dose for calcium carbonate in egg binding

[Wyorp Rock]

Check your local TSC to see if they have any Fish Mox/Fish antibiotic which is Amoxicillin. If they do, then I would get that.
Otherwise, you will likely need to order it online.
Amoxicillin dose is 57mg per pound weight given orally twice a day for 10-14 days.

https://fishmoxfishflex.com/collections/amoxicillin-fish-antibiotics

 

[khind]

They've got all kinds of
oxytetracycline (injectable or not) & penicillin.
I'll look at the link you included.

 

[khind]

Ok... Another sad update that might provide an answer to this riddle of egg-laying problems with my pullet: she's going blind.
She's not flinching when I put my hand right by her eyes, nor is her pupil responding at all to my phone flashlight.
So I'm thinking it's possible that Marek's, showing up in the ocular form, had already begun to work on her reproductive tract.
I might post about this in a different section now, although I'm pretty sure I remember that Eggcessive has some knowledge about the disease...
At any rate, the onset of blindness, along with her inability to form a shell of any shape on eggs laid on a 12-hr cycle, and now her simply standing around for the past 45 min I've been in the run and not pecking the ground like the others around her, and the small crop I feel on her at 7:30 pm are making an easier decision for me on how to proceed. (Standing around suddenly could very well mean she has an infection too; could be that egg material has gotten trapped from one of her broken eggs). I will give her the kindest departure from this world that I can, asap.
It breaks my heart, but I know it's the best thing for her.

 

[khind]

... That explains why it's been so easy for me to feed her at night after bringing her in off the roost to give her calcium. She's apparently been able to see large shapes and respond to the sound of my stirring wetted, powdered feed to recognize it. She gobbles it up every time. Blindness has been progressing. But this is the first day I've gone in after work and not seen her not at least eating out of a feeder or drinking from the extra water I bring in - even at 90° today, not even once.

 

[Lizzy733]

Oh, poor girl. Sad to hear it's likely mareks. I'm guessing she was not vaccinated? I've been fortunate enough to have avoided mareks so far, but it sounds like her reproductive system is on overdrive.

I had a shaver that had issues shortly after reaching POL. She was giving very large double-yolkers, which likely was the cause of an internal tear which led to eventual salpingitis. It started as soft shell, then progressed to no shell, then soft curdy lash eggs. Salpingitis is a bacterial infection of the reproductive system and she had a fever during the worst of it, but did get over it with tlc, anti-inflammatories and liquid calcium. (Managed to pass through the worst of it and got over her fever before her vet visit so did not need antibiotics). She went on to lay a little less frequently and no more double yolkers, thankfully, once she recovered.

For future reference on calcium supplementation, a healthy pullet or hen should ve able to handle a one-off moderate to high dose with no ill effects, so I would not worry too much about overdosing. If you're giving it to help with muscle contractions associated with eggbinding, you should give a supplement containing vitamin D, as this helps with calcium absorption, and in liquid form to ensure it can be metabolized quickly.

 

[khind]

No, she wasn't vaccinated. I should learn how to vaccinate hatched chicks for a future time.
Wow, how long did your hen end up living after salpingitis - and a tear? I always hear that once you see a lash egg, the hen is on borrowed time. That's wonderful that you were able to treat her to get her to get past such a rough stage. Did it take more than a round or two of anti-inflammatories and liquid ca?
Thanks for the information on ca with vit d.
By the way, I had wanted to get liquid ca for this girl since I'd seen someone on a fb chicken health group had used that for her egg-bound hen but couldn't find the post and info again when I needed it. Is there a certain kind you would recommend?

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Ok... Another sad update that might provide an answer to this riddle of egg-laying problems with my pullet: she's going blind.
She's not flinching when I put my hand right by her eyes, nor is her pupil responding at all to my phone flashlight.
So I'm thinking it's possible that Marek's, showing up in the ocular form, had already begun to work on her reproductive tract.
I might post about this in a different section now, although I'm pretty sure I remember that Eggcessive has some knowledge about the disease...
At any rate, the onset of blindness, along with her inability to form a shell of any shape on eggs laid on a 12-hr cycle, and now her simply standing around for the past 45 min I've been in the run and not pecking the ground like the others around her, and the small crop I feel on her at 7:30 pm are making an easier decision for me on how to proceed. (Standing around suddenly could very well mean she has an infection too; could be that egg material has gotten trapped from one of her broken eggs). I will give her the kindest departure from this world that I can, asap.
It breaks my heart, but I know it's the best thing for her.

