Am I overmedicating my chicks?

[byrd95]

I had an outbreak of coccidia a couple of weeks ago. I never had to deal with this before and ended up losing 12 of my 14 8wk old chicks.
I have six 3-4 wk old polish chicks (1 is a lot smaller than the rest) in a brooder with a wire bottom and same thing with my twelve 2 wk old serama chicks.
When I first brought my polish and seramas home from the breeder I did not know about the outbreak of coccidia in my older chicks. I treated my oldest with corid for 2 weeks...they also have medicated purina chick starter. The polish and seramas are also on the same feed and have been on corid as well. I stopped the corid two days ago and have been using rooster booster in their water instead. My two oldest coccidia survivors are very healthy now and are out of their quarantine pen and are down in a larger coop that me and my husband just built close to our full grown birds. The reason I'm wondering if I am over medicating is because the breeder I got my polish from told me I was....she made me feel like I was because she said that she has lost a lot of chicks on medicated feed. Not only that but she said giving medicated feed on top of the corid was too much for them. I have heard different things from different people so this was upsetting to me when she told me this. Everyone's stool seems normal but my smallest polish just seems off and a couple of the others huddle a lot. This was going on even with them being on the corid. I stopped that and have been using rooster booster in their water now. With losing 12 chicks from coccidia you can see why I am scared to lose more of these guys. Please tell me if you think I am overmedicating or if there is something else different I should be doing?! Thank you all so much!

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I personally feel like you are overmedicating, depending on which dosage level you are using. The short heavy dose or the extended dose.
I've only fed medicated purposely once and I remember the guaranteed analysis tag on the bag containing amprolium said not to feed it and dose with additional amprolium. I think you should do one or the other or neither, not both.
The eimeria coccidia cannot complete their life cycle in the absence of moisture. Keep the bedding bone dry and feeders full and you won't have an issue with it.

 

[byrd95]

Thank you so much for your response. I am not using corid but only rooster booster right now. Do you not think I should be using rooster booster at all? It's a tiny amount in their water as I am only using the quart container for their water. They are on medicated feed but I have regular I just bought. I wasn't sure if it was too soon to put them on regular or not.

 

[Mamatomany123]

Thank you so much for your response. I am not using corid but only rooster booster right now. Do you not think I should be using rooster booster at all? It's a tiny amount in their water as I am only using the quart container for their water. They are on medicated feed but I have regular I just bought. I wasn't sure if it was too soon to put them on regular or not.

My chicks have never been on medicated feed so it's never to soon to feed unmedicated. A good rule of thumb is to only treat when necessary. Dont treat as a preventative because it can build up an immunity. Just like you wouldnt take antibiotics in case you got strep.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I've never used rooster booster but to the best of my knowledge, you shouldn't give any supplement that contains thiamine while giving medicated feed or treating with corid because amprolium is a thiamine blocker to starve the protozoa.
Supplementing thiamine will have the affect of negating the effectiveness of the medication.

 

[Folly's place]

How were your first chicks, the group who died, managed? Were they on medicated chick starter until two weeks after they were exposed to your soil! Was it extremely wet during that time? If you either didn't have them on the medicated feed, or stopped it when they went outside, that could have been a problem for them.
Amprolium works fine, but as mentioned, using the right dosage for the right amount of time is important. Also, treating birds who aren't sick isn't necessary, but if you have a sure diagnosis of coccidiosis, they must be managed.
Just leave the Rooster Booster out, and do an appropriate treatment schedule.
I've been blessed to never have an outbreak of coccidiosis here, and so haven't fed the medicated chick starter for a long time. It's luck and dry ground, and someday that may change...
Mary

 

[byrd95]

The first group were very very sick. It's like it hit them all at once. One in particular acted like he was never affected. The other survivor was really sick but is perfectly fine now. They were on medicated feed and corid. I'm not sure if I just started treating them too late what. The two that made it are now in a bigger coop outside are on water with not additives but still on a medicated feed. I thought about switching them to regular next their feed needs refilled. When I got these 14 chicks I bought from a breeder. I usually only hatch out my own chicks. I noticed one had red stool so I treated everyone then for coccidia. This was only three days after getting them from this breeder and they had not been outside yet. So I knew it had to have came from her and not me. I treated for five days and everyone seemed to be clear. There was no red stool and everyone was active/didn't act sick. Then on May 31 I had two randomly die. Again no one showed me any signs of coccidia. But I immediately started corid once these two died and the next day almost everyone had bloody poop! It's like it happened over night and everyone went down hill from there.

I guess for my seramas and polish I will take them off rooster booster and only give medicated feed. I'm just worried for my polish by how they have been acting.

 

[Folly's place]

What a mess! I can see needing to treat them, and having multiple chicks from different sources is hard. Medicated chick starter isn't meant to treat sick birds, as you know, and you certainly had sick babies from that breeder! What has she said about it all?
Mary

 

[byrd95]

So I didn't message her in the very beginning when they were only a week old but once they started dying I was highly ticked and I did message her but of course it wasn't her fault because coccidia typically shows up within 3 days and with my babies being close to 8 weeks old she didn't see it as her problem. I told her that they had coccidia day three after getting them from her but I thought I had everyone treated as I was not seeing bloody stool and everyone was very active. We went back and forth for a while but I just stopped responding to her because it wasn't going to bring back my birds. She tried "helping" giving me advice on different things I could be doing to help save them blah blah blah. It was such a mess! However I thought I read somewhere that using medicated feed can help utilize coccidia and with my polish and seramas being so young I was worried if they had something I wanted to go ahead and treat them before it got worse like it did with my older birds!

 

[Folly's place]

It sounds like you are getting through this, although loosing all those chicks is terrible! I guess it's a breeder to avoid in the future?!
You will likely have issues in the future, and in these circumstances, I'd be feeding medicated chick starter to all my new chicks for at least another year, or longer.
All the best,
Mary