Coccidiossis is a disease of birds and mammals that chiefly affects the intestines, caused by coccidia. It is one of the most common diseases to affect chickens and as such should be in the vocabulary of every backyard chicken keeper.
Coccidiossis is species-specific, which means if you have livestock around with coccidiosis they won’t infect your chickens and vice versa. However, coccidiosis doesn’t discriminate amongst the avian species – ducks, turkeys, geese can all pass the disease on to chickens and vice versa.*
Coccidiosis can be fatal to your chickens, howeverthe good news is with early diagnosis it can be easily and economically treated.
Symptoms:-
Coccidiosis works quickly as the incubation period is only about eight days. Symptoms can present either gradually or suddenly – it’s not uncommon for a chicken to appear fine one day and very sick or even dead the next.
The most common symptom you might notice is blood or mucous in the droppings.
However, don’t get this confused with caecal droppings chickens shed naturally that is also brown/red in colour. While you can take an educated guess as to whether or not your chicken’s poop is indicating coccidiosis, only your vet can provide certainty by performing an analysis on dropping samples.
Also note, blood in poop is not necessarily always a symptom, so also look out for:
- Weak, listless looking chickens not moving around much
- Huddling together as if cold
- Pale comb and skin
- A loss of appetite
- Ruffled feathers
- Weight loss
- Baby chicks failing to grow
- Inconsistent egg laying – or not at all
- Diarrhoea
All these symptoms could be as a result of other diseases, so the only way to know for sure that you’re dealing with coccidiosis is to talk to your vet.
Treatment:-
Isolate your sick hens from the rest of the flock and immediately make sure you clean out their coop, checking to ensure their living space and feeding areas are clean and dry.
Amprolium is commonly used – it’s a liquid that is administered by adding it to the hens’ water supply. (In more extreme cases you may have to orally administer)
Amprolium is available in store ask our friendly team for more advice…
Information gathered from www.backyardchickencoops.com, click to read entire article.
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