... That explains why it's been so easy for me to feed her at night after bringing her in off the roost to give her calcium. She's apparently been able to see large shapes and respond to the sound of my stirring wetted, powdered feed to recognize it. She gobbles it up every time. Blindness has been progressing. But this is the first day I've gone in after work and not seen her not at least eating out of a feeder or drinking from the extra water I bring in - even at 90° today, not even once.

I'm sorry to hear that
Had you noticed any change of shape or color in her eyes?

I know you'd mentioned you had Marek's in your flock. Unfortunately it can take it tole on some birds regardless of vaccination status. The vaccine doesn't prevent infection from the virus, it may help prevent or limit tumor formation and clinical signs.

Getting testing, if you haven't done so will give you some definitive answers. Some do vaccinate their own flocks. Do your research to determine if that's the best course of action to take. Others try to breed for resistance.

You may be interested in these articles.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/the-great-big-giant-mareks-disease-faq.66077/

https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...-i-learned-to-deal-with-mareks-disease.76944/

 

[khind]

Thank you.
Her eye color surrounding her pupil looks different - color seems lighter, more muted, less intense... Like a blurry, washed-out orange/beige instead of more orange.
Pupil not really misshapen like I saw with the first hen who went blind.

 

[Eggcessive]

It is always helpful to us and others for people to show pictures of eyes with ocular Mareks. So if you could post one, that would be helpful. Sorry that your hen is having such a bad time with her shell-less eggs and broken eggs. Many use amoxicillin (Aqua Mox available online in 250 mg capsules,) and some use Baytril (enrofloxacin) 10% liquid to treat infection. Jedds.com sells the latter. If you could get a hormone implant to stop her laying for 6 months through a vet or avian vet, that might extend her life. But then if she has Mareks, it might not be helpful.

 

[khind]

It is always helpful to us and others for people to show pictures of eyes with ocular Mareks. So if you could post one, that would be helpful. Sorry that your hen is having such a bad time with her shell-less eggs and broken eggs. Many use amoxicillin (Aqua Mox available online in 250 mg capsules,) and some use Baytril (enrofloxacin) 10% liquid to treat infection. Jedds.com sells the latter. If you could get a hormone implant to stop her laying for 6 months through a vet or avian vet, that might extend her life. But then if she has Mareks, it might not be helpful.

I brought her in the house (cage) overnight again because I had planned on feeding her a couple times and observing her, basically because it was too late at night for me to euthanize her & then do a lay necropsy & still be able to get my work done for my job next day. She ate wetted food greedily and fell into a deep sleep not long after.
I brought her back to the run in the a.m. before work.
After work, about 6:30 pm, I went to the run. It may be possible that one of her eyes is affected more than the other. I took some pictures, and actually to my mind, her eyes don't look all that strange. The color is not as deep as the other chickens' though, and again, there's a lot she's not seeing. I'm posting them here. She Was able to see the large black water jug I brought in to refresh their water, well enough to walk over and find the hole about 4" around to drink out of it like they like to to - she didn't do that yesterday. (She found it without poking around, that is.) She also came up to me a couple times as I hung around in there and then jumped up onto something, a little clumsily but her wings got her there, and stood nearby while I cleaned and talked to everyone, which was really nice. I think she might have been looking for some wetted food from me.
But about 30 min later she started going to sleep while everyone else was engaged in activity.
I'm going to sneak her some wetted food, or take her out to do that if I need to, and give her some time outside in the grass by the house. Having seen this progression of blindness before, and in light of how dangerously flimsy her eggs have become, I will euthanize her this evening.
I agree that an official necropsy would be best, but I'm not able to get her to the place that would do that soon enough for her. (Maybe sending something out to a lab by mail - I forgot that that was a possibility, and I'll have to look up that information again, but again, I want to work on her timeframe. I'm certain there's Marek's in the flock due to previous blindness.)