Don't medicate your chickens; they are not sick.
Because you got an upper & lower gastrointestinal illness does NOT mean you got it from the chicks. There are always viruses being transferred person-to-person (think touching a shopping cart, doorknob, or other surface, then taking a bite of cookie.) Right now in my area there are GI "bugs" going strong: I had nausea for 3 hrs., followed by 7 hours of every few minutes vomiting, intense nausea for another 9 hours (took me 6 hours to drink 3 ounces of ginger-ale.) Couldn't eat for a few days...but no lower GI. Lots of people at work have lower GI, and some have both. I'm the only one with chickens. Medicating your chickens will wipe out their normal gut bacteria and make room for pathogenic bacteria. If they remain okay, you have still done them a dis-service, and at a very tender and vulnerable age, at that.
In the hospitals we are seeing a LOT of antibiotic resistant forms of bacteria that used to be able to be killed fairly easily. (Read: now it's mutated, and we have few drugs--harsh on the body ones--left that will kill them. And sometimes they "win.") Why do we have this problem now, after 70 years of successful antibiotic therapy? Indiscriminate antibiotic use, like what you are thinking of using. Antibiotics MUST be used for ONLY the organism they are intended for, at the exact dosage needed, and for the time period known to be required. Otherwise the bacteria that DO survive will have superior resistance to that drug, and so will the ones that they produce. That will endanger you and your children MUCH more than what you caught, even on the CHANCE that the chicks are carrying salmonella or something else.
Unless you have had an organism identified, you CANNOT safely extrapolate and assume you know the source. (Chicken-handlin' RN)
BTW: Teach your children to wash by: Turning the water on, lathering their hands, rinsing, LEAVING THE WATER ON until they can turn it off with a paper towel between the dirty faucet (it got dirty when they touched it with to turn it on) and their now clean hands. ESPECIALLY in a public restroom, or anywhere someone else has been sick. And ALWAYS wash after handling tongs at any buffet, before eating.
Because you got an upper & lower gastrointestinal illness does NOT mean you got it from the chicks. There are always viruses being transferred person-to-person (think touching a shopping cart, doorknob, or other surface, then taking a bite of cookie.) Right now in my area there are GI "bugs" going strong: I had nausea for 3 hrs., followed by 7 hours of every few minutes vomiting, intense nausea for another 9 hours (took me 6 hours to drink 3 ounces of ginger-ale.) Couldn't eat for a few days...but no lower GI. Lots of people at work have lower GI, and some have both. I'm the only one with chickens. Medicating your chickens will wipe out their normal gut bacteria and make room for pathogenic bacteria. If they remain okay, you have still done them a dis-service, and at a very tender and vulnerable age, at that.
In the hospitals we are seeing a LOT of antibiotic resistant forms of bacteria that used to be able to be killed fairly easily. (Read: now it's mutated, and we have few drugs--harsh on the body ones--left that will kill them. And sometimes they "win.") Why do we have this problem now, after 70 years of successful antibiotic therapy? Indiscriminate antibiotic use, like what you are thinking of using. Antibiotics MUST be used for ONLY the organism they are intended for, at the exact dosage needed, and for the time period known to be required. Otherwise the bacteria that DO survive will have superior resistance to that drug, and so will the ones that they produce. That will endanger you and your children MUCH more than what you caught, even on the CHANCE that the chicks are carrying salmonella or something else.
Unless you have had an organism identified, you CANNOT safely extrapolate and assume you know the source. (Chicken-handlin' RN)
BTW: Teach your children to wash by: Turning the water on, lathering their hands, rinsing, LEAVING THE WATER ON until they can turn it off with a paper towel between the dirty faucet (it got dirty when they touched it with to turn it on) and their now clean hands. ESPECIALLY in a public restroom, or anywhere someone else has been sick. And ALWAYS wash after handling tongs at any buffet, before eating.
