** 2017 New Drug Law - What Are Your Plans? **

As of 1-1-2017 almost all *water soluble antibiotics* (hygromycin b, Duramycin 10, TerraVet, Oxytetracycline, Sulmet, Di-methox, SulfaMed G, Lincomycin-Spectinomycin, neomycin, etc) will require a prescription, and I was wondering how people are going to handle this?

Will you be stocking up, will you use injectables, or will you find a vet to work with?

-Kathy

I think it is a great thing to happen.....All you hear on here is give this Med to cure a Bird.....In reality, healthy, maintained Chickens do not get sick.....Nutrition is the most important along with management to keep Chickens thriving......


Cheers!

chickens really said:

I think it is a great thing to happen.....All you hear on here is give this Med to cure a Bird.....In reality, healthy, maintained Chickens do not get sick.....Nutrition is the most important along with management to keep Chickens thriving......


Cheers!

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Try raising turkeys and peafowl with chickens and you might find that even when fed properly, kept clean, etc. that your birds start dying from blackhead. And what about all the respiratory diseases? Even birds kept as you are suggesting do get sick, right? Aren't you one that uses oxytetracyline for this?

-Kathy

FWIW, I did end up placing an order for sulfadimethoxine and neomycin. I may never have to use them, but I will have them if I need them.

-Kathy

I brought the respiratory in when I bought 4 pullets...Yes, I did use the Oxy tetra antibiotic as directed by a vet.....I have not used it ever since.....I was not implying that you over medicate your birds......Although I see people telling others to use antibiotics without really knowing what is wrong with the bird....That is my reasoning for thinking it is a good idea for them to be pulled off the shelves...

Cheers!

I am not a proponent of medication. My recommendations:

1. Maintain a closed flock. This will help prevent bringing in some of those nasty "forever" diseases. Encourage wild turkeys to visit your yard. They carry a less virulent strain of Marek's disease which will provide natural immunity to your flock.

2. Provide good nutrition: which IMO includes fermented feed and providing chicks with access to local soil within their first 2 weeks of life. Maintain healthy soil: either covered with plant material or deep litter/compost.

3. Realize that parasites and illness when they do happen affect the weakest flock members. By keeping those weak members in your flock, you are leaving them to be a disease vector, and breeding forward for a flock that is increasingly at risk of disease issues. Appropriate culling will do wonders for building a strong flock that is not disease prone. I've never had issue with Mareks, coccidiosis (my chicks do not get medicated feed) or any respiratory illness. Will use permethrin as needed if mites show up. (no mite issues for over 3 years)

Short answer: taking antibiotics off the shelves won't affect my husbandry methods.

lazy gardener said:

Short answer: taking antibiotics off the shelves won't affect my husbandry methods.

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Mine either.

...and some folks are gonna find a way around these new laws anyway.
I've already seen alternatives suggested ie: fish meds.

aart said:

lazy gardener said:

Short answer:  taking antibiotics off the shelves won't affect my husbandry methods.

Click to expand...

Mine either.

...and some folks are gonna find a way around these new laws anyway.
I've already seen alternatives suggested ie: fish meds.

Click to expand...

No doubt that one will still be able to buy them online, and it will be interesting to see if places like Twin City Poultry and ebay will continue to sell them.

-Kathy

Yep, highly probable.......That will be what threads are about.....Where online can you buy drugs for Chickens????.....lol.....



Cheers!

I have none of that stuff anyway. I have a vitamin for chicks with stress or leg/foot issues but they have to really need it to get it. I have the same antibiotic ointment for them I have for me. I have Castor Oil (a nod to the wisdom of @Beekissed who told me about it for increasing circulation, which it indeed does) and I have raw honey. The little bottle of Poly-Vi-Sorb that I have on hand I got when I got my first chicks and I've used it exactly twice in all that time...once for one of my first chicks who seemed to be limping for no reason, and once for Scout after his frost bite. While my setup is kept up, I certainly wouldn't eat off the floor in there.

I start all chicks with a clump of soil straight out of the garden, roots, dirt, grass, weeds and all. They are raised outside on the same ground that the adults are on, and that they will be exposed to for the rest of their lives. Other than that, I do nothing else, and so far everything is great. Could that change? Of course it could, I'm not that naive. But when I read post after post of "my chicken chipped a toenail" and read someone else responding "give it this antibiotic for x number of days" I know that there is a serious issue with over-reliance.

My 2 cents.