California-Southern

[hosspak]

OOPS sorry, ya mean you can't read my mind??

............ straight down the hatch..

Thanks

 

[Sylvester017]

WELL, I am going to the avian vet this afternoon, I will ask he. To my knowledge chickens do NOT need this on a regular basis, it is just for symptoms of vitamin deficency..... and for a short period of time..

Yep we must have different vets LOL! Mine has saved my girl a couple times this past year so I'm going with mine. We use an organic feed which is lacking some nutrient percentages that commercial Soy/GMO feed has. The use of children's vitamins 1-2x/week is not detrimental. For broodies we do at least 2x/week sometimes 3x as they are not fully nourishing themselves. We have one Silkie that loves the stuff like crack but she only gets 1 drop! She's also amazing about taking liquid medicines. Most hens shut their beak up tight but she'll go looking to drink up anything we offer her. All depends on circumstances what our hens do or need.

For chicks it's a whole different bowl of wax. They are so tiny and really could use professional medical help especially if what we do for them is not working. On my folks' farm ailing chicks seldom survived as working farms couldn't afford time loss nursing the poor little things.

Each to his own decisions I say. What's good for one may not be for the other. That's why this is such a great thread!

 

[Sylvester017]

Vets are always best as long as you can. And Just so you know Albon is used to treat Coccidia a protozoan parasite that lives in the intestinal tract

My vet prescribed the Albon Suspension just as a precaution until the fecal lab report was done. She didn't have worms. My flock has been worm free for 3 years. He was just taking precautions until the lab work was done. The Baytril shot he gave her was for some bacterial digestive problem which cleared her up before the day was done. He is so good at diagnosing but is also a vet on the side of precautionary measures. She has been my problem "child" this past year. She is OCD about scratching in the nestboxes and pulled out some toenails bleeding of which a couple still haven't grown back or not quite right. We had to line the boxes with plexiglass so she can't obcessively tear out more toenails or pick up splinters. She is my headache child but we love her to pieces.

 

[Sylvester017]

In their water or straight to the bird?

For Poly-Vi-Sol no iron we put a drop on the side of the chicken's beak away from the nostril. The annoying drop is licked up by the chicken's tongue when it drips down. We don't force our hens beaks open and find it natural to allow the hen to lick it up. It's a trust issue for us and the liquid won't accidentally go down the lungs in forced feeding. Sometimes the hen shakes off the drop so we just put another drop on the side of her beak till we see her lapping it up.

 

[ozexpat]

We use an organic feed which is lacking some nutrient percentages that commercial Soy/GMO feed has.

I find this comment a little disturbing. There is no reason that an organic diet cannot contain all the vitamins and minerals a bird needs. If I was buying a premade poultry feed at the premium one pays for organic feed, I would expect it to be complete. Aren't the commercial Soy/GMO ingredients in feed not supposed to be better but worse for your birds.

@Sylvester017 I have no idea of your paractices, the fact that you take chickens to a vet indicates you have a great love and respect for your animals so please take this comment is general discussion.

Of course, each to their own, but having to supplement with "non-organic" and synthetically produced vitamins like polyvisol ethically but not legally disqualifies you from claiming and organic flock. There are commercially available organic supplements for humans that you can add to organic feed or give as a boost.

I have free range birds but not even close to organic.

If an antibiotic is used to restore an animal to health, that animal cannot be used for organic production or be sold, labeled or represented as organic. Its a heavy decision to go organic.I have a hard enough time watching veggies struggle with bugs and not drop a little sevin powder on them (though now I use NEEM oil I am doing better) let alone watching birds die when I know they can be treated with a shot of agrimycin, tylosine or baytril. I have probably given a total of 6cc agrimycin and 3 cc of each of the others to my 300 birds in 16 months. I have also used maybe 3 oz of tetrox powder in the water of my birds during the same period. I do vaccinate though - Mareks, NCD, fowl pox and Coryza. Adding the Coryza vaccine has basically eliminated sick birds for me. I keep an arsenal of medications on hand as we are a long way from the city but most things will expire before even opened.

