Any chicken Veterinarians in central Wisconsin?

[Bigbluefrog]

Thank you but that one is 3 hours away.



I am in the central part of the state near Wausau! Wi. The vets around here are not helpful when it comes to chickens.
Oh we are about an hour south of Wausau! Practically neighbors!
Although Wausau has stores! We have a Main Street with 2 pubs and 3 churches!

I bet Madison is one of them! Also an hour of away. We used to live in Milwaukee then decided to sell everything and live simply in a small home in the middle of nowhere! Love it!

 

[Joyze172]

Hello!

I actually live 15 minutes west of Wausau in the country in a very small township. I work in Stevens Point aprox one day a week.

We too moved to a more simple life, however it feels like we have so much more to do and going on. We hardly ever watch TV with country living. We love to watch “chicken TV” it’s so entertaining .


Update on the vet situation....
So the vet Cypres suggested didn’t have openings either. It is Labor Day weekend too. However through calling around I found a retired vet who allowed off hour visits. He is not very familiar with chickens but was able to look at the injury and provide injectable antibiotics. I am hoping to post the injury on a different forum later today as I started this one due to having trouble finding a vet that saw farm chickens rather than “pet” chickens. To us they are kinda both but not in vet definition.

 

[slordaz]

theres a few here that can help walk you through it if you can't find one also that are pretty knowledable from experience, @Eggcessive , @azygous @casportpony

 

[casportpony]

I will try to help if I can, just let me know what you need help with.

 

[Mosey2003]

What do people do when you don’t have a vet for illnesses or injuries in your flock?

I treat what I can and euthanize what I can't. Just how it is in many areas.

I know at least one of our offices is willing to see chickens, but honestly there isn't a whole lot a vet can/will do that either I can't or that I would want. Fecals are handy, although I don't personally need a vet for them since my bestie is a CVT with her own scope and kit. I'm not one to have a broken bone splinted, or an impacted crop opened up, so I really don't need a vet. I can deworm and administer antibiotics myself. I can tape up a broken wing myself. I won't keep one with a broken leg alive period, I don't think.

I do feel bad for those who really do want to use a vet and can't find one willing. They really don't teach much on poultry at all in vet school, so unless someone is interested in it prior to attending and really seeks stuff out (if there are even options for more courses?) they're basically only going to cover infectious diseases and things that will impact the broiler and egg industry, I think. I asked my horse vet about treating chickens when I first got them and she laughed at me and said, "You don't treat chickens, you chop their heads off." So it's really not an easy thing to find a vet that's either experienced with poultry or willing.

 

[Tesumph]

I do feel bad for those who really do want to use a vet and can't find one willing. They really don't teach much on poultry at all in vet school, so unless someone is interested in it prior to attending and really seeks stuff out (if there are even options for more courses?) they're basically only going to cover infectious diseases and things that will impact the broiler and egg industry, I think. I asked my horse vet about treating chickens when I first got them and she laughed at me and said, "You don't treat chickens, you chop their heads off." So it's really not an easy thing to find a vet that's either experienced with poultry or willing.

This is correct. Poultry medicine is very limited in vet school unless you’re interested in pursuing poultry science.
Even avian specialized vets are geared toward indoor house birds and often won’t take chickens as clients. I think this tends to be because most chicken keepers don’t fit the “desired” clientele of an exotic clinic.. not a lot of people will drop $500 on a $10 chicken, but that’s no problem for a $2000 macaw.
Hopefully this will start to change with the exploding popularity of urban owners keeping backyard chickens.

In my experience, your best bet is to build a good relationship with a vet who trusts you and vice versa so you can figure out a treatment plan together. This isn’t necessarily a specialized vet, although you might find that a large animal vet will be more open to giving it a shot. It really is a crapshoot.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Wisconsin is still a farming state. Vetting a chicken seems like a ridiculous idea to most folks that come from a farming background. So I'm not surprised you can't find anyone.

Most small animal vets only see dogs and cats, and large animal vets only see cows and horses. I have given up on finding a vet for my goats years ago. No one will see them, or if they do they don't know what to do with them.

It used to be people treated their own birds with various medications found at the feed stores. In the last 5 years or so, or since keeping backyard chickens became a thing, there has been an increase use in antibiotics by people trying to save their pet chickens, so they made it so you had to see a vet to get medication. The problem is no vets will see them.

Now people are using antibiotics meant for large animals on chickens. I wouldn't be surprised if those don't go away too some

Vets are definitely too busy. It doesn't pay for them to see chickens. Used to be all sick birds were culled to prevent the spread of diseases. Used to be all chicken flocks were for food, so treating them wasn't done.

I guess I'm probably not helpful, but just letting you know why you can't find a vet, and they don't want to take up valuable time seeing a chicken. If you find someone make sure you let others know. It's a frustrating thing. I've been through it.

 

[Mosey2003]

It used to be people treated their own birds with various medications found at the feed stores. In the last 5 years or so, or since keeping backyard chickens became a thing, there has been an increase use in antibiotics by people trying to save their pet chickens, so they made it so you had to see a vet to get medication. The problem is no vets will see them.

You can still get most of what you want, surprisingly. It was here that I learned about pigeon supply websites, and they stock the soluble antibiotics still. And of course, you can still buy IM Tylan injectable in stores.

That's part of the hard part about chickens is that most everything we use for them is labeled for large animals, simply because it's not cost effective to have all the rigorous testing done to establish dosage and withdrawals for poultry. Part of why I have no/little use for a vet, they probably aren't going to want to prescribe something off-label, so that leaves very little. I get by very well with Corid, Valbazen, Safe-Guard, Tylan, and pour-on Ivermectin.

 

[Cyprus]

Well, if you are curious I can tell you that poultry medicine is an option in vet schools now. It is a subspecialty of avian veterinary medicine.

I will be pursuing poultry medicine and plan to work as an veterinarian, with a poultry specialty. I hope to eventually become board certified by the American College of Poultry Veterinarians (ACPV)

 

[Mosey2003]

Well, if you are curious I can tell you that poultry medicine is an option in vet schools now. It is a subspecialty of avian veterinary medicine.

I will be pursuing poultry medicine and plan to work as an veterinarian, with a poultry specialty. I hope to eventually become board certified by the American College of Poultry Veterinarians (ACPV)

EXCELLENT!!!