Ask FDA to approve implants for chickens to prevent egg production

[arosenzweig]

Do you have a chicken under your wing who is having difficulties due to egg production? Perhaps a prolapsed vent? Don't want a relapse? Don't care that she makes eggs or not so long as she is happy and healthy? There's a drug for that, but it's illegal in the USA to use for chickens, let's change that!

The drug "Deslorelin" is a hormonal implant that is injected under the skin which prevents a chicken from laying eggs for 4 months. Problem is, this is illegal to do in the USA unless the FDA approves it.

Unfortunately the drug is only approved for Ferrets. Everyone knows how well it works for chickens but it is banned. Why? The trepidation of officially endorsing treatment stems from pre-conceived notions of what is a companion animal and what is food. The FDA wants to clearly designate chickens as a food resource. Officially they fear what might happen if the implant is no longer used and people start to eat the eggs.

It's hard to know what the withdrawal time would be to safely eat eggs from a chicken that had the implant without some of the drug ending up in the eggs a human would eat. But for a pet chicken owner, they would know better than to eat the eggs and often would rather not have any eggs to eat. We would rather have our feathered friends live long happy healthy lives free from the pressures of egg laying.

Doctors should be allowed to administer medication which is known to work without worry of legal repercussions. Animal caregivers should be allowed to use techniques to enrich the lives of animals. Doctors should not turn patients away from life saving techniques due to arbitrary laws.

Please sign this petition to let the FDA know you care about the quality of life for hens:
https://chng.it/FHzLwJ9Jq2

You can read more about Deslorelin here: https://vcahospitals.com/know-your-pet/deslorelin

After watching one too many chickens die from egg laying complications, I created a video titled “Why chickens are special”

Thank you

 

[NatJ]

Maybe someday breeders will start selectively breeding to lay less number of eggs. Right now they won't because there is not demand but maybe soon there will be with more people like you and I.

Many such chickens already exist. If you want chickens that lay fewer eggs, just buy suitable breeds.

Healthy birds who eventually became unhealthy after 5 to 7 years of life.

What breeds were they?

 

[NatJ]

I don't think the OP just wants fewer eggs, I think they want better lives for all chickens no matter their breed.

They talked about selectively breeding for fewer eggs.
I said such chickens already exist, because they do.

Many were adopted so I don't know for sure what breeds they were. The one who complained the most about laying was a Lakenvelder. We had a Silkie who laid a lot of eggs but when you read about them they say they are not prolific layers but that was not our experience. The eggs were small but they came out often.

That's quite interesting. I agree, Silkies are not usually known as prolific layers.

To be natural, like mother nature intended, they would have to lay no more than 15 eggs per year. I'm pretty sure nearly all chicken breeds today lay more than that.

Why do you think mother nature intends them to lay 15 eggs each year?
That sounds like the right amount for one clutch, but I would expect them to raise more than one clutch per year.

But let's say, for the sake of argument, that there were some sex-links that needed a good home. They are bred to lay as much as possible. Would you refuse them because of their breed? Or would you implant them if you could? I would if I could without driving out of state.

If you want to buy sexlinks, and get implants for them, I have no problem with that. I hope you can find a vet that will do it for you. I don't mind if the FDA allows the implant to be used that way, although I also don't care enough to do anything about it.

But if you really do want chickens with a particular trait (low rate of laying), I think it makes sense to get chickens with that trait, rather than ones that are strongly selected for the opposite trait (high rate of laying.) Getting high-producing hens and then complaining about their rate of lay is about as silly as someone getting a cat and then complaining that it is not a dog.

I think the best option would be start breeding chickens for Less laying instead of for more laying.

Do you mean a few kinds as pets, or all hens?
If you want a few as pets, such chickens already exist.

If you want it for all hens, I would strongly oppose it on both financial grounds, and animal welfare grounds. If each hen lays only a few eggs, then companies would have to raise many more hens to get the eggs people want to eat. Eggs would become much more expensive to produce, and the living conditions of the hens would probably be even worse than they are now because there would be so many more hens involved.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Do you have a chicken under your wing who is having difficulties due to egg production? Perhaps a prolapsed vent? Don't want a relapse? Don't care that she makes eggs or not so long as she is happy and healthy? There's a drug for that, but it's illegal in the USA to use for chickens, let's change that!

Healthy birds who eventually became unhealthy after 5 to 7 years of life. Could not get them implanted when they were young. Could not get them implanted when they started to have problems but... it's already a bit too late at that point as ovarian cancer had already set in. Even when they were "healthy" I'd argue they were not. Pumping out eggs every 25 hours. That's unhealthy. We bred them to do that. Jungle fowl would not. One girl in particular would complain for over an hour about the pain of laying an egg. I felt so bad for her. I wish I could make the eggs go away. I got particularly offended when neighbors would innocently ask "are they for eggs?" The correct answer is "no" but if I say that their mind immediately jumps to "for meat." They are for companionship. Does your dog give your eggs?

There's plenty of folks here on BYC that live in the US that have had implants.

I'm not sure why you would want to implant a bird that is healthy and laying eggs regularly to begin with.

