Can I give medicated starter following Ivermectin dose?

[bpilgrim]

Hi Everyone, I gave all my chickens an Ivermectin dose (orally) last night, but I also have some chicks that just hatched. (They didn't get Ivermectin) Wondering if it is fairly safe to feed the starter feed medicated with Amprol to birds that also just received an Ivermectin dosage.

I want to keep them all together instead of separating them from the flock. Does anyone have any experience with this? Last night's Ivermectin dose was the first of three, so i need to repeat in 10 to 14 days again.

Thanks all.

 

[Lady of McCamley]

To answer your question directly, as to dosing both meds close together. that should be fine, as Ivermectin is not the same med as the low level amprolium in the chick start.

However, I'm a little curious as to why you might want to add just hatched chicks into larger chickens? Even older chicks? (If I understand your post correctly.) Usually that transition doesn't go well unless you hatched with a broody hen and she is assertive and protective. Even then, chicks can get trampled in skirmishes or attacked out right. (If you have hatched with this hen and flock before, and transitioned with success, then there should be no worries now.)

Without a hen, the vast differences in ages, even of a few weeks, usually does not bode well for the newly hatched chicks. They need to be in their own nursery section until they are older and bigger to keep up with the rest.

Plus, if you are treating for cause (lice/mites) in the older birds, you don't want to expose your young chicks to that.

My thoughts.
LofMc

EDITED TO ADD: If you are just asking if you can feed the older birds the medicated chick start you have on hand, because it is convenient, rather than getting 2 different foods, but are keeping the flocks separate....the Ivermectin and medicated feed won't be a problem for the older birds.

 

[bpilgrim]

Thanks for the reply, LofMc. Glad to hear it shouldn't be an issue. As far as the chicks, they were hatched naturally - there's always someone in the flock going broody. I've been lucky and never had any issues with babies/older birds. The older birds just seem to ignore them. Thanks so much for the response to my question!

 

[Lady of McCamley]

Sounds like you've got it covered then.