duramycin/medicated feed for chicks?

[MomtoSyd&Emma]

Ok we bought our 6 mystery chicks today at TSC, I bought a small bag of medicated chick starter for them. I got to wondering and called TSC to see if they are vaccinated chicks or not, and they girl got kinda snotty telling me that I SHOULD of duramycin blah blah blah, I told her that I had them on medicated Manna feed and she said oh well then they will be fine... I am SOOO freaking confused! Am I doing ok? Or should I have them duramycin? Is the medicated food what they need or should they be on normal starter?

 

[harewizard]

We just bought 12 chicks from our local farm and feed store. They are not vaccinated and I was a little worried about it. After reading BYC and talking with more experienced folks, I learned that alot of backyard flock people do not vaccinate. They feed medicated starter food and all has been fine.

I am guessing your's is a small back yard flock, not commercialized, stays fairly clean, and you have not/ or will not bring in other chickens or roo's?

If you answer Yes.. You should be good to go....!

Lisa

 

[MomtoSyd&Emma]

Quote:
lol Yes!! lol

I am just irritated at the young woman I spoke with because she is normally VERY helpful, and she wsa there today when I was buying our chicks, heck we got them out ourselves, boxed them ourselves etc.. NOONE offered us ANY help at ALL today, the only person that even spoke to us was a new cashier and she was flirting with my husband lol NOT helping us! lol lol DH had on his backyard chickens rock tshirt and she said oh I know you arent wearing that shirt and buying chicks are you? I whipped around and said yeah he is, the shirt says backyard chickene rock. She turned red and said oh I thought it said BBQ chickens (umm surrrreeee she did) lol lol lol

 

[easttxchick]

I have no clue what TSC girl was talking about with the duramyacin-this is for her(for flirting with your DH

).
Medicated feed is EXACTLY what your chicks need right now. Duramyacin is an antibiotic-she didn't have a clue!

 

[MomtoSyd&Emma]

Quote:
Thank YOU! lol Trust me he gets flirted with ALL the time, and the cute thing is he is oblivious to it! lol We are pushing 40 (well he is lol) and we have been together since we were in our teens (I was 15 he was 17) dated all throught JR high, HS, and got married the day after we graduated HS in 1993 lol

 

[haTHOR]

i read another post on here recently where someone said they were advised to buy duramycin for the chicks they bought at TSC. i think it's doubly odd now.

 

[speckledhen]

Duramycin is an antibiotic and COMPLETELY unnecessary for healthy chicks! Medicated feed has amprolium, a coccidiostat/thiamine blocker to help the chicks develop immunity to cocci slowly. Cocci is caused by a protozoan, not a bacteria.

 

[MomtoSyd&Emma]

Yep she sure did tell me that I NEEDED it for the chicks for at least a week.

On another note, how long do I feed the medicated feed to the chicks? lol

 

[MomtoSyd&Emma]

Thanks you all REALLY, I know that you all get alot of newbies and that we all ask tons of questions, but I have to say that I REALLY appreciate all the advice that I have received on here over the last year!!

 

[speckledhen]

Well, she was DEAD WRONG.

They can have that feed till they are laying age, but you can stop it at around 12 weeks old. By then, they should have enough resistance to the oocycsts in your soil. And you don't have to feed medicated feed at all, just watch for signs of cocci and treat with Corid at that time.