What are your thoughts ? I'm in the probiotic camp as it my belief that if you follow a probiotic regieme there will be little need for the use of antibiotics .
By probiotic I don't mean a commercially bought product more a way of kick starting the 'good guy' bugs in a chicks gut by feeding the right foodstuffs .
It may be old fashioned , and some will tell you a bird cannot digest dairy products , but I use milk sop once a week and I'll use plain natural yoghurt in with the eggfood when they are a day or two old. Probiotic food is food that contains live bacteria, and not all bacteria is harmful in fact probiotics help build up a chicks natural resistance.
How do probiotics work?
Most live bacteria that are ingested die when they reach the acid conditions of the stomach. For a beneficial bacterium to be classified as a probiotic it must be resistant to gastric, bile and pancreatic juices to reach the colon alive. The probiotics attach to the wall of the intestine where they increase the number of beneficial bacteria and fight against harmful bacteria thus maintaining a balance between the beneficial and harmful bacteria.
Brewers yeast is another aid , not only does it contain all the major B vitamins but is acts as a prebiotic ie: it kick starts the kick start. It can be bought comercially as PYM . I'll add more probiotics as the thread goes on but thats enough from me for now.
Regards Paul.
