coccidiosis in chickens and CORID

by sharon
(orange va.)

I treated my 7 week old chickens for coccidiosis three weeks ago with CORID.

Should I do a follow up treatment? I suspected one of my chicks had coccidiosis and started treatment. The young chick is eating and seems to be feeling fine.

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The correct way of treating your chickens for coccidiosis with CORID would be to add 10cc (10mg) per gallon of water for 5 consecutive days. If you have done this your flock should be okay. It is better to do the 5 day treatment for chickens rather than the 21 day treatment.

How CORID works is that it mimics thiamin (Vitamin B1) which is needed by the coccidia for normal growth and reproduction. When the coccidia ingest CORID, they experience thiamin deficiency and starve from malnutrition thereby killing them off. The problem now is that there are some strains of coccidia that have become resistant to the use of CORID, especially in larger livestock like goats and cows.

If the rest of your flock are fine, I wouldn't retreat them at this stage. Instead I would add organic apple cider vinegar to their water, chopped garlic to their food along with an active plain yogurt to reintroduce good bacteria into their digestive systems. Keep their housing clean at all times. However, for this disease, this is not the panacea of all ills.

If you are absolutely sure that what your chickens had was coccidiosis you will have to be on constant lookout for the tell-telling signs as you will probably always have this problem.

Coccidia can last for up to 2 years in the environment without a host, and for the life-cycle to perpetuate, the coccidia has to be ingested by the host - in this case your chickens. Once you have coccidia on your land, it is very difficult to get rid of as they reproduce so rapidly and in very large numbers.

Basically, if you have coccidiosis your only option now is to try and contain it as much as possible. If you have other livestock on the property you need to investigate to see if they have been affected too. Coccidiosis can even affect cats,dogs and rabbits.

The ONLY thing that kills coccidia is EXTREME heat and cold.

Regards
Countryfarm Lifestyles