medicine for chickens

[jvs]

I am sure all of us (hobby) chicken farmers are having problems with sick and dying birds every so often

The problems we mostly have is coccidiosis and snot(infected eyes and cold symptoms)

We have been giving them different kind of medicines but may be there is something better.

For coccidiosis we give sulfamet but i read on the net Corid is a lot more effective and safer for the birds,but where do i get it?

It is not only about this but i an sure there are people here with a lot more knowledge about these matters and i would like to ask you to please share.

We have six different kind of chickens now and are getting more and some do cost a lot of effort and money to get them here.

It would be really nice to be able to keep them alive!

[pigeonjake]

hi jvs,

im sorry i cant help you on drugs for your chickens,

we do keep many chickens but our have the free run of our farm and i find they strive this way,

do you keep your in runs,? this could be the problem with coxi, the ground has it in it, and if you dont rotate your runs they will pick it up all the time, all birds have coxi but at small levels,

all we give our chickens,pigs,ducks and geese is vitimin b12 once every couple of weeks, we dont have chickes dying, btu there are chicken keepers on here who will be able to help you more,

all i would say, is give your chickens free run if possible, or have more runs for them so you can rotate and let some runs rest for 6 months or so,

jake

[Jotham79]

Hi JVS,

There is a bug going around where chickens (mainly young ones) are getting infected sinuses and eyes. If it moves to their eyes I cull the bird. Or if they just get so lethargic I can walk up to them and pick them up I cull them. Half of mine are in runs and half have the run of my farm. I have no problems with the adult chickens in my runs. For coccidiosis I treat the birds every 90 days with DE (diatomaceous earth) in their feed and sprinkle it around my coops and in their nests. I don't use antibiotics now, but I have been lucky. I go overboard and scrub the water jars everyday, make sure they are well fed (I mix most of my own feed) and that they get fresh fruit and greens.

What breeds do you have and where are you?

PJ If the B12 you use is in a small green foil pack and is made by Betagro, I thought it had some erythromycin in it.

[jvs]

Thank you guys,most of our birds run free every day and the older birds are no problem.We let the young ones out at a young age so they can start building up resistance and the cocidiosis is not what kills them.

I guess it is the bug that attacks the eyes.I have been giving amoxcoli for that but with mixed results.

Jotham 79 where do you get the DE?

We keep everything clean and use bleach to disinfect feeders and waterers.It is very frustrating to lose birds this way and it is not easy to find new ones.

Because of the eye infection we have some birds with one eye now and i hope to be able to find something to prevent this.

I have culled a few birds but a cure would be better of course.

We have Dutch booted bantams,Serama's Brahma's, Bantam Silkies,Phoenix ,Thai Bantams,Chabo's White leghorn ,Cochin bantam,Polisch and some laying hens.

hope to get a few more breeds in the future,do you have anything to trade?

Jake i have some great racing pigeons ,also fancy tales,croppers,Lahore and old dutch capucijn.

[Jotham79]

Thank you guys,most of our birds run free every day and the older birds are no problem.We let the young ones out at a young age so they can start building up resistance and the cocidiosis is not what kills them.

I guess it is the bug that attacks the eyes.I have been giving amoxcoli for that but with mixed results.

Jotham 79 where do you get the DE?

We keep everything clean and use bleach to disinfect feeders and waterers.It is very frustrating to lose birds this way and it is not easy to find new ones.

Because of the eye infection we have some birds with one eye now and i hope to be able to find something to prevent this.

I have culled a few birds but a cure would be better of course.

We have Dutch booted bantams,Serama's Brahma's, Bantam Silkies,Phoenix ,Thai Bantams,Chabo's White leghorn ,Cochin bantam,Polisch and some laying hens.

hope to get a few more breeds in the future,do you have anything to trade?

Jake i have some great racing pigeons ,also fancy tales,croppers,Lahore and old dutch capucijn.

I got the DE from a friend years ago and had to take several kg. I heard it was available but only in large quantities. I don't know how much I have left and have been thinking about trying to get some more.

I wouldn't use beach very often.

Coccidiosis usually doesn't kill on its own, but causes the bird to be less able to fight off an infection. This eye/nose infection going around is something I haven't seen in 20 years and hope not to see it again. Culling isn't a cure it is a management practice, because anything you "cure" is probably just going to end up a carrier. It is a difficult practice to follow. You have to set a limit on how sick a bird can be and then you cull. Out of my last 150 chicks, I have only had to cull 4-5 and they were all eye infections. I have been lucky and haven't had to cull an adult chicken in over a year. I have had a couple of quail that were either ill or injured and my BIL is very happy to receive the culls.

I have Rhode Island Red, Sam Saipan (a black feathered heavy breed, Leghorn cross, Barred Rocks, and Jumbo Brown Quail. I am mainly focused on meat and layers and am experimenting on crosses and developing a layer that is good at free ranging. I'm in Petchabun if that is not too far for a visit.

Good luck with your flock.

[FEBiochar]

Another suggestion (a little outside the box). See if they will self-medicate on charcoal. Some Japanese chicken farmers have eliminated all antibiotics using a charcoal regime. This was presented at a biochar conference I attended in Oz in 2009. You may be able to find reports with some internet searching.

[pigeonjake]

Hi JVS,

There is a bug going around where chickens (mainly young ones) are getting infected sinuses and eyes. If it moves to their eyes I cull the bird. Or if they just get so lethargic I can walk up to them and pick them up I cull them. Half of mine are in runs and half have the run of my farm. I have no problems with the adult chickens in my runs. For coccidiosis I treat the birds every 90 days with DE (diatomaceous earth) in their feed and sprinkle it around my coops and in their nests. I don't use antibiotics now, but I have been lucky. I go overboard and scrub the water jars everyday, make sure they are well fed (I mix most of my own feed) and that they get fresh fruit and greens.

