16/10/2026
I've just got my first case of coccidiosis in years. Let me tell you the mistake I made.
Coccidiosis is very rare in southern Australia, because of our climate, but poor brooder hygene can cause it, as is teh case here.
Coccidia organism needs both warm AND wet conditions. If it has one or the otehr it can't reproduce. Apart from some rare humid summers our summers are warm but not wet, and our winters are wet but not warm.
With poor brooder hygene and not taking notice of conditions you can get moisture from p**p and spilled water, and well as the warmth of the chicks.
The reason I never feed my chicks medicated chick starter is so I have to be careful with brooder hygiene and can't be lazy and let things be dirty. it forces me to be clean as I can sometimes be a bit lazy.
When you introduce warm damp conditions gradually you can build up the chicks immunity but chickens loose that immunity if they aren't exposed to the organism regularly, like every 2 -3 weeks. This is why it's a good thing to spray water into your chooks pen regularly during summer, to keep up their immunity.
My silkies are now off heat and outside but their pen has been very dry. Yesterday morning I noticed that they had tipped their waterer over and wet some of the soil. Their other waterer had not been cleaned for a while and had wet mud in the bottom. Yesterday was a pretty warm day, the warmest we've had in a while.
Since they hadn't built up immunity they were ripe to be overwhelmed with a build up of coccidia. I had let my guard down and not exposed them when I put them out, so now they all have it, though only this chick is bad, and the others look ok for now, but there is a couple of bloody p**ps in the pen. Keep in mind that not all types of coccidiosis produce bloody stool.
Keep in mind that the coccidia organism is everywhere, in the soil everywhere. There is no need to be afraid of it, just understand it.
Anyway, I have now cleaned their waterer and put medication in it for them to drink. I'll have to reintroduce them to the organism slowly over the next week after the medication has worked its way out of their systems by pulling up clumps of grass and allowing them to peck around in the just damp dirt. I usually do this will chicks that are still under heat.
This sick chick won't drink so I have to crop feed it with the medicated water. It might survive if it's digestive system is able to absorb the medication.