I do get the "knowing where your feed comes" from thing and I think its great but retailers should be selling a complete product for those brave enough to be truly organic.

 

[Sylvester017]

I find this comment a little disturbing. There is no reason that an organic diet cannot contain all the vitamins and minerals a bird needs. If I was buying a premade poultry feed at the premium one pays for organic feed, I would expect it to be complete. Aren't the commercial Soy/GMO ingredients in feed not supposed to be better but worse for your birds.

@Sylvester017 I have no idea of your paractices, the fact that you take chickens to a vet indicates you have a great love and respect for your animals so please take this comment is general discussion.

Of course, each to their own, but having to supplement with "non-organic" and synthetically produced vitamins like polyvisol ethically but not legally disqualifies you from claiming and organic flock. There are commercially available organic supplements for humans that you can add to organic feed or give as a boost.

I have free range birds but not even close to organic.

If an antibiotic is used to restore an animal to health, that animal cannot be used for organic production or be sold, labeled or represented as organic. Its a heavy decision to go organic.I have a hard enough time watching veggies struggle with bugs and not drop a little sevin powder on them (though now I use NEEM oil I am doing better) let alone watching birds die when I know they can be treated with a shot of agrimycin, tylosine or baytril. I have probably given a total of 6cc agrimycin and 3 cc of each of the others to my 300 birds in 16 months. I have also used maybe 3 oz of tetrox powder in the water of my birds during the same period. I do vaccinate though - Mareks, NCD, fowl pox and Coryza. Adding the Coryza vaccine has basically eliminated sick birds for me. I keep an arsenal of medications on hand as we are a long way from the city but most things will expire before even opened.

I do get the "knowing where your feed comes" from thing and I think its great but retailers should be selling a complete product for those brave enough to be truly organic.

The fact that one tries to feed themselves or their pets organic is a good practice; however it is impossible in this day and age to be a complete natural freak unless one grows their own feed for their livestock. We are city dwellers now and do the best we can. We grow vegetables to avoid as much irradiated veggies from the supermarkets, frequent farmers' markets, and buy organic whenever we can. In this day and age "organic" labelings are even misleading as some products only qualify a certain percentage organic but are still able to pass the inspection laws. I suppose people who sell their eggs or meat as "organic" need to be concerned. But our hens are our pets primarily and eggs are just a nice benefit and we do not sell them. In the city with 4 hens we wouldn't have enough eggs to go around anyway LOL.

We get organic feed for our hens but the percentages on some listed items are less than on commercially listed feeds. Example: the protein content in no-soy, non-GMO organic feed can be as low as 15% so we supplement and balance the diet as best we can calculate. Besides free-ranging the yard, our hens get a lot of supplemental foods like Greek yogurt, meat, fish, wheat, oats, quinoa, chia, brewers yeast, oyster shells, ground popcorn (don't know how true it is but was told non-GMO kernels can't be used as popcorn because it doesn't pop well), fresh produce and fruit from the garden or farmers' market plus the drop of vitamin 1 to 2x/week, electrolytes in water during our blistering heatwaves. I don't know how organic chicken ranchers stay organic since worming can only be treated successfully by using non-organic wormer products. That one causes me to scratch my head? Research hasn't approved any "natural" or "organic" methods for Gapeworm, Tapeworm, etc. so I got my vet's approval to use the Ivermectin paste under the chickens' wings. Of course we also use Poultry Protector for lice/mites/scaly leg prevention which amazingly enough is an OMRI organic product. All I know is it works absolutely great on the hens and in the coop. A breeder shipped us 2 juvenile birds with lice and worms. The Poultry Protector cleared up the lice but we lost one of the juvies to worms. Buyer beware in getting shipped birds - not all breeders send you healthy birds and I wasn't even offered a replacement. I did my homework to get a good breeder for my future orders.

