I agree with your comment about antibiotic causing a possible health threat. I have a girl right now that is acting like she has more neurological problems than anything, but was fine 5 days ago. She developed diarrhea 3 days ago. My concern was her spreading any type of infection to the rest of the flock, so I separated her into a wire dog crate and brought her inside to monitor her and keep her warm. After treating her with electrolytes in the water and making sure she had plenty of fresh water and food, she did not seem to improve. My first instinct was that I was not going to pay an avian vet and would try an over the counter antibiotic, but after rethinking, I realized that wouldn't tell me what was really wrong so I took her to the vet. Unfortunately, she came up with really nothing either. The stool was negative and her physical exam was negative other than the unsteadiness and lethargy and pale comb. She did prescribe an antibiotic and an anti-inflammatory as a hail mary approach, and I believe in this case it was appropriate because she was going down fast and it was worth the last ditch effort. The point is that I would not have known that if she started laying eggs again that they shouldn't be eaten for 6 weeks after her taking the medication which is important to know and I also wouldn't have known her stool was ok which would have lead me to treat all the other girls prophylactically and unnecessarily. The only other thought the vet had was that it could be lead poisoning, since the other girls didn't have any symptoms and although there aren't any old homes in my area for lead paint for example, she said my chicken could have digested a small piece of metal or something that could cause that. I know it is just a guess. I wasn't willing to pay the 70 dollars to test for lead and then the added expense of treatment with injections every 2 days on top of what I already spent because if that was the case, the other girls wouldn't "catch" it and I don't believe this little one will survive so to me it wasn't worth the added expense. I woke the next day to gentle clucking and she was still eating and drinking, but hadn't improved. Again she was still alive this morning and eating and drinking, but visibly worse. I still gave her the antibiotic and the anti-inflammatory and will continue for the full course but don't believe she will last that long. She isn't in pain from what I can see and I think if she were that the anti-inflammatory should help. I'm in the medical field and have seen miracles before so I'll just keep my fingers crossed! oh, the antibiotic she gave is a broad spectrum antibiotic called clavamox in pill form. I believe that is similar to augmentin? in people med. and the anti-inflammatory for comfort is called metacam with a dose of 0.25ml for a 2 and a half pound bird so roughly 0.1 ml per pound. she seems to do more after having it so it must make her feel a little better.
