Baycox highly alkaline - chemists please advise!

[Diane]

I guess the treatments are based on what makes the pest the most uncomfortable.

[Trilobite]

Hi all,
Certainly no expert but there is some sort of correct/incorrect information below. The issue of "but it could be that as the parasites have set up home in a generally ph neutral body, to make it uncomfortable for the parasite the ph level in the host needs to change hence the alkalinity" is sort of correct in that the active ingredient in most treatments is designed to disrupt some biological mechanism. Eg wormers ususally work by sort of sedating the worms so that they dont hang on to the gut wall and so are passed out. In this instance the alkalinity/acidity of water is purley to ensure that the active ingredient is not denatured nor binds with something that causes precipitation etc etc etc before it gets to taken up in the body as part of digestion, while some maybe destroyed in the highly acidic gut some will also go through. A stomach in most animals runs at around 1.5 on the pH scale, once through the stomach it becomes a bit more balanced when bile enters the equation. So the body is not pH neutral in parts but rather uses different pH in different parts of the body to achieve a function albeit generally within a narrow range except for the stomach ( but that is another storey). Generally the body tries to achieve homeostasis rather then nutrality.

[Myzomela]

According to the manufacturer-Bayer- the Baycox Coccidiocide Solution (25 mg/ml) which is the one we use to treat our birds in the water has a pH of 10-12.
If you acidify the water it will cause the active ingredient to percipitate out, which means it will sit as a solid at the bottom of your water dish and not be in the liquid part.
They couldn't tell me how much acid you would need to add for this to occur.

So it seems we are best not to add any acidifiers to the water when treating with this product.

Also, at such a high pH, baycox should not be used neat to crop dose birds ie you can crop dose medicated water, but not the neat product, even if you have calculated the dose rate exactly. It is just too caustic used neat.

For direct dosing you need to use the Piglet suspension, which has a pH of 5, but it is twice as concentrated ( 50 mg/ml).

[SamDavis]

Thanks very much Myzo.
I seem to recall a batch of Baycox I had some time ago which seemed to settle on the bottom of water dishes as a white substance. At the time I blamed the Baycox but perhaps it was me adding some form of acidic sweetener. The last few years I haven't bothered to add any sweetener to Baycox and don't recall having a problem with birds drinking it or with it separating out.

[Myzomela]

I guess, Sam, that because it is actually designed for use in poultry in their drinking water, unlike some of the wormers, then palatability should be less of an issue.

I like Trilobite's attitude-the "KISS" principle.