The Poultry Keeper

Bhindi · Posted: Tue Mar 21, 2006 12:57 pm Post subject: Coccidia

Having learnt the hard way what Coccidia is and what it can do, I am curious to know how others prevent it occuring in their flocks.. I know that some people will be buying feed that is treated to prevent coccidia, but as a person who is desperate to maintain (not at ALL costs) an organic lifestyle for my hens (& me), Im trying to work out what my options are.. When we use ACV, do we (the forum) think that it helps as a prevention... my ACV usesage had lapsed since moving into our new home so possibly it does..

Vaccination as I understand it does not cover all off the different coccidia parasites (Eimeria).. i may be wrong!

Any information would be gratefully recieved..

Thanks Claire

fenwoman · Posted: Tue Mar 21, 2006 2:21 pm Post subject:

While I laud anyones organic ideals, unless you are giving organic ACV and organic fruit and veg and organic grain, and not using any kind of chemicals at all to keep your birds and their housing parasite free, and using organic shavings and straw in the housing,I have to ask myself, what is the point? I consider it to be a total waste of time and money to feed organic pellets if everything else you feed and use is non organic. That being the case, feed a medicated diet for the sake of your birds. I have no idea how one would keep chicks alive using non medicated food. The only time I was daft enough to try, I lost 6 promising growers to coccidiosis before I got my brain in gear and bought some coxoid and reintroduced medicated food.
To do the organic thing would also mean never medicating yourself or children, never using chemical cleaning products in your home, never buying any groceries which were not organic. It's an all or nothing thing really as what is the point of feeding only a small part of your chickens diet as organic, and risking their lives, if in the rest of your lifestyle, you use chemicals ? Let's face it, without chemicals, the human race would not be as healthy as we are today (discounting diet induced problems) disinfectants, medicines, cleaning products for home and things like shampoo, soap, soap powder, washing up liquid. I hope you get what I'm trying to say.

Bhindi · Posted: Tue Mar 21, 2006 2:42 pm Post subject:

Thanks for nothing fenwoman... you have NO idea how much or how little my organic way of life is, and if you cant be sensible to take the post i placed in the spirit of my request please in future refrain from contributing to my posts. I was looking for sensible input at peoples solutions to a mutual problem, don't need to be put on your firing line... god dont you just get sick of being confrontational sometime! (not ?) = rhetorical question.

Lisa · Posted: Tue Mar 21, 2006 2:52 pm Post subject:

I've not had to deal with it myself, but if I did I would check out 3 resources to start with:

Remedies for Health Problems of the Organic Laying Flock from KingBird Farm

The Organic Vet pages from the University of Reading website.

Katie Thear's book, Organic Poultry, concentrates on preventative methods:

fenwoman · Posted: Tue Mar 21, 2006 8:03 pm Post subject:

Dixie Chicks · Joined: 27 Jan 2006 Posts: 312 Location: South West Cumbria

Hi Bhindi. Hope someone comes up with some useful suggestions for you as I'd be very interested in them too Smile

.

George · Joined: 14 Apr 2005 Posts: 5661 Location: London

Hi Bhindi

Not sure about ACV for this, but garlic is supposed to help

fenwoman · Posted: Tue Mar 21, 2006 10:09 pm Post subject:

Gearge, garlic is antibacterial and has possible (unproven) anti worm properties but I have never heard of it being parasitic too. I did a google but couldn't find anything about coccidiosis and garlic, any idea where I can find further info?

nigel · Posted: Tue Mar 21, 2006 11:21 pm Post subject:

George · Joined: 14 Apr 2005 Posts: 5661 Location: London

Sorry fenny, I can't remember where I read it, it was a pdf file and can't seem to find it again,

If I do find it again I'll let you know

shelly · Joined: 20 Nov 2005 Posts: 29 Location: Glastonbury

Just read the bit on high tannin content, would cold black tea count, and has anyone tried it?

from Shelly

milkmaid · Joined: 19 Apr 2005 Posts: 7424 Location: isle of lewis

at a kennels i used to work at the dogs where given a bowl of tea in the morning ,the owner believedthat it helped coats ,don't know wether it did or not ,they did have nice shiney coats though
suz

fenwoman · Posted: Wed Mar 22, 2006 11:48 am Post subject:

Tea has antioxidants in it and they are supposed to be good at fighting all kinds of infections. Luckily I drink loads of tea so am mostly fighting fit. Although at the grand age of 51, I don't do much fighting nowadays hehe.

summayah · Joined: 14 Apr 2005 Posts: 4289 Location: luton

There's also a natural wormer manufactured by verm-x. It doesn't need to be registered because it's not chemical, but it has won a government environmental scheme award

http://www.verm-x.com/award%20winning.htm

It's made from all natural products and very easy to administer. An extra bonus for anyone who has struggled to work out dosages for flubnevet!

Lisa · Posted: Wed Mar 22, 2006 2:52 pm Post subject:

Summayah, are you saying verm-x tackles coccidia too? I didn't think they were mentioned on the Flubenvet label, so I thought these were a different sort of parasite, and you needed a different sort of medicine or treatment than a wormer to deal with them?

As a general comment, I'd read that coccidia tended to be very host specific ie ones that infect sheep would be different to the ones that infect chickens. Not to say that garlic wouldn't work on the ones in chickens too. Just thought it was worth mentioning...

Certainly would be interesting if it was the case that natural remedies (like garlic, tannins etc) had a more broad range of action parasite wise than modern drugs Razz