Antibiotics will soon require vet prescription

[Shadrach]

Well there’s only a handful of illnesses chickens get that could/should be treated with antibiotics and of those most are preventable by the keeper.
I think they should be treated as livestock. Treating them as pets and applying animal laws to chickens like companion pets is definitely a step in the wrong direction. We don’t need more rules or government regulations. People should learn to think for themselves.
I do agree overall that the antibiotics without a vet prescription won’t do a thing though. All the big food producers have vets on staff that will continue to allow the use of them in bulk while the backyard chicken owner is left without much.
It’s really just another feel good measure.
I’m just amazed at all the surgeries and medicine recommendations on this forum. For one there’s no way anyone has done and or dealt with all these issues. If they have I sure as hell wouldn’t listen to them because they obviously don’t know how to care for their animals and prevent sickness.

Ime people are not all that clever at thinking for themselves. The various threads here demonstrate as much. Imo better regulation than the situation you describe where it seems many who advise are experts in every known disease to chickens and happily 'prescribe' various drugs without really having any real idea of what the problem is, having not examined the patient.
As you mention, no one in their right mind would take their advice because if they have experienced that many problems then they aren't much good at picking their flock and looking after it.

 

[featherhead007]

I tried it! "having a companion chicken" It didn't fly, pardon the pun.

 

[Sue Gremlin]

I tried it! "having a companion chicken" It didn't fly, pardon the pun.

What about an emotional support chicken?

 

[featherhead007]

Same thing, My government contacts, consider my birds poultry, not pets.
Unfortunately

 

[roosterhavoc]

Ime people are not all that clever at thinking for themselves. The various threads here demonstrate as much. Imo better regulation than the situation you describe where it seems many who advise are experts in every known disease to chickens and happily 'prescribe' various drugs without really having any real idea of what the problem is, having not examined the patient.
As you mention, no one in their right mind would take their advice because if they have experienced that many problems then they aren't much good at picking their flock and looking after it.

I’m pretty sure the google experts are easy to spot and most take notice. For every response theres 15 people shaking their heads.
Nah we don’t need more regulations.

 

[Shadrach]

I’m pretty sure the google experts are easy to spot and most take notice. For every response theres 15 people shaking their heads.
Nah we don’t need more regulations.

Need them or not you're going to get them.
The regulations in Europe are getting tighter, but passing laws is one thing, enforcing them is another.

 

[roosterhavoc]

Need them or not you're going to get them.
The regulations in Europe are getting tighter, but passing laws is one thing, enforcing them is another.

Very true. Doesn’t make a difference to me anyway. I can get whatever I need regardless which isn’t much. Convincing others they don’t need a treasure chest full of magic potions is quite another matter. Or the latest and greatest antiseptic that doesn’t burn and kill “some” good cells. We’re talking chickens not brain surgery.

 

[perchie.girl]

Dont you love government regulation?
The next thing they'll tell you is to register your toilet paper, tell you how much you're alloted in a one month and how many sheets you can use in one week. Then they'll tax you to death ie, a use tax, a wipe tax, then another water use tax on top of the water bill, maybe a flushometer to add to your water bill, or even add it onto property taxes so you wont notice it. Yeah, I love micromanagement and government interference.

Yeah a while back it was proposed that All livestock should be microchipped.... OMG. It was voted down.

deb

 

[shawluvsbirds]

Popping in to say. .
This restriction on buying antibiotics is just another case of bad apples ruining it for the rest of us.
It is unfortunate that those of us who would only use them sparingly and on a case by case basis will not have access because there are too many out there who would treat for anything and everything.
Same as people who go to the doctor for every hang nail.

My ducks are more like a hobby to me. . I guess I'm on the fence between livestock and pets. I'm not going to force them to live in the house and wear cloths and be my full time lap warmer.
But I wouldn't be above slapping a hat on one to take a funny picture to post.
I can't say I would absolutely NEVER take one to the vet. . if I felt it was something I couldn't handle myself, and it wasn't an issue that put the rest of my birds at risk. .and it's not going to cost me a months pay check to take it. but it's highly unlikely that I ever will find it reasonable to take one. For me it's not about putting a price tag on the birds life as much as it is common sense and making a rational decision.

It's getting to the point where no-one can give any advice around here without the vet scorning happening at one extreme or another.
Their needs to be some middle ground in my opinion.
I personally get tired of hearing "vet or cull" as the only two options for anything.

 

[perchie.girl]

Wish they had an emoji for EXCELLENT POST!

Also, concerning Lyme disease. Been there done that and without antibiotics I probably wouldn't be here right now because the long term effects of the disease would either have killed me or made me an invalid.

The use of antibiotics has its place and time. Education is a good idea.

Stop mommies and others from either dragging their kiddie with a cold or dragging themselves to the doctor whenever they have a sniffle or low grade fever demanding antibiotics so they can either shuffle the kiddie back to school to spread the virus that the antibiotics won't touch or to go back to work and do the same thing. If the doctor doesn't do anything, then they move on to another doc who is willing to write an unnecessary RX for a virus.

Once again I will say that the problem does not lie with back yard flocks or herds. They will be the true victim here. The problem lies with the big cattle, pork and poultry producers that are trying to make the most money that they can from their product. And:

The FDA is the one writing the regulations that are giving them the right to have X amount of antibiotics and growth hormones in their meat products.

So much for regulations being our friend...and yes, I am being snarky.

I won't get political either other than to say that there are meat products brought in from other countries and you as the consumer do not know what they have been fed or injected with when you serve them to your family. All the consumer knows is they had pork chops on sale at Wally World and the price was so good that you couldn't NOT buy them.

Just PLEASE! Think about all of this when you are looking over the meat at your local grocery store.

Correct me if I am wrong... Antibiotics are only for Bacterial infections right?
And the only way to tell is by blood sample.

Viral infections are only treatable by immunization. But Antibiotics are prescribed to keep a secondary infection from taking root. Pneumonia is one that can be Viral but bacterial infection can take hold in the mucus...?

I dont get a flue shot Unless they nab me at the clinic Havent had the flue in a very very very long time.

deb