helping prevent coccidiosis naturally

[chickenfan]

Following Chris' interesting comments about success with using Avipro Avian probiotic to prevent coccidiosis, I've been reading on natural poultry health management. It seems maintaining a healthy gut flora is key in helping prevention and the vitamin A in Avipro Avian also acts as a natural cocciosis treatment. Certainly my chicks I've put on it look very well. Apple cider vinegar, garlic, green tea and oregano also help. If you want to sterilise a coop before putting chicks in, instead of using horribly toxic stuff which kills oocysts, boiling hot water or steam cleaning also kills them.

Its vitally important not to mix ages of young birds that are building their immunity in a free range environment. Does anyone know much about Beryl's probiotics and whether the complex range of poultry-specific probiotics it contains make much difference? It would be nice to think one could keep a culture going as its an expensive product.

 

[chrismahon]

Beryl's is supposed to have hundreds of different cultures in it Chickenfan. These were claimed to have been discovered in Beryl's flock of very healthy chickens. No Idea how these cultures were isolated and are now maintained?

As I mentioned in a previous thread, chick crumb with ACS isn't on the shelves here. But the crumb we bought had a multitude of extra ingredients including probiotics and vitamin A at 9000 UI/Kg (don't know what that means exactly).

Years ago we had a Cream Legbar 2 weeks old. She was standing hunched up and pooing just blood. Rang the vet who diagnosed coccidiosis and said her condition was certainly terminal. In desperation, having read that some breeders put a spot in their chick's beaks, I bought a tub of probiotic natural yoghurt and filled Lucy's crop with it by syringe. Three days later and she was in perfect health and lived another 6 years. To date no-one has explained exactly why that worked?

 

[Marigold]

Diverging only slightly, I recently read a really interesting book on an unlikely subject, which apparently is hitting the best seller lists. It's Gut; the inside story of the body's most underrated organ.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Gut-inside-story-bodys-under-rated-ebook/dp/B00VGJMAHA/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1437633387&sr=1-1&keywords=gut+the+inside+story+of+our+body%27s+most+underrated+organ

If you click on the Look Inside arrow on the link, you'll get a full list of contents, and a taste of the brilliant cartoons in the book.
A very lively and interesting account of the whole process in humans, from the mouth onwards, of exactly what goes on inside your gut. It includes a whole chapter on pre- and probiotics, and their effect on everything from digestion to supporting the immune system, IBS, and even our moods and whole outlook on life. I downloaded the first sample chapter on the Kindle app and then bought the rest of it as I was so interested. I'm sure a lot of what she says has wider implications for other species.
Also I read yesterday about the successful use in curing patients with near-terminal clostridium difficule by the injection by tube of a culture of a processed liquid made from the faeces of someone with a healthy gut, with almost instant results. Apparently this has been part of Chinese medicine for many years but is only just being realised as a therapy in the West. The patients had been through 3 courses of antibiotics without effect and were very seriously ill, but one of them was up and walking round the ward within half an hour of the first treatment. As C.diff also causes dehydrating diarrhoea I imagine the same sort of cultures might be helpful for poultry with cocci, if present in a form that could be administered to them.

 

[dinosaw]

I can absolutely relate to Chris's experiences. The one group of chicks that I had which contracted cocci were the only ones that I didn't feed yoghurt and giving yoghurt to the worst affected bird who was at deaths door was part of what saved her imo, that and her having a huge fighting spirit. Obviously I would never rule out using Coxoid once you have an outbreak and this is what I did do with the rest of the birds as soon as they showed symptoms and it did work well with no apparent ill effects which had been a worry prior to using. With regards to biosecurity, where I fell down was not changing my footwear when moving between the growers and adults runs, of course I was then traipsing poo into the youngsters run and I think that is how the outbreak probably occurred, you live and learn as they say. I will find myself in the minority but have never had much time for ACV, it caused soft shells in some of my layers (it reduces the absorption rate of calcium) and the birds never really liked the taste of it either which meant they seemed to drink less.