I'm so very afraid of these chemicals, I have to be honest with you. It really worries me.
Good. They should worry you.
It is something that has concerned me about BYC since I joined. The advice to administer chemicals from antibiotics to constant worming dosages has shocked me. It's not just the chickens either. Many of the posters seem to be chewing pharmaceuticals like it's going out of fashion.
I stopped reading the emergency forums; not so much because the drama was too upsetting, but because in most cases what I wanted to say was if you let the poor creatures out of that disgusting run you keep them caged in and let them feel proper earth under their feet and grass and vegetation to forage in, and most of all, give them space to live, then you wouldn't be dealing with so many health issues.
Then there are the "educators"! pump this drug down them, your chicken has got this disease, or that disease. There is no way they could know for sure. You need to examine the bird and even then you may not be right, much like the errors doctors make for human patients.
For many of the sicknesses, particularly the reproductive disorders and the cancers, the chicken is meant to die from these. We die from diseases. Something has to kill us.
For all the high tech veterinary practices and the availability of drugs it seems to escape peoples attention that our "knowledge" and interference has wiped almost two thirds off the average chickens life for the majority of backyard chickens.
However, chemicals have their place in health care.I rarely use them and when I do it's on the advice of a vet
I have successfully treated more injuries than I care to remember with this.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...s-and-injuries-with-stockholm-hoof-tar.74400/
Injuries that would have had the "medical" team advocating a concoction of drugs. For most injuries and even for many sicknesses a proper diet for an omnivore, cleanliness, fresh air and freedom, seem to work wonders.
