Duramycin and eggs

[lovin my girls]

Hi,

Our hens have been on Duramycin for 3 days. How long should we wait to eat the eggs they are laying?

Thanks for your help.

 

[duckking]

I have a hen on amoxicillin. The vet told us not to eat the eggs until 3 weeks after the last dose.....bummer

And she just started laying too.....

 

[karlamaria]

Question, why not eat eggs ? My girl was started on duramycin for a day when I decided to stop and see if it's respiratory or just something in her nose. I'm pretty sure she did not drink but a very small amount if any. So why wait on the eggs? What will it do to eat them? Thanks by te way she stopped sneezing on her own .

 

[featherz]

Question, why not eat eggs ? My girl was started on duramycin for a day when I decided to stop and see if it's respiratory or just something in her nose. I'm pretty sure she did not drink but a very small amount if any. So why wait on the eggs? What will it do to eat them? Thanks by te way she stopped sneezing on her own .

The reason you don't eat them is a small amount of the antibiotic can/will come out in the eggs. I doubt (unless you are allergic) that it would HURT you, but ingesting trace antibiotics can contribute to resistance. That said, if my hen were on antibiotics for only one day I'd probably eat the eggs. I just wouldn't give them to anyone else just in case of allergies/etc.

 

[karlamaria]

Thanks feathers I was thinking the same thing. I'm not sure she even took a drink, lol. She is with my other hens, being cooped up in a crate made her mad as heck. I can not figure out her eggs from the other buffs or birds so that's my problem. So glad it was dust dirt or what ever in her nose and not sick!

 

[TwoCrows]

As said in an earlier post here by featherz, eating eggs with trace amounts of antibiotics can cause your body to build up resistance to antibiotics. This is why so many of these antibiotics are not working in humans any more. The USDA tried to get the chicken houses to stop using them on the chickens that produce eggs for the world for this reason. They still do use them anyway. And if you are ever in need of any antibiotic therapy, you want these things to work for you. So it is not worth eating these eggs with antibiotics in them.

 

[JulieAGill]

I have two hens that have been on Duramycin-10 for 3 days now for pecking wounds that started to look infected. One of them started laying eggs the day she started the medication. Since then she laid another one. I discarded both of them. Both of their wounds look really good and almost healed up now. They are other wise healthy. I have kept them separate from the other three except for short periods of time starting yesterday. That's when I discovered that the one wounded one had begun laying. Found her first egg in the dog carrier she was sleeping in at night. Anyway, I am also wondering how long I need to wait before eating their eggs. I have actually been mixing the medication with 1/2 tsp per 1/2 gallon. I was told by the feed store to mix 1 tsp. per gallon of water. 5 hens do not drink a gallon of water a day let alone two. Today I mixed 1/4 tsp to 1 quart. Based on what I have been ready and am now wondering how much they were actually consuming. So, still my question is--- when can I use the eggs?

 

[Folly's place]

As mentioned already, eating eggs when the birds are taking antibiotics introduces low doses of the drug into your body, which could cause an allergic reaction, or contribute to drug resistant bacteria. Underdosing a bird who needs the drug helps produce resistant bacteria in your flock. Neither outcome is good. If you are using an approved drug for chickens, there will be a withdrawal time listed or findable through the drug company, or go with the longest time listed. Mary

 

[Folly's place]

I looked on the Duramycin package today at the feed store; It said not approved for laying hens. That means there's no official egg withdrawal time, so who knows how long drug residues are in the eggs? Mary

 

[krista74]

I looked on the Duramycin package today at the feed store; It said not approved for laying hens. That means there's no official egg withdrawal time, so who knows how long drug residues are in the eggs? Mary

This falls in line with what my vet recently advised me.

I had a hen on antibiotics (oxytetracyline) for 5 days, and she has now been off the antibiotics for 10 days.

I asked my vet about withdrawal times for eating the eggs and he said that as they are prescribing the antibiotics for chickens 'off-label' there is therefore no official approved withholding limit.

He said that if I am eating the eggs myself, I should be fine as long as I don't have an allergy to antibiotics. However, he did advise against selling the eggs until three weeks have passed since the hen was treated - just to be on the safe side.

- Krista