Coccidiosis

Coccidiosis is a parasitic disease that chicks get.  Dippy’s got it.  She’s probably not going to survive it from the looks of things.  I went in to clean the cage today, and I noticed she wasn’t really standing– more kneeling on her “shins.”  As the morning wore on, she moved towards just lying down.  The rest of the girls are putting on feathers, but she’s really not.  This is the first day, though, that I noticed anything in particular, and I’m down there several times a day to check on them.

Dennis suggested that I might just “take her out back” to prevent her from contaminating everyone else any worse than she already has.  He granted me, though, that I might get her through it with immediate medication, and so I shot over to Coastal Farm Supply to get some.

Unfortunately, the people on the floor there a) don’t seem to know much about much, and b) won’t admit it.  They gave me some antibiotics and told me that’d take care of it.  That didn’t sound right, given this is a parasite, and so I asked someone else.  She confirmed what the first had told me.  “That’s what we give all our birds.”  Still, didn’t say anything on the package about treating coccidosis.

So, I took another trip to Foster Feed and asked the guy there if this antibiotic would help with coccidiosis.  “Uh, no, that’s an antibiotic.  Coccidiosis is a parasite.  You want Sulmet.”

Sulmet is what I went to Coastal for in the first place.  It’s a sulfa drug that pretty much cleans out their intestines.  Dennis didn’t have high hopes for it, but he said it was worth a shot since I couldn’t get to his place for the powerful meds he’s got and that no one carries.

I just wish people would say they don’t know when they don’t know.  I’d be OK with that.  I’m not OK with someone looking me right in the eye and telling me something that they don’t know to be true.  The chicken will probably die anyway, but I’d like a reasonable shot at treating her with something intended for the purpose.

Seemed like a good idea to get all the girls on this stuff since they’ve probably, from what I’ve witnessed, munched plenty of each other’s poo in the last week.

I suspect tomorrow, Dippy will feel a little better, or I’ll be digging a hole in the backyard.