Antibiotics?!

[Jessica241]

Hi all!

My sweet Stella tore her comb, we took her to the vet where they decided the best thing was to cut off the piece that was hanging and stitch it up. This required anesthesia but she came out of it perfectly!

Here's my question, they gave us an ointment and 2 oral medications, see picture. We had to sign a FDA saying that we should not eat her eggs ever. Is this true?? She is not laying yet and is almost 5 months old.

They have given her one dose of medication but by the way she is acting I am wondering if it is even necessary to continue? I'm just worried about trying to figure out which egg is hers out of the 4 girls she shares her coop with. Advice welcome!!

 

[azygous]

In the USA, there have been no studies to determine how long the Septra drug remains in the chicken's system, so in the indolent "wisdom" of the FDA, they simply have declared it unsafe to ever eat eggs from any hen treated with it. (Typical throw-the-baby-out-with-the-bathwater.)

However, evidently, the Australian government has determined it's safe to eat eggs after 10 days have passed after treatment with Septra.

For the Meloxicam, it's 7 days.

 

[azygous]

By the way, most of these egg residue concerns are for eggs for public consumption. Unless a backyard chicken flock keeper is allergic to a particular family of antibiotics, this is really of no concern.

I sell my eggs, so I will put aside the eggs from a hen that is currently under treatment with an antibiotic, and I'll either eat them myself or ask the egg customer if they object to eggs containing residue from that antibiotic.

Commercial egg laying operations in the past have given antibiotics to layers in their water as a preventative because these hens are historically kept under very unclean conditions. It was a lazy practice and did a lot to cause bacteria to become antibiotic resistant. Now, commercial operations can no longer use these antibiotics in this manner. We backyard flock folk, as a result, can no longer get these antibiotics easily. Many of us use fish antibiotics as a result, which work just fine.

Hope that's not too confusing.

 

[Eggcessive]

I would follow the 10 days withdrawal that Azygous has listed and follow that. Most drugs that are used to treat chicken illnesses are given this warning. Most people use a reasonable egg withdrawal time, usually going by studies that are published on when all drug residues are gone, and then gonon to use the eggs. Most effective wormers used in chickens such as Wazine, SafeGuard, and Valbazen also have a 14 day egg withdrawal. The vet was just protecting himself.

Here is a link with the info that Azygous was referring to:
http://www.poultrydvm.com/drugs/trimethoprim-sufamethoxazole

 

[Jessica241]

In the USA, there have been no studies to determine how long the Septra drug remains in the chicken's system, so in the indolent "wisdom" of the FDA, they simply have declared it unsafe to ever eat eggs from any hen treated with it. (Typical throw-the-baby-out-with-the-bathwater.)

However, evidently, the Australian government has determined it's safe to eat eggs after 10 days have passed after treatment with Septra.

For the Meloxicam, it's 7 days.

Thank you SO much! I really appreciate your response, it has been so hard to find information on.

 

[Jessica241]

By the way, most of these egg residue concerns are for eggs for public consumption. Unless a backyard chicken flock keeper is allergic to a particular family of antibiotics, this is really of no concern.

I sell my eggs, so I will put aside the eggs from a hen that is currently under treatment with an antibiotic, and I'll either eat them myself or ask the egg customer if they object to eggs containing residue from that antibiotic.

Commercial egg laying operations in the past have given antibiotics to layers in their water as a preventative because these hens are historically kept under very unclean conditions. It was a lazy practice and did a lot to cause bacteria to become antibiotic resistant. Now, commercial operations can no longer use these antibiotics in this manner. We backyard flock folk, as a result, can no longer get these antibiotics easily. Many of us use fish antibiotics as a result, which work just fine.

Hope that's not too confusing.

Not confusing at all, thank you! We don't sell our eggs, they are just for us and she hasn't even started laying and and probably won't for a month or so. We will just watch for when she does and put those aside for a while.

 

[Jessica241]

I would follow the 10 days withdrawal that Azygous has listed and follow that. Most drugs that are used to treat chicken illnesses are given this warning. Most people use a reasonable egg withdrawal time, usually going by studies that are published on when all drug residues are gone, and then gonon to use the eggs. Most effective wormers used in chickens such as Wazine, SafeGuard, and Valbazen also have a 14 day egg withdrawal. The vet was just protecting himself.

Here is a link with the info that Azygous was referring to:
http://www.poultrydvm.com/drugs/trimethoprim-sufamethoxazole

Thank you so much and thank you for the link!! She hasn't stated laying yet and probably won't for another month or so. We'll put those first few eggs aside anyways just to be safe.

 

[azygous]

You can always feed their eggs back to them. Chickens love eggs scrambled, soft boiled, hard boiled, fried over easy, sunny-side up, omelets, frittatas, poached, even raw. If you have extra eggs, chickens will be delighted to take them off your hands.

 

[kljonesdvm]

There are very very few legal drugs for use in chickens in the U.S. For a complete list, go to farad.org. It does not matter if your chicken is a pet or a commercial production hen as far as the law is concerned. Your veterinarian is really sticking their neck out here. I would thank them for saving your hen and hold up your end of the agreement.