Doing Fecal Floats at Home

[Bkaye]

I was not aware about that with the Corid. For the past 3 days they have also been on Trimethoprin Sulfa powder. I’ll have to look into the others.

Thank you for that!

​

 

[Sue Gremlin]

Coccidia is a “normal” part of the intestinal flora in chickens. It is when they can’t be kept controlled by the immune system they become a problem, that’s why coccidiosis is generally a disease (and a bad one) of young chickens. Their presence in a fecal sample does not warrant treatment. Not unless the chicken is sick or debilitated and has a large number of oocysts in the feces. Coccidiostats usually work well for this reason: they keep the infection down to a dull roar to allow the chicken’s natural immunity to kick in.

 

[KsKingBee]

Coccidia is a “normal” part of the intestinal flora in chickens. It is when they can’t be kept controlled by the immune system they become a problem, that’s why coccidiosis is generally a disease (and a bad one) of young chickens. Their presence in a fecal sample does not warrant treatment. Not unless the chicken is sick or debilitated and has a large number of oocysts in the feces. Coccidiostats usually work well for this reason: they keep the infection down to a dull roar to allow the chicken’s natural immunity to kick in.

I am sure that is the case with chickens but this is the peafowl forum and I can attest that any more than twenty oocysts on a slide and the pea is already starting to be overcome with the disease. This is especially true with pen-raised chicks where they are in contact with higher amounts of cocci than when free ranging. They are very slow to show signs of being ill and once they do they are on their deathbed. The damage done by cocci to the internal organs will affect them for the rest of their life. Peas, especially very young ones will start dropping dead within a couple of days of showing they are ill. This is why regular treatments are so important to kill the cocci, not just slow it down. If you are being attacked do you want the attacker to 'slow down' or stop? Amprolieum is fine for chickens that can live with large amounts of cocci but fragile peachicks need to be treated monthly with Toltrazuril removing all cocci until mid-winter when they can finally build the resistance they need to be able to live with a small amount of cocci. Adults, on the other hand rarely need to be treated for cocci unless they are stressed by environmental conditions such as allergies, worms, or injury. Our protocol is to treat chicks monthly for both cocci and worms. The first week of the month is the first deworming treatment, fourteen days later the second deworming. The fourth week of the month is killing cocci with Toltrazuril. This protocol allows us to keep all of our chicks healthy and alive through winter, then we only need to deworm spring and fall after that. All yearlings and adults are only dewormed, rarely do we ever see cocci after the first winter.