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

[junebuggena]

I still have no idea why people use antibiotics to help keep blackhead under control. It's not caused by a bacterial infection. It's a protozoa, and dewormers are a far more effective means of keeping the life-cycle under control.

 

[casportpony]

I still have no idea why people use antibiotics to help keep blackhead under control. It's not caused by a bacterial infection. It's a protozoa, and dewormers are a far more effective means of keeping the life-cycle under control.

Who said anything about using antibiotics to keep it under control? If I gave the impression that is needed, I'm sorry, that's not what I meant. However, once a bird gets blackhead it will almost always have a secondary bacterial infection like E. coli. \

Mild blackhead treatment:

• Metronidazole, dimetridazole, or ronidazole to treat the protozoa
• fenbendazole or albendazole to treat the cecal worm

Advanced blackhead treatment, add something like enrofloxacin to treat E. coli.

-Kathy

 

[South OH Chicks]

Monistat has metronidazole in it.

 

[casportpony]

Monistat has metronidazole in it.

Does it? I thought it had just miconazole.

-Kathy

 

[casportpony]

Quote: Blackhead:


-Kathy

 

[dheltzel]

I did buy a bit extra Oxytet a few weeks back. I keep my birds on a dairy farm and they have Oxytet in "tubs" (and a gallon jug of Corid for calf scours), so I should be ok if I really need to medicate. I really want to breed in more resistance, but sometimes the bird that gets sick is critically important for my breeding program and I am not willing to just cull.

I wonder if I can now buy antibiotic-free turkey starter from the feed mill? Last year the rep told me I had to buy a ton to get it specially formulated without the (multiple) drugs they add to keep poults alive when kept in deplorable conditions. He swore all my poults would die without the meds in the feed -- I never lost a single one to any disease

I don't have blackhead problems in this area, but I have meds on hand for it "just in case", my peas and turkeys mean too much to me to let them die from blackhead. Anyone suggesting not raising turkeys because they are disease prone has obviously never had a pet turkey. That's like trying to talk a cat lover into euthenizing all their pets because they get various diseases and worms. My turkeys are way more friendly than the housecat (he is not a great example of what you should expect from a cat though, let's just say he is prone to having a "bad attitude").

I would suggest that we will all do what we feel we need and should do. We backyard keepers are not even a "rounding error" in the volume of the "antibiotic problem". Most "violations" will continue unabated because changing to better conditions that don't require all the antibiotics would dramatically increase the cost of our meat supply, and we know that won't stand. I hate to sound pessimistic, but federal regulations rarely result in all the good they are aiming for, usually they just result in economic losses and windfalls for different parties.

 

[casportpony]

In my area you can buy several turkey/gamebird starters.

1) Purina 30% non medicated
2) Farmers 27% medicated with bacitracin. Bacitracin is not on the VFD or the OTC to Rx list.
3) Swansen 25.3% non medicated

Blue Seal used to make a turkey starter with a histo-stat, but I don't think they do now.

-Kathy

 

[casportpony]

Curiously, have any of you seen any of the OTC to Rx drugs in your local feed stores since 1-1-2017?

-Kathy

 

[Folly's place]

I haven't seen anything that's not supposed to be there since late December. They have had signs up about the law since early December, probably to have the remaining stocks bought up then. Mary

 

[casportpony]

I haven't seen anything that's not supposed to be there since late December.  They have had signs up about the law since early December,  probably to have the remaining stocks bought up then.  Mary

Looks like many websites have removed them from their OTC section.