word to the wise: I would never take advice from TSC for anything chicken-related. My second year brooding chicks, they told my mother to pick up Terramycin powder when she had to buy chick starter for me. I was in school at the time. The power was for chickens with Respiratory illnesses. Totally not what new baby chicks-healthy ones-needed. Always ask the experts on this forum.

For alot of chick sicknesses, there are sometimes natural ways of treating them. I, too, try not to use the medicated stuff.

 

[Citychicken12]

Okay everyone I need your help badly! Getting chicks was the worst decision I have made! One was sickly to begin with so I brought it in and now she is healthy. I just went out there and now there is another one who has rattled berthing. I brought her in and put her in her own box next to the other one in the house. What do I need to do? In also had a hen break her wing on Thursdy and now she just sits in a corner and doesn't move. The chicks have caused way too much stress on me and my flock. HELP!!!

 

[ThIsafricanhome]

Medicated feed may help, but in wet areas, many chicks contract cocci anyway. I always have to treat a batch of chicks between six and eight weeks old here in soupy GA. Dont worry about that yet, though. I have done both medicated and non-medicated feeds and have to treat anyway. Dry areas may not have issues with it.


BTW, welcome to BYC!

I live in a VERY wet area and my chicks all just seem to get sick and die. Im treating a batch of month olds right now for cocci with corid in their water. Can you share a little more about your process of dealing with this in a more wet area?

 

[speckledhen]

I live in a VERY wet area and my chicks all just seem to get sick and die. Im treating a batch of month olds right now for cocci with corid in their water. Can you share a little more about your process of dealing with this in a more wet area?

First thing, I rarely ever brood chicks myself. The broody hens do almost all of it when I need chicks. Broody raised chicks seem to develop immunity faster than chicks who are not exposed to the dirt right away. They peck at mom's poop, and she is already immune, so it's like an inoculation, sort of. And if it's warm enough, she takes them outside before the first week is over. If not I put a pan of dirt in the cage/pen for them to play in.

I don't feed medicated feed. Doesn't work anyway and it messes with the balance of B vitamins (which you must do to kill the oocysts that cause cocci). I put a small pan of dirt from our property in the brooder from the first day for them to play in so they are exposed to the oocysts immediately in a small way and can begin developing immunity. I keep powdered Corid on hand and if I see a sign of it, I treat the group for 5 days. Even if I don't see signs, I usually run a round of Corid through a group around 6 weeks of age. I don't have issues with cocci much anymore, not in any big way. And I change their bedding a lot and clean their waterer a lot because they poop in it so much as babies.


I guess the answer to the title is "healthy chicks do not need Duramycin", but Duramycin doesn't treat coccidiosis anyway.