We use NEEM oil on our veggies and usually it works fairly well as a miticide/fungicide/insecticide though I admit I use it more often than once a week for heavy problems in the garden. I have never resorted to anything stronger. If there's a bad problem with a plant I just pull it out. Besides raised garden beds we have over 100 containered vegetables in the yard. I like using the NEEM because at end of growing season the hens are allowed in the raised beds for a couple months of fun and foraging and I don't worry there's any pesticides. The only fertilizers we use are the OMRI approved brands.

As for medically treating my own birds I do not feel qualified to diagnose maladies - many times I thought something else was wrong with my hens and the vet set me straight - no self-diagnosing for me - too many illnesses have the same symptoms to diagnose accurately. I would be wasting precious time and stressing my hens by treating them for the wrong thing. It's been a good practice for me to go to the vet if a hen doesn't improve by next day. I'm too squeamish to do injections to human or animal - especially something as small as a bird but kudos to chickeneers who can or must with large flocks. Even as a kid my folks made sure I wasn't around for butchering day because they knew I was too sensitive. My folks' farm allowed birds to fend for themselves and taking time to treat injured or sick poultry was money wasted - farm philosopy 60 years ago. How times have changed! After 15 years of self-sufficient farming on 25 acres, my folks found it too expensive and not self-sustaining in the least. They ate or sold off all the livestock, let the fruit, avocado and citrus orchards go as irrigation was expensive even 60 years ago, and eventually returned to city living.

I've been in the city for over 55 years but still consider myself a farm folk. It was all I knew for the first 15 years of my life and childhood imprints you for life.

 

[ozexpat]

local farmers in the Philippines use 1/4 of a betel nut to each chicken for worming. its been shown to be very effective for round worms in scientific journals.

I use valbazen and ivermectin in rotation lol

I am not sure you can get it here

 

[Sylvester017]

local farmers in the Philippines use 1/4 of a betel nut to each chicken for worming. its been shown to be very effective for round worms in scientific journals.

I use valbazen and ivermectin in rotation lol

I am not sure you can get it here

Ivermectin paste has been my wormer recommended both by my breeder and my vet plus it covers all the dreaded worms like Gapeworm, Tapeworm, etc. Everyone has their favourite wormer. There are some that are put in waterers/feeders but some of my chickens drink/eat a lot and some not so much. So I prefer knowing the exact dosage each of my hens get with the Ivermectin paste which is applied under the chicken wings on the skin - one drop per pound weight of bird. 5 drop equivalent = 5-lb bird. 2 drop equivalent = 2-lb bird. Etc.

The important thing is to use a wormer of whatever choice on a schedule because wild birds are constantly bringing their lice/mites/worms into the backyard. We decided to do our birds 3x/year. I understand commercial farms worm 4x/year.

 

[ozexpat]

Ivermectin paste has been my wormer recommended both by my breeder and my vet plus it covers all the dreaded worms like Gapeworm, Tapeworm, etc. Everyone has their favourite wormer. There are some that are put in waterers/feeders but some of my chickens drink/eat a lot and some not so much. So I prefer knowing the exact dosage each of my hens get with the Ivermectin paste which is applied under the chicken wings on the skin - one drop per pound weight of bird. 5 drop equivalent = 5-lb bird. 2 drop equivalent = 2-lb bird. Etc.

The important thing is to use a wormer of whatever choice on a schedule because wild birds are constantly bringing their lice/mites/worms into the backyard. We decided to do our birds 3x/year. I understand commercial farms worm 4x/year.

Ivermectin does not kill tapeworms.

you need to check this out for yourself though

levamisole (prohibit) and febendazole (safeguard) have decent efficiacy

valbazen - used off label - is the most effective tape worm medication.

round worms are most common and ivermectin is great for them as well as lice. round worms will become resistant to it if not rotated.

 

[sol2go]

this is worth repeating

Chickens should not be treated with Baytril.

here's a quick reference, there are many
http://beefmagazine.com/mag/beef_baytril_poultry_banned