chickens keep dying from dehydration

[krcote]

Quote:
Try just giving your chickens plain water. They will likely stop turning up dead.

 

[silkiechicken]

Antibiotics for prevention is the best way to prevent antibiotics from working in the future... on them or you. Yes, bacteria can share their resistance plasmids among each other be they are living on a chicken or you.

 

[DebbieF]

Seems like you're giving an awful lot of medication.

 

[dawg53]

Quote:
Interesting. How would that work with drugs that say I have to add them to a gallon of water? How do I know how much to give them individually if I use a syringe?

Make the gallon of water with mixture in it. Use a large syringe without a needle and draw from the mixture, then dose your birds 4-5 times a day orally using the syringe. They have to get enough of the treated water in them to be effective, especially if they are sick and unable to drink on their own. Once you get their mouth open, squirt a little at a time in the mouth and let the bird swallow it on her own. With older birds you can pull the wattles down and their mouth will open, squirt a little in and then release the wattles letting the bird swallow on her own.

 

[flowerhensowner]

if your sure it is dehydration give them some pedialite i give it to mine and they seem to like it and havent lost one for that reason but had some with dehydration

 

[SilkieCanada]

Quote:
Try just giving your chickens plain water. They will likely stop turning up dead.

Plain water wont prevent myco. Plain water wont stop cocci. (Rudeness/name-calling edited by Staff-review rule #1 of BYC, please) This topic isn't about if I should drug my birds or not drug them I didnt give enough information for any of you to make an assessment about the decision to give the drugs or the situation that led to it. I simply asked how to make them drink bitter medicated water.

Background info: we found bloody poops a couple weeks ago. vet told me to use amprol. I used amprol for 7 days. 1 bird died from dehydration. After the 7 days we rolled into the denagard for 3 days. One bird died again of dehydration. And thinking back over the last 6 months my deaths from dehydration always come during dosage of drugs. Its not that I drug my birds lots its that Im taking a time period of about 6 months into consideration. Now regarding myco, I bought a bird with myco and left it in quarantine. We later culled it. However I didnt know if the myco spread to my flock somehow and Ive been using denagard as a preventative since then. I didnt get each of my birds tested for myco. And unless you do , you dont know if you have it. I did however test each dead bird since then for myco. I researched and found a very high % of backyard flocks have myco and since I am in an area where we get foot traffic and wild animals all the time I thought it right to stick to a preventative dose of denagard. Which the makers also recommend. The government gave me a paper handout saying I shouldnt even have my birds outdoors because of the myco.

So with all that said, whats the best way to get birds to drink medicated water? Honey? Sugar? And thanks to the people that actually answered the topic question.