Helping a hen with reproductive issues with people calcium, but how much to give?

[azygous]

Unfortunately, the luxury of a vet who will treat chickens is not available widely here in the US. An avian vet is even rarer. Expense is also a large consideration for many, many people. Just walking in the door will set a person back $200 or more. But we always encourage people to utilize a vet if they are able as we (with very rare exceptions) are not vets here, and we acknowledge it all the time.

This is the purpose of this site. We who have had the experience and have acquired the knowledge pass on what we have found to work. As I have said, sometimes even having access to an avian vet and the means to pay isn't an option when a hen is egg bound or prolapsed and minutes saved can mean the difference between life and death.

 

[Possum-Pie]

Unfortunately, the luxury of a vet who will treat chickens is not available widely here in the US. An avian vet is even rarer. Expense is also a large consideration for many, many people. Just walking in the door will set a person back $200 or more. But we always encourage people to utilize a vet if they are able as we (with very rare exceptions) are not vets here, and we acknowledge it all the time.

This is the purpose of this site. We who have had the experience and have acquired the knowledge pass on what we have found to work. As I have said, sometimes even having access to an avian vet and the means to pay isn't an option when a hen is egg bound or prolapsed and minutes saved can mean the difference between life and death.

I understand. As I mentioned, there is a HUGE distrust of actual medically trained people, we tend to use confusing terms and expensive treatments, and some folks can't afford to take their beloved animals to a vet. I applaud anyone who loves their birds and tries to help them. I will disclose here that when my buff Orpington died, I cried. I swore I wasn't getting close to them as we got the hens for eggs. Geez, a 59-year-old guy crying for a chicken...
As I said, I think my posts about medicine may turn some people off, so I won't chime in about that aspect of BYCs. Good luck to all who bravely try to help, but as you mentioned above, a misguided treatment without researching the facts can end in one of us unintentionally killing a loved bird. After all, I believe we all LOVE chocolate but if you give it to your dog, you can kill them b/c they can't process the theobromine or caffeine like humans can.
I love cheesemaking and currently have a large pot of whey on the counter. I thought "I'll give it to the hens for a treat" but I researched the safety of this. After various articles, I discovered that mixing it half with water plus offering clean water was fine, but filling their only water dish with whey was not a healthy idea. Please be careful.
Now I'm retiring from this thread and going back to trying to figure out why my EE and SLW refuse to leave the coop...

 

[wrathsfarm]

You haven't heard about Boebert's night out at the performance of "Beetlejuice"? Oh, that has her restaurant beat as far as putting her onto the list....of something.

I'll look it up.

 

[ManueB]

. I would like for BYC users in other countries to join this discussion and let us know if the calcium bottles they buy state the actual content of each tablet on the front of the bottle. Because here in the US, in order to find out how much is in each tablet requires hunting down some very small print on the back of the bottles.

I read both your threads on the subject. It drew my attention because in France I haven't been able to find calcium citrate. I searched for it after reading all the recs on BYC. It is not sold as a stand-alone supplement ; all calcium supplements are either calcium carbonate or gluconate.
However, it is easy to order on Amazon from other european countries.

The actual labelling is different from the US, but not more useful in France. The front label most usually contains no mention at all in grams, but if there is an information of quantity, it is the number of days that the total number of pills in the bottle will cover with the recommended daily dosage. So it's more a commercial information to know what you will get for the price.

On the back, which you therefore always need to look at, we have both a number of milligrams for the daily dosage with the mention of how many tablets this is, and the number of milligrams in one tablet, which is what you were hoping to see on the front.

As for regulation, supplements fall both under european regulations and specific french regulation. Basically it is considered a derogatory type of food which means that it must contain the required mentions for food, but with the exceptions of some of the required informations for food, like nutritional analysis which can be left off.
But there are also some very specific requirements for supplements (such as how many tablets make daily dosage) and a precise list of forbidden claims (for example, mentioning weight loss in kilos or benefits that are considered to be medical).

Unfortunately, the luxury of a vet who will treat chickens is not available widely here in the US. An avian vet is even rarer. Expense is also a large consideration for many, many people. Just walking in the door will set a person back $200 or more. But we always encourage people to utilize a vet if they are able as we (with very rare exceptions) are not vets here, and we acknowledge it all the time.

This is the purpose of this site. We who have had the experience and have acquired the knowledge pass on what we have found to work. As I have said, sometimes even having access to an avian vet and the means to pay isn't an option when a hen is egg bound or prolapsed and minutes saved can mean the difference between life and death.

I agree with you, but also with @Possum-Pie 's comment. It's sometimes a fine line between helping and making things worse. It doesn't help that (as with all social media and forums) people of very different expertise level will answer in the emergency forum with the same confident tone. And when you are in an emergency situation, it is not the best of time for doing careful research and critical thinking. So thank you for raising that question and showing sincerely that even people as experienced with chickens as you are and thoughtful in answering problems can sometimes be mislead.