This video gives an overview of coccidiosis in chickens and shows how devastating just one bird with coccidiosis can be to an unprotected flock. While coccidiosis can occur at any age the greatest danger of infection is in chicks from four to eight weeks old. It takes around 6 days for the disease to run its course. Often there are no visible symptoms until the third and fourth days. This video does include some archival footage of chicks with coccidiosis and shows some of the symptoms of the disease as it progresses which may be upsetting to some.
24 comments:
Excellent,
Thanks for sharing
A very informative video! Thank you so much...
thanks... my hen should hatch chick in about 2 1/2 weeks and i am going to watch.
thank you for posting this video and all the other links they are all very useful information I will keep a look out for any symptom in my chickens and look forward to your next E-mail. :-)xxx
So good to know -- thank you so much!
Very educational and informative, thankyou Gina.
Keep the feeders full and the litter dry (especially around waterers) and you'll never have a problem with coccidosis. We raise hundred of birds throughtout the year and I've only had one mild outbreak.
ATTRA has a very through publication about the disease @ http://www.attra.org/attra-pub/coccidiosis.html
this happened to me last spring. i was ordering chicks each week from 2 hatcherys. i feel that where it came from. it is devastating to you, and the birds. very costly. my vet told me to destroy all of my flock, i did not worked thru it and almost lost all. survivors were stunted. better now! thank you Gina for all you do. Tim Goodin, MORTON,MS
thankfully we have never had a problem from this or any disease; we brought in my original 30 chicks from Ideal and they all survived; since then our hens have hatched new chicks with no death; we do keep litter dry and use Stall Dry in the coops to dry up wetness and keep parasites in check; I use the deep litter method
I know that the medicated chicken feed is supposed to help prevent this disease, and vaccines are another alternative. But part of the point for me keeping chickens, is to avoid the chemicals and antibiotics. For my new chicks, I immediately put them on Raw Apple Cider Vinegar. This kills e-coli and a host of other bacteria problems. 4 TBS per gallon of water if there is an outbreak, or 1 TB per gallon for maintenance. I put them on 4TB per gal until they are a month old, just to be safe. It has to be raw vinegar with the Veil of the Mother-find it at the health food store. I also use raw garlic in their water for worms. These are much better remedies that antibiotics and medicated foods and vaccines. Plus garlic keeps the poo in the chicken house from being so smelly.
We started 4 and 1/2 weeks ago with 6 backyard chickens and are now down to 2. I was thinking it was coccidiosis because 3 died on Saturday alone and maybe we were over it? But then I lost another today. I agree with the previous comment, that the whole reason I have backyard chickens is to get away from antibiotics. I'm at a loss. If this is what we had, how do we prevent it in the next flock (assuming we lose them all)
As far as I understand it Coccidiosis is caused by a protozoan, not a bacteria or virus so antibiotics would perhaps not help very much. Farmers used to lose a much higher percentage of their chicks to coccidiosis before the development of the medicated feeds and vaccinations so in terms of a survival rate the medication is probably the most successful option but I don't have any kind of veterinary training so I may be wrong on that.
Nice, informative video. My silver laced crested polish cockerel had this when he was a chick. We used medicated water to treat him he lived but when we put all the chicks outside in their new coop raccoons killed him. But we still have 19 other chicks. So its not that big of a loss.
I feed my young ones good feed with coccidiostat in it - once they are at point of lay, switch them to organic feeds. Just be vigilant and dose with sulphur/meds at first sign. It's a horrible Protozoa that lives in soil...and wet litter...awful. Can't do much just hope for the best!
Hi, I have a broody bantie that has been sitting on 6 fertile eggs for 21 days. Two eggs are cracked slightly and there was a chirping from inside, now you can hear the chick tapping and trying to get out, but this is 3 hours later. Do I try to help or just leave it? How long before the chick comes out? My bantie has let the egg come out from underneath her as she knows the chick is nearly ready
It can take up to 24 hours for a chick to fully hatch and they often have little rests in between break out attempts. If there is a mother hen there it is probably best left to her - if she doesn't help the chick out there may be a good reason not to.
Help! I have a hen who is nearly a year old. She has been acting oddly and is just getting worse. She is very lethargic and refuses to eat or drink very much unless I set it in front of her. She stands hunched up or sits on the ground and her droppings are liquidy and rancid. She keeps shaking her head and drifting off to sleep. Her bottom is also swollen. I have bathed her in warm water several times but very little is happening. I am worried she will die.
Has she laid an egg recently - could it be she is egg bound?
Hi Gina, I very happy by subscribing to your newsletter.
I run my business by ordering 1000 cockerels feeding them up to two weeks, and selling them.
At last time I sold my chicks, the buyer separated 19 from them and said these were pullets, I could live them if I liked to get eggs in future.
My question here is that, how can pullets be understood from the cockerels in an early age? THANKS from Rabiu
For most of us it isn't really possible to know unless you get sex-linked breeds. Even professionals are only accurate to about 95%.
I also have been adding apple cider vinegar to my chicks water and have been very impressed by their good health since doing so. It may be purely a coincidence but I am convinced the ACV has helped.
I have a hen showing those signs, thinking she was going to die - she didnt get up to go into the house last Sunday night, she sat under the willow tree. I checked her a few times but she didnt move. I thought she would be dead in the morning. At 5am I woke up to mad hen noises went out and my other hens were under the tree pecking her, I grabbed her by the legs and pulled her out and to my surprise she was still alive, so I put her in a box with clean straw and got anitbiotics and a wormer for the entire flock. This particular hen doesnt seem to be drinking so I used the syringe to get it into her mouth. The next day she seemed to be a bit better.. she's had some porridge - I have given her hen food and wheat as that keeps her going, but also some natural yogurt and she's still got a purple comb..listless, droopy tail, cant stand up for long. Her bum was in a mess so I washed and dried her - that didnt go down well and she stuck her head in her wings for hours afterwards.
I got her 5 years ago. She has an enormous secure run, with 4 other hens... they have access to fresh drinking water, hen pellets, wheat in the winter. I clean the house once a week, worm them with Verm-X, they get dusted once a month with Smite powder, and they are extremely spoilt hens. I have looked after them by the book for all the years I've had them. They used to go out in the garden, I've rescued this hen from a foxes mouth, fixed her leg, had her in the kitchen with me, she's survived everything, and I cant loose her. This is the third day since I found her under the tree and she is still fighting but not eating or drinking much, and hasnt moved from her box...help...
She's also not egg bound.....I've checked that, she hasnt laid eggs in a long while. Its a bit like Emily Gilis post... did your hen survive? do you know what was wrong with her in the end?
She sounds like a real fighter. Her age at 5 years old could be the reason why she hasn't laid eggs for a long while or it may be that there is something else going on such as internal laying or parasites. Smite and Verm-X are definitely good preventions but may not be strong enough as a treatment if worms or other parasites have taken hold. You may also be able to check her crop in case it is full and hard or squishy (crop bound, sour crop) as that could also cause similar symptoms. If it were something internal or an illness it is very hard to know what to treat for without a vet diagnosis. Scrambled egg can be another food/treat a poorly hen who isn't eating much will take. Good luck with her.
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