If your loft is crowded, the floor is damp, and a squab is losing weight with watery green droppings — think of coccidiosis first. A very common parasitic disease that rarely kills an adult bird on its own, but opens the door to everything else.
⚠️ This article is for awareness. Any treatment must be on a vet's recommendation and at the dose on the packaging — there are deliberately no doses here.
What is it?
A single-celled parasite (Eimeria) that lives in the pigeon's gut. Most adult pigeons carry it in small numbers and their immunity keeps it in check — the problem starts when the environment lets it multiply: damp, accumulated droppings, crowding, stress (transport, moult, breeding). It is in the encyclopedia under protozoal diseases, and its own page is here.
Signs
- Watery green or mucous droppings, sometimes with blood in severe cases.
- The bird huddled, feathers fluffed, little appetite.
- Rapid weight loss especially in squabs (3–12 weeks) — the most at-risk group.
- Increased thirst.
- Performance drops: the racing bird slows down, the show bird's feathers go dull.
These signs are not unique to coccidiosis — salmonella and hexamita give a similar picture. That is why diagnosis matters.
Diagnosis
The only sure method: a droppings sample under the microscope at a vet or a lab — it counts the oocysts. A small number is normal; a large number with signs = treat. The test is cheap, saves you needless medicines, and shows whether another parasite is present too.
Treatment
- The anti-coccidial drug the vet specifies (the common groups: toltrazuril, amprolium or sulphonamides — each has its own duration and dose).
- The full course even if the signs disappear after two days — stopping early = a stronger comeback.
- Treat the whole loft, not only the sick bird — the rest carry the same parasite.
- After the course: vitamins and supplements (see supplements) because some drugs affect vitamin B absorption.
- Re-test the droppings after two weeks.
Prevention — the part that really makes the difference
Coccidiosis is a disease of environment before it is a disease of medicine:
- A floor that is always dry. The oocysts need moisture to stay infective — dryness is the strongest disinfectant.
- Clean droppings daily in the breeding season, and at least every two days outside it.
- Water off the floor in closed drinkers — water fouled by droppings is the main route of infection.
- No crowding: enough space for every pair (see setting up the loft).
- Quarantine for any new bird for at least two weeks with a droppings test before it goes in.
- In high humidity (the coast and the Delta in autumn) some breeders run a preventive course on the vet's advice before the breeding season — a veterinary decision, not a rule.
Squabs in particular
The most dangerous period is 3 to 12 weeks: immunity is still building and the squab eats off the floor. Weigh weekly — a squab whose weight has stalled or dropped before any other sign shows should be tested. Record everything under the bird's health status in the app so you build a history.
When to go to the vet immediately
- Blood in the droppings.
- More than one bird with the same signs within two days.
- A squab that has lost more than 10% of its weight.
Coccidiosis is a "controllable" disease if the loft is clean and dry — and most people who suffer it every year have a floor problem, not a medicine problem.
