Another newbie -- dire question re our rooster's frost bitten wattles

[Pinetreelover]

Our White Leghorn young rooster, Lawrence, who suffered from severe frostbite on his wattles, and some frostbite on the tips of his comb on December 29th, is doing better.

I continue to hand feed him oatmeal mixed with either broccoli florets, romaine lettuce, apples, niblet corn, etc. His wattles are reducing in size from the terrible swelling, but are still causing him to be unable to peck at food.

He has been allowed to be in the barn and corral area the past two days since the weather has been in the 40's and 50's, but he still spends his nights in the garage with a heatlamp, his crate and his pen.

My question is this: I am taking Lawrence to one of our local vets this coming Tuesday and she will hopefully be able to remove his wattles (she is unfamiliar with this procedure and has asked me to get as much literature on it that I can). I made copies of one article on "Dubbing" from Ultimate Fowl Wiki (which website I picked up from BYC.) The vet also requested that I start Lawrence on Tetracycline today. I have a package of Duramycin-10 (Tetracycline Hydrochloride Soluble Powder) , but the instructions are hard for me to understand. I would like to mix up a gallon of it at a time, but I don't know how to measure the powder and what ratio to water I would use for that small of an amount. Does anyone have a ratio of this powder to water that would be in terms of cups and measuring spoons? I'm not good at mg and grams, and so on.

Any help would be very much appreciated. Thanks so much.

 

[silkiechicken]

The packet you have should contain x miligrams of drug and y grams total.

If you put the whole package in a measuring cup, and lets say that whole cup contains y grams total.

So in that one cup you x miligrams of drug in y grams of filler total weight.

If you know how many miligrams you want in one gallon, take out the eqivalent amount of y from that cup, maybe a quarter cup or 8th of a cup to get the concentration you want.

Like theoretically..


Say you have 1000miligrams of drug in a 10 000 gram packet.

That packet when put in to a measuring cup is half a cup of powder.

Half a cup of powder will contain 1000 miligrams of drug, in a total weight of 10 000 grams.

There are 16 tablespoons in one cup, so in your half cup of drug, you have 8 tablespoons.

If you need 100 miligrams of drug in one gallon, that would be 1/10 of the total packet, or 1 000 grams of the net weight, and 1/10 of the cup.

So with 8 tbs per half cup, you'd put just under a table spoon of drug into that gallon of water to get about 100mgs per gallon.


That probably didn't make any sense. If you can post a pic of the packet front and back with the instuctions, it may help.

Really, if you have sharp scissors, you can quickly just cut off all the swollen parts of the comb and wattles yourself. It's not really that bad.

Good luck!

 

[Pinetreelover]

Thank you Silkiechicken.

This is my problem -- I have a package that had been previously opened, so it's impossible for me to tell how much powder was actually in the 10 g (which is what the total package contained before it was opened) package. The dosage chart I had has since been lost or misplaced.

I'm going to keep looking on the internet for a site that might be able to give a ratio, but I sure do thank you for your input.

I wish I was strong enough to do the dubbing myself, and I think if Lawrence was in visible and constant discomfort, I could, but right now, I just can't.

Thanks again. I certainly appreciate your willingness to help, and your knowledge.

 

[silkiechicken]

No problem.

One thing you can try, is to search for the drug's name in google and see if you can't find it online. If you can, you may be able to find the instructions too.

 

[Hackles]

Quote:
I agree , some manufacturers put the dosage chart's online just for that reason.

And welcome to BYC,

 

[FlaChickenMan]

Does the package say how many mg are in X amount of volume? You can calculate that way. I am a nurse who did a lot of med calculations in school. Email me if you have some idea of mg in a volume.

 

[Pinetreelover]

Thanks to all again for your replies to our dilemma with this antibiotic.

With my husband's help we came up with this ratio, however, please note that neither of us are mathmaticians:

[The package says 6.4 oz. in 100 gal. of water is correct ratio for 100 mgs of the antibiotic, which is the lowest doage possible].

So, .064 oz of powder per 1 gal. water is the theraputic amount we're looking for.

There are 8 teaspoons of powder in 1 oz. of powder.

So we figured 1/10 of an ounce equals 3/4 of a teaspoon, and since we want only 64% of that 3/4 of a teaspoon, we cut it back to 1/2 a tsp. for 1 gal. of mixture. (This is, of course, all approximate, but since we're using the lowest dosage of antibiotic, we think it will be okay).

So, for 1/2 gal. of mixture (which is what we decided to mix up per day), we add 1/4 of a teaspoon of powder to 1/2 gal. of water. That should be somewhere around 100 to 150 mgs of antibiotic.

Now, just how much water a chicken drinks per day, is another question, but I'm going to give him about 3 cc's from a syringe, maybe three or four times a day -- I'd rather go too little, than too much. This is truly a "guesstimate" on my part.

I would like to add that when we got our four little chicks this past spring, we believed we were getting four little "girls", and when he turned out to be "Lawrence" instead of Libby, I wasn't sure how I would react, having never had a rooster before. But he has become so dear to all of us, that I can't believe I ever doubted that he would find a place in our hearts. Hence, our desperate concern for his welfare and good health. We couldn't love him more. He is such a sweet and handsome boy.

I must go now and give him his first treatment.

P.S. I'm afraid I didn't pay attention to your name, but to the nurse who offered her help -- many thanks.

 

[Pinetreelover]

To FlaChickenMan

Thanks for your kind offer on the med calculations. On my previous post I made the mistake of thanking "her". My mind has really been elsewhere lately. Please excuse the typo.

 

[Pinetreelover]

Update on our frost bitten "Lawrence". Lawrence saw the vet on January 6th, and had both wattles removed (vet had never done this before, and it was very bloody).
Please note: Lawrence's wattles were so swollen, that he could not even eat or drink on his own, since the wattles would constantly get in his way. I hand fed him even after his wattles were removed, for the first couple days anyway, and then he started to eat on his own again. His appetite is great now. He has also stopped shaking his head all the time.
He still has the scabs where the wattle area was cut, so he has not been allowed to join his hens in the barn yet.
He is getting restless in his pen in the garage, but he has come through a very scary time.
Many thanks again to all of you who were so kind to share your experience and wisdom.