dosing antibiotics to ducklings - ?

[WadeMD]

Some questions:

1- Are antibiotics (specifically, Penicillin G or sulfa drugs) available at feed stores without a prescription (fairly certain Pen is at least)?

2- Anyone know the proper amount to include in feed or water? Best I can find is for treating turkeys, they state 2.2mg/kg of food (Pen G) or 0.04-0.08%.

Thanks!

 

[Funky Feathers]

You can get many different antibiotics online. Feed stores carry Duramycin (Tetracycline) powder, Aureomycin, maybe Penicillin injectable (at Southern States) . Peter Brown can tell you the doses, and he has others, like Cephalexin, Tylan, Bio-mycin, Gallimycin, Spectinomycin, etc.... his email is: [email protected].

 

[WadeMD]

I have found tetracycline (Terramycin) at the local feed store. Best guess recommendation is 400-800mg/kg of food per day (based on recommendations for turkeys and chickens). I'm giving that a shot. The second of our initial 3 fawn and white runners is now going down with this disease. I cannot get a real diagnosis, but it is not looking good. She (in less than 24 hours) has stopped eating and started losing muscular control. I am guessing she will not make it though another 24 hours. So of the 11 ducklings received, 2 in a row have come down with this disease - best guess is Pastuerella or coccidiosis.

I am now treating the remainder in their drinking water with the terramycin and hoping that it completely stops whatever this disease is that's killing my baby ducks.

 

[WadeMD]

So far so good on the Terramycin. Its very hard to dose, so I started feeding it to them full time in their water instead of in treats alone 4x per day. I lost 2 Fawn and White runners due to not knowing the signs. The remainder are perky and healthy (and getting loud!). I'll keep them on it for 7 days in order to make sure any/everything potentially pathogenic is dead.

I've been providing a small amount of probiotic yogurt to them in their treats to help offset the GI cleaning that the tetracycline is giving them. Hopefully that helps some.

 

[Amiga]

I think you are on the right track with the probiotics. When the doc gives me antibiotics, they say ten days. I wonder about the difference - probably the different bacteria infecting them. The vitamin electrolyte mix I have has "microbes" in it (probiotics). I have been giving them that in their water overnight once or twice a week, if they have had a big day.