spinney

Sorry, one more! Forgot to add that the apple cider vinegar can react with metal waterers and poison animals, so it should only be added to plastic or glass water dishes.

I also read that raw, organic apple cider vinegar (around 2 tablespoons in a gallon of water) is helpful to chickens in times of stress (mine like it fine) and that calcium can affect the absorption rate for tetracycline hydrochloride. Basically, if you feed plain yoghurt with antibiotics, the medicine might not be absorbed as well, but once birds are well and through with the antibiotics, plain yoghurt (which mine love!) is good for replenishing the good gut flora and getting rid of the antibiotic residue.

I wish you and your "rescue" hens very well.

Also, I have eaten eggs from that chicken, and have never heard that antibiotics never come out of the eggs. It's possible that if your chicken were being kept to sell "Organic" eggs, she would no longer qualify for that, but from what I've read, eggs are considered to be safe to eat after a round of Duramycin 14 days or so after the last dose. One person said 19 days is the withdrawal period. Anyhow...

If your chickens are improving and are eating and drinking, then that's a good sign. As for the lice, you can run a search at the top of the forums page for how to treat for that. There's a lot of info. Taking a chicken to a vet is not really an option for me, either, so I've done a lot of web-surfing for what ails my ladies.

Hi. This is the first time I've messaged anyone on this site, so hopefully it gets to you fine. And I'm limited to characters in these posts, so I plan to send more than one.

I didn't post a response to your post on the Emergency forum because I hope that someone with more experience than I will see that no one has posted and answer you, but I may have a little info for you.

I know that the antibiotic tetracycline hydrochloride (which I think is what you're giving them - Dyramycin) is good for treating certain respiratory ailments in chickens, and I used it once to help prevent infection in one of my chickens when she was badly injured. She didn't seem to suffer from infection, (miraculously)so it seems to have helped.