What breeds do you have and where are you?

PJ If the B12 you use is in a small green foil pack and is made by Betagro, I thought it had some erythromycin in it.

hi jotham,

sorry late reply been busy,

this is the b12 we use, i think its the one you mean,

[Jotham79]

Hi JVS,

There is a bug going around where chickens (mainly young ones) are getting infected sinuses and eyes. If it moves to their eyes I cull the bird. Or if they just get so lethargic I can walk up to them and pick them up I cull them. Half of mine are in runs and half have the run of my farm. I have no problems with the adult chickens in my runs. For coccidiosis I treat the birds every 90 days with DE (diatomaceous earth) in their feed and sprinkle it around my coops and in their nests. I don't use antibiotics now, but I have been lucky. I go overboard and scrub the water jars everyday, make sure they are well fed (I mix most of my own feed) and that they get fresh fruit and greens.

What breeds do you have and where are you?

PJ If the B12 you use is in a small green foil pack and is made by Betagro, I thought it had some erythromycin in it.

hi jotham,

sorry late reply been busy,

this is the b12 we use, i think its the one you mean,

Sorry for the late reply, but wanted to check my facts. Yes, the package you showed has Erythromycin in it. I do use it for the first water my chicks get out of the incubator, but I would prefer it not to have the antibiotic.

As for charcoal I know it is used as an antiflatuance medicine in people so I will do a little research. In small amounts it wouldn't hurt.

I am trying to get some DE from a friend of a friend. If I score and anyone wants some send me a pm.

[pigeonjake]

talking about charcoal,

when i have a fire i must admit the chickens and pigeons go on it when its finnished eating bits and bobs,

i know years ago the old pigeon fanciers in the uk used to put a bit of charcoal down the troats of there pigeons against canker, i used ridzol, but you never know

[soidog2]

In case you would like to stay away from chemicals, oregano will do wonders; we use it here and it works.

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2012/12/26/science/chicken-farms-try-oregano-as-antibiotic-substitute.html?referrer=

[Jotham79]

In case you would like to stay away from chemicals, oregano will do wonders; we use it here and it works.

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2012/12/26/science/chicken-farms-try-oregano-as-antibiotic-substitute.html?referrer=

The last line of the article says “You can’t just replace antibiotics with oregano oil and expect it to work,” Mr. Sechler said. I am a real skeptic, but I am also naturally curious so could you give some details as to how you use it and where you get it? I don't use antibiotics, but would under the right conditions. I do give my quail basil occasionally, but that is because they like it.

[jvs]

We give all of our animals a lot of green feed,basil,king of bitter,mint and basicly anything they will eat.

Oregano is something we will also try because it should be easy to grow here.

Also we sprout rice and beans and feed it to them but sometimes they have something and you just know they need something stronger.

I use doxicycline on older birds and give them one capsule a day if they are really sick and it is a fifty/fifty cure rate.

I tried feeding some birds a piece of charcoal yesterday and the do play around with it and eat some,we dump wood ashes in the pen and they really like to use it as a dustbath.

Hope to be able to get some DE in the future and try that also.

[Jotham79]

One thing that everyone needs to understand is that antibiotics are not effective against a virus, worms, or coccidiosis. IMHO most times you have a sick bird it will be because of a virus. Now you can have a virus with a bacterial infection, but if your birds are in good shape it will be rare. I don't vaccine now (did in the past) as there are simply too many bugs out there and some vaccines need boosters. My procedure for chickens is to hatch the chicks and keep them on wire for 1 month and move them to the floor for 1 month and then send them to free range on the farm. At 4 months I take the surplus males to fatten for a week and at 5 months select the layers. If your birds are well nourished, reasonably free of parasites, and are not stressed they have a good chance of making it through. If you really feel the need to use antibiotics, you should spend some time researching their use on poultry as well as biosecurity and how to autopsy a bird to determine what is really happening. I am running my small operation for profit and have found that culling the odd bird along with some other practices works out for me financially.

As I have said on other posts I would use antibiotics under the right conditions and do use the Betagro B12 plus erythromycin the first 2 days after the hatch, but would be happy to find a multivit that didn't have the e'mycin. At the end of the day you have to do what you think is best.

I am going to start research on Oregano and will post back if I find anything promising.

[pigeonjake]

another thing you have to understand is that antibiotics will kill good bacteria as well as bad bacteria,

tke baytril will kill most bad bacteria but will also kill the good stuff, be carefull,

[Jotham79]

I've only done a little research, but have been unable to find any hard studies on Health benefits of oregano or basil. Several articles said something like "Scientists found" without citing the actual study. This doesn't mean that it isn't effective. Most of what I found was on oregano oil. I decided to check out basil and found that the references equally as week, but when you look at the breakdown of healthy contents that basil seems to have several times more of many of the contents. I don't know ho hard it is to grow oregano and render it into oil, but I know basil will grow just about anywhere with little care. I'm already doing the basil so will probably just stick with that. I would love to know if anyone finds any real studies.

[soidog2]

http://m.naturalnews.com/news/038682_oregano_chickens_healthy.html

Not a scientific study but interesting.

Oregano is easy to grow here, once established is hard to kill. Best setup is in elevated in rings because it likes to hang down.

We have a small setup mostly for eggs. SIL does the daily routine, they get fresh oregano leaves as dietary supplement, rarely sick.

Edited May 31, 2015 by soidog2

[Redlines]

I too am looking for DE for my flock. I don't mind buying a good sized amount but I'm having a hard time finding it in the first place. I am in Phuket. Does anyone have any suggestions?

[vinay01]

Hello, Are they retail shops selling erythromycin and other injectable for farms? Or do we need to get in touch with betagro / cp? Thanks

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