Can you give a chicken benadryl?

I know you can give children, dogs, and cats benadryl...so can you give a chicken some too??

You can dose a chicken with 1/2ml childrens benedryl only. Wait 24 hours before redosing if necessary. Do not overdose a chicken with the childrens benedryl.

Does anyone know the dosage for week old chicks? I have two that have been pretty badly stung by fire ants. I know it's just a Hail Mary, their poor little feet are pretty swollen and one I think may be too far gone.

Wax Myrtle said:

Does anyone know the dosage for week old chicks? I have two that have been pretty badly stung by fire ants.

I know it's just a Hail Mary, their poor little feet are pretty swollen and one I think may be too far gone.

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Quarter his suggested dose. Wait to see what the effect is. If no change in an hour give another quarter dose. This is how the hospitals find out how much Morphine to give children after severe surgery. If in fifteen minutes they are still in great pain they give another incremental dose. It keeps from overdosing. I lengthened out the time because you can't use direct communication with your chick but must look for external responses. Do not be surprised if they fall asleep that is a common response in people to benydryl. Just make sure that they are breathing normally.

I found this when I looked up fire ant bites.

5. Vinegar -

Fire ants do not use formic acid in their sting, they use a cocktail of an alkaloid (a base) that is also toxic and allergenic proteins (induce an allergic effect in the body, by forcing the mass production of class E immunoglobins (IgEs). since the sting is a base, it does not make sense for ammonia or baking soda to treat a FIRE ANT sting. bases do not neutralize bases, they raise the pH. something more like white vinegar (acetic acid)or a weak acid would work(formic acid) to neutralize the sting. (Omar Fahmy)

I would soak the feet in cool vinegar and see if this doesn't bring the swelling down. The benydryl is the best insurance that the poisons won't stop them breathing. My aunt is so allergic that she will nearly cease breathing (due to the bronchial tubes in the lungs swelling) when bitten by a single fire ant. she will suck on ice cubes and breathe past the ice cube sucking the cool air into the lung and reducing the inflammation until we can get her to the emergency room. You may try icing the drinking water to get a similar result.

Thanks so much, Penny Hen. Afraid toes are blackening, and they seem to be fairly intoxicated - very lethargic. But, I'll try a vinegar dip, (and keep it in mind when I or children are stung!) and see how the benadryl works. I've brought them inside with their broody, tho - should I worry she may be too much for them if they get too sleepy? They are LF, she is a bantam Cochin.

Oh and to prevent fire ants from getting in your bird pens in the future buy some quick lime (CaO, calcium oxide) also known a anhydrous lime or burnt lime. You can use it as a barrier to the ants getting to your birds. If they crawl into it it reacts with the water in their bodies and kills them. You can put it directly into the the ant hill for a high kill and no permanent damage to the soil or water table unlike pesticides. Rain will rehydrate it turning it back into plain lime that will fertilize the ground. If however you are in a windy environment you must be careful that it can't be blown into your bird's pens because their lungs can be damaged as well as their eyes. Going after the fire ants mound is safer than a pour line in wind. If you dug a trench to pour it in it would be safer but not a guarantee from all damage if a big wind storm kicked up.

You must be very careful to never store quick lime with any flammables. If it gets wet it can give off enough heat while recombining with water to ignite them.

Quick lime has been used for many years in South America to stave off Army ants. Fire ants are nowhere as near tenacious as the Army ant.

Oh, yeah and it should go without saying to never handle this stuff without a mask.

Thanks! Yeah, we're on what passes for a hill around here, and we get a lot of wind. I also have children under ten, and am not sure I want quick lime around just yet. We've had soo much rain in the last 30 days, the ants are going everywhere. Mounds are staying flattened - just spreading out. Of course, the native ants have taken up residence in the house, too. They seem to enjoy my coffee. Sigh.

Wax Myrtle said:

Thanks so much, Penny Hen. Afraid toes are blackening, and they seem to be fairly intoxicated - very lethargic.

But, I'll try a vinegar dip, (and keep it in mind when I or children are stung!) and see how the benadryl works. I've brought them inside with their broody, tho - should I worry she may be too much for them if they get too sleepy? They are LF, she is a bantam Cochin.

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Do you mean you are afraid she will over mother them and smother them in a stupor? If that is the case you can use a warm water bottle and a towel to keep them warm and put them beside the broody (in a cage) so they can see her but she can't smother them.

You may be amazed at the job the benedryl will do. The toes are blackening because they are so swelled that they can't get blood there. Add some sugar to the vinegar when you soak them. The cells need two things to live: oxygen and sugar. They are close enough to the surface to take in oxygen from the air but they can't get sugar. If you can supply the cell directly with sugar until the blood circulation returns you can keep the cells dying to a minimum. I have used this (not in vinegar) when my pony tore her eyelid 90% of the way off and it was just hanging by a 1/4 inch thread. The vet stitched it back on but didn't give it much hope for returning circulation in time. I duct-taped a plastic butter bowl to her halter and head to keep the flies off and keep her from rubbing the stitches out and then made up a sterile (by boiling) sugar water solution that I sprayed on her eye 3 times a day. The eyelid healed. No necrosis. If you get the swelling down and the blackness remains you will have to amputate or the gangrene will spread and kill the bird. If it is just a toe tip or one toe they can survive that being amputated. I used toenail clippers on a robin I found with a broken toe to cut the blackened toe off.

Yeah, I was a little afraid she may be overzealous. Woke this am to one dead chick, and the remaining is very weak, will not stand and has yet to open eyes. I have it in a wire basket near a water bottle as you suggested, in the box with the broody. I'm going to give it another dose of benadryl, but tbh, I have little hope. If there is no improvement soon, I think I may have to decide to put this poor baby down.