When to start giving probiotics to chicks after giving them Corid for Coccidia??

[SMV913]

Hello!

I’m hoping I can get some help since this is my first time raising baby chicks.
We’ve now had our baby chicks almost 2 weeks (they were all roughly about 5 days old when we got them). After just a few days of having them, I noticed our little Barred Rock baby who was just a little over a week old was very lethargic, sleeping all day, could barely walk, was getting trampled over by the other chicks, barely eating, not drinking and literally knocking on deaths door. I was panicked! We had just surprised our kids with 6 baby chicks as an early Christmas present and I was not about to let one of them die! I did tons of research and actually this site and some of the forums are what helped me. Being new to raising chicks, I had no clue what could be wrong with her but I settled on the idea that it may be Coccidia. Of course this all was going on last week (Thanksgiving week) which made things much harder and stressful. The day after Thanksgiving I immediately drove to the nearest Tractor Supply and bought a bag of the Corid powder and treated the whole flock with this. I force fed our sick baby the Corid water for 48 hours and by the 3rd day she was showing some improvement! It has now been almost exactly a week and she seems to have made a full recovery!!! I am so thrilled that I was able to save her (for the time being at least) and all seem to be doing well! All 6 seem happy and healthy thank goodness! I have noticed a little blood in some of their stools still so I’m keeping an eye on that so I do know it spread to the others but they are all acting normal and eating, drinking and being very active. Also, they were all on Medicated feed since the day we brought them home and continued with the medicated feed even during the Corid water treatment.

My question now is, since today or possibly tomorrow will be there last day of the Corid water treatment, how soon can I start giving them probiotics in there water to help with there digestive system? I don’t know what the proper wait time is after having gave them a weeks worth of corid treatment to then giving them electrolytes and probiotics? I had planned on starting the vitamins and probios the following day after their Corid treatment was done. Is that ok for them and their bodies or should I wait a week and just give regular water to make sure the Corid is out of there system and worked? I know vitamins and probios are always good for them but will it counteract the corid that’s been in there body for the past week?

Thanks in advance for your help and advice!

 

[Lady of McCamley]

You could give the probiotics at the same time. Vitamin supplementation should wait for the day after or it could interfere with the Corid's effectiveness as it literally starves the coccidia (a protozoa that lives in almost all soil) from being able to metabolize vitamin B.

If you are still seeing blood in the stools, I would continue the Corid. I think 10 days is the minimum treatment time.

Technically you don't feed medicated feed and the Corid too, as it is the same med (Amprolium), but the concentration in the feed is low, so it is simply over kill rather than truly dangerous.

So glad you were able to save the Barred baby. And, I agree, keep a close watch on her. After they have cleared this round of coccidiosis, you will need to rebuild gut flora with probiotics. I also recommend keeping a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar, raw with mother, in the plastic water container. It feeds the good gut bacteria that keep the coccidia in check. (BTW, it would be a very early case of coccidiosis if it started at 2 weeks of age??? Usually coccidia take 4 weeks to go through reproductive cycle and build to dangerous levels, though some strains are faster. Often early onset illness can be from gram negative bacterial overgrowth left from hatching, eColi and Salmonella and Pasturella infections....but I'm glad the Corid worked.)

LofMc

 

[SMV913]

You could give the probiotics at the same time. Vitamin supplementation should wait for the day after or it could interfere with the Corid's effectiveness as it literally starves the coccidia (a protozoa that lives in almost all soil) from being able to metabolize vitamin B.

If you are still seeing blood in the stools, I would continue the Corid. I think 10 days is the minimum treatment time.

Technically you don't feed medicated feed and the Corid too, as it is the same med (Amprolium), but the concentration in the feed is low, so it is simply over kill rather than truly dangerous.

So glad you were able to save the Barred baby. And, I agree, keep a close watch on her. After they have cleared this round of coccidiosis, you will need to rebuild gut flora with probiotics. I also recommend keeping a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar, raw with mother, in the plastic water container. It feeds the good gut bacteria that keep the coccidia in check. (BTW, it would be a very early case of coccidiosis if it started at 2 weeks of age??? Usually coccidia take 4 weeks to go through reproductive cycle and build to dangerous levels, though some strains are faster. Often early onset illness can be from gram negative bacterial overgrowth left from hatching, eColi and Salmonella and Pasturella infections....but I'm glad the Corid worked.)

LofMc

Thank you so much for your response! All of your info is great and I appreciate it so very much!

I’m not 100% sure it was Coccidia that the Barred rock baby had since I didn’t take her in to get it tested but, after everything I read and with all of her symptoms, that seemed the most logical. Plus her complete turnaround after being on the Corid, makes me believe she somehow did contract it (we purchased her and an Orpington from a feed store. The others were from a breeder). Also, with the others now having small amounts of blood in their droppings that I noticed this past week makes me further believe that theory. The bloody poop sightings are getting less and less though. But hearing your explanation of what it actually could have been and the time frame in which she became sick at just under 2 weeks of age, you definitely could be right! So i’m definitely still unsure! Either way I am glad she’s still with us because it was looking VERY bad for her.

I continued with the medicated feed because that’s what they were used to eating and didn’t want to make any more changes for them. I figured it couldn’t hurt to double up on the Corid preventatives so I continued both.

Also, everywhere I’ve read, it says to give Corid treatment for baby chicks for 5-7 days. Never had I read 10 days being the Minimum. So I planned on stopping after the 7 days. Do you have anything to share that I can read that states 10 days? I just don’t want to do them any harm giving it for more days then supposed to.

I will plan on giving the probiotics immediately after the Corid treatment is completed. I haven’t been mixing it in yet because again I was fearful it would some how make the Corid ineffective. But you mentioned also doing Apple Cider Vineger in their water as well... would I mix both together? The probiotic powder with the ACV in their water? Or do I choose one or the other in their water for some time? How long would I continue this for?

Thank you again!