giving oral antibiotics to a chicken...there has to be an easier way

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elmo

elmo

Crowing
14 Years
May 23, 2009
4,908
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396
DFW
I just tried giving our roo his prescribed oral antibiotic (Clavamox, liquid form, in a dropper). It turned out to be harder than I thought it was going to be, because I couldn't find a way to pry his little beak open (he's a bantam, quite small). My daughter thought the whole process was hilarious, but I have to do this twice a day for the next ten days, and I need to find a better way.

I ended up dribbling the antibiotic onto his beak, and he swallowed it, mostly.

But for tomorrow's treatment and thereafter, I'm thinking about putting the antibiotic in a bit of oatmeal, maybe? I do have some Kaytee Exact Hand Feeding formula that I got when I thought we might need to feed him with a syringe. I could try putting the antibiotic in that, too.

Any other ideas?
 
Measure our the medicine into a dropper or syringe (I refer using a syringe). Place it to the right of where you will be sitting.

Get a towel. Wrap him in it, fairly tightly. His head should stick out barely. Sit down with the medicine to your right.

Put him on your lap, facing away from you. Take your left hand and place it under his beak with your thumb on the left side of his beak and your fingers on the right.

With your thumb and index fingers pry his beak open. Use them to keep him from closing his beak.

With your right hand pick up the syringe or dropper and put it into his mouth as far down his throat as possible and release the medicine. Tell him he's a good boy and offer a treat and some gentle petting before putting him back in his cage.
 
Also make sure not to allow liquid to get into the air hole just behind the tongue, or they can aspirate......I often attach a piece of soft tubing or small 2 inch piece of feeding tube onto the syringe to I can pass that hole to the throat.....
 
Last edited:
Oh, thanks! I had my daughter holding him and I was facing him today, trying to get his beak open. Your method sounds much more effective. I appreciate the tips!
 
OK, so I have a baby (10 weeks old) with a terrible head injury from being attacked by other chickens...she wiggled out of the enclosure in the coop where babies spend the night and one of my older chickens pecked her head wide open.

Amazingly, shes alert and eating and drinking. I have her in a hospital box with indirect heat in a quiet place and she seems to be resting. I added some chick electrolyte mix to her water and she seemed to like that a lot. I went and got some poultry would spray stuff at Wilco.

I cleaned her wound as best I could, there's a lot of open space with no skin covering...its bad...

I have some antibiotic powder and wanted to dose her orally, but I have no idea how to hold her head with the wound, I feel like I can't get an appropriate hold without touching her huge wound and I don't want to do that.

Maybe mix with some soft food?
 

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