Meat bird with sinus infection.

[SharkmanDan]

One of my caponized Orpington's (fully mature) recently developed a sinus infection. He's miserable. I know how to do, and have previously, performed, the sinus cavity surgery. The issue is that it requires treating with Tylan, and that means a lengthy time where he is not able to be processed. My reason for caponizing, was to keep them living and happy, until they were ready for harvest. He is not the biggest of the meat birds. Another Orpington is much larger, and certainly, my preferred choice, for the next harvest.
But, wouldn't it be more humane, to simply harvest him now? He is full grown, just not as big as the aforementioned bird. While the other might dress out at 6 pounds, he might dress out around 3-1/2 to 4 pounds. A respectable size. But, I'm not ready to cook any chicken, right now. The idea was to NOT send them to freezer camp. If I process him, he will need to go in the freezer. Right now, I'm home alone, while my wife is in California.
So, do I process and freeze him, or do I treat the sinus infection, and put him through that stress, then have him go through the cleansing process, of getting the Tylan out of his system?
Right now, I'm leaning more towards freezer camp.

 

[donrae]

How long a withdrawal time are you looking at for the Tylan? Just a quick Google gave me anywhere from 0-9 days, that doesn't seem that lengthy to me.

I'd just have to be awful hungry to eat an animal with an active infection. My brain may know it's not necessarily systemic, but my mouth and stomach probably wouldn't be able to gag it down.

 

[SharkmanDan]

As I understand it, 30 days minimum, before consuming any animal treated with Tylan. After being contaminated with Tylan, last summer, and feeling its effects, I'm not too fond of the chance of being re-contaminated.
The infection is very localized, in the sinus cavity, but, yes, that's a big concern. And probably the reason I'm asking.

 

[SharkmanDan]

Well, I went to do the surgery this morning, and it didn't go well. He was too weak. I got him open, but there was no staph kernel like I normally find, with this sinus infection. I looked around, and found a great deal of damaged tissue, and obvious inflammation, but none of what I've found before, when I've performed this surgery. I flushed it with Tylan, and closed him up, then gave him a shot of penicillin, but the stress was too much for him. He collapsed shortly after, and I felt the best thing to do, was to euthanize him, and destroy the carcass.
The bright side was, my turkey hen, who had the same problem, but appeared worse, was given the surgery, and is now walking around, much happier.

 

[donrae]

I just have to say, I've kept birds for over 20 years and have never once had a bird with a sinus infection. You might want to take a look at management practices and see why you're having ongoing issues with these.....

 

[SharkmanDan]

I just have to say, I've kept birds for over 20 years and have never once had a bird with a sinus infection. You might want to take a look at management practices and see why you're having ongoing issues with these.....

I've had the Oklahoma Dept of Agriculture out here, and they checked everything. Their conclusion was that the issue is with the droppings of the wild bird population in this area. There is basically nothing I can do, unless I want to go to MAJOR expense and chance that I might be able to scare off the wild birds causing the issue, with some specialized items, that may, or may not, work. Otherwise, there's not much I can do about it. My birds free range. They have a very large pen, but are free to leave the pen, if they wish, and most do. Every year, we get 2-4 cases, out of 175 or so, birds, on average, that we keep. There's not much that can be done, but treat it, when it occurs.