Find heritage breeds that have not been bred for production. You may find them a bit more suitable for you since they don't lay quite so many eggs, but laying eggs is what a hen does. Even with heritage or non-production birds you are STILL going to find that you have issues. I promise you that.

Implants are not a fix all. They are not cheap. Vets are not cheap. I'm not against anyone wanting to treat their chicken however they wish to do, but you have to be realistic too.

Like I say, there's threads here on BYC where folks have had the implants. Do some searching, most never follow up, but some do. Even with implants, surgery, medications, treatments, food, supplements, etc. etc. etc., ultimately the hen died. Implants may extend life for a period of time and even offer a measure of comfort, but sadly, in this world no one is going to beat death.

 

[HollowOfWisps]

I am 100% for the making it easier for vets to administer implants or artificial hormones of any kind because a chicken needs it. However, I am 100% against using them in perfectly healthy hens just because there is a small chance it might prolong their life. My reasoning? Because I have personally had an artificial hormone implant and I would not wish the side effects on my worst enemy. I went from perfectly healthy to daily migraines, random vomiting that led to vitamin deficiencies (the deficiencies then led to other issues like randomly passing out), depression and terrible anxiety. I did not have any of those issues before. I know there are many women who love implants, but I also know just as many who experienced the same side effects as I did. It took a couple years to balance my hormones and feel normal again. I couldn't imagine how miserable my life would be if someone made me keep that implant and I had no way to voice my opinion on how I felt.

 

[nuthatched]

Out of curiosity, can you provide any research on why you stated that nature intended them to lay only 15 eggs a year? I'm not trying to start any arguments, I'm simply stating facts based from a biological and historical viewpoint. If that were true, Poultry would not exist. Poultry are prey animals and prey animals breed rapidly to make up for the fact that they're actively being hunted by bigger animals. Very, very few prey animals live to what would be considered middle age.That's why rabbits and mice breed so quick. I've read books from 200, 400, and more years ago and they mention the productivity of hens being about 2-3 times a week. Eggs are also culturally significant and the only regular source of protein most cultures had, I have had Mediterranean, Middle Eastern, Asian and European recipes from thousands of years ago that feature eggs since eggs were in abundance. How far back do we have to go to get the mythical 15 eggs a year "the way nature intended"?
That's also a lousy qualifier for this particular argument.
If we did things "the way nature intended", that would mean violent, painful and slow death
would be apart of every day life.
Watch a show on lions, you'll notice that more often than not, when they finally get a zebra to the ground and start eating, he's still alive and will be until the blood loss or shock do their part.
The circle of life and all that, for something to live, something must die.
'As nature intended' would be letting disease, complication and injury to go untreated in our families and animals.
Nobody would have secure coops or runs and nature would run it's course on our flocks and and worrying about reproduction issues or life spans would be moot.
'Mother Nature' shouldn't be pictured as a beautiful, goddess covered in flowers, but as a wizened crone, dressed in skins and bones and dripping blood.
You treat your hens the way you see fit, I know you'll give them the best care, but you might want to change your argument to you simply don't want them to lay eggs to avoid reproduction issues, since the others are unfounded.
I had two 9 year old Hens, one still layed once or twice a week, the other never layed a day in her life, both were healthy (except for the shrunken comb on 'Slacky McHennerson') and probably would have lived much longer except for the coyotes. Reproduction issues can cut a hens life short but most are treatable and not laying doesn't mean a longer life.

 

[casportpony]

Curiously, how many vets have refused to give one of your chickens an implant?

 

[ILoveDaffy]

Also, these drugs can have side effects that can hurt another part of their body.

 

[casportpony]

In two of the links OP provided:

https://vcahospitals.com/know-your-pet/deslorelin
"In the U.S., deslorelin is only FDA approved for use in mares and ferrets, and ‘off label’ or ‘extra-label’ use is prohibited at this time."

https://www.fda.gov/media/83933/download
On the second and third pages, the pictures of the box show it saying:
"FOR USE IN FERRETS ONLY. Extra-label use is prohibited."

I don't know whether they are correct or not, but they certainly do say it.

This site does not have it listed as one of the drugs that cannot be used extra-label (off-label):
https://www.avma.org/extralabel-drug-use-and-amduca-faq

 

[JacinLarkwell]

That's debatable. Certainly egg laying is something chickens naturally do and so it would be natural to keep them laying eggs... if only they didn't lay so many. We certainly "fix" dogs and cats before they ever get pregnant, at a young age. We "fix" our human problem but "break" the animal from how they were born. People don't have a problem with that. It's difficult to spay a chicken in the same way though technically possible. I'd be ok with surgery if it was a simple and less-error-prone procedure on a hen.

In some sense we really do fix dogs and cats because they tend to live longer: https://www.denvervet.com/site/blog/2021/11/02/spay-neuter-live-longer

Dogs and cats live happy healthy lives without reproduction anatomy. Why can't chickens? Why is that unhealthy for them?

Could you imagine if your chickens had an average lifespan of 15 years instead of 5 because they stopped laying eggs?

So, I have several birds that are now nine and ten years old. These same hens lay nearly every day. Just because you stop egg laying doesn't mean that their lifespans will double, much less triple