Medicated but still not 100%

[whoacowboy]

I have seven chickens that were diagnosed by a fabulous woman in my town with a respiratory problem. Some went into the chicken hospital, a/k/a quarantine. We medicated for five days. It is day seven and I am still seeing some sneezing and head shaking. I am at a loss as to why this won't clear up. Any suggestions? The medicine I can't think of but it was highly recommended.

 

[greenscape]

Don't know what your using. I treat mine once a month with tetracycline added to the water. Withhold water from early evening until morning fill waterers with mixture of 1tbs to a 2gal of water leave it till next morning and dump it. Never have any problems.

 

[dawg53]

Quote:
Oxine didnt work eh? I recommend that you type "denagard" in the BYC search box and read up on it. Here's a link:
http://www.denagard.com/pig-poultry-public/en/index.shtml

 

[whoacowboy]

The med is called "Respiratory & More". 7.4% Erythromycine, 11% Furaltadone, 3.3% Oxytetracycline, 1.7% Dypirone, .2% Vitamin K3.

 

[silkiechicken]

Quote:
Treating before or after a problem? Giving antibiotics once a month for prevention? If that is the case, if you ever need the drug for a problem, it might not work anymore.... and you probably wouldn't have ever had a problem without treating them with anything.

 

[dawg53]

Quote:
I stand corrected about the oxine. Consider denagard though, there isnt any withdrawal nor resistance to it. The "no resistance" would be worth it IMO. Good luck.

 

[whoacowboy]

Thank You

 

[greenscape]

Ok silkiechicken. Good point. . With me the ones I treat like this are all penned in separate pens (pairs and trios) Bantam OEGB's. I don't treat my Layers they free range and I've never had a problem with them.
I had a rooster that I lost to upper respiratory and saved another one when I treated the first time last year.
I'll look into something to switch out with . Or maybe just stop treatment all together. Haven't had any more problems so maybe I got it cleared up .
I also spray with a weak bleach solution when I clean pens so that may be enough for now.

 

[silkiechicken]

Quote:
It's not necessarily only an issue with them per se. Once they have recovered from a single treatment, it is best to leave it as is and let their natural systems take over.

Each treatment with the same drug will just increase the percentage of "bad resistant" bugs. Eventually the percentage of "bad resistant" ones get too large, you will have a problem you can't fix anymore. Small bits of bad can be combated by the natural immunity of living things AND the presence of healthy bacteria taking up resources that the bad ones need to survive.

The more concerning part though, is bacteria can exchange their immunities to drugs with each other by just contact. They carry immunity genes on plasmids, which are little bits of DNA which float around inside them. This is something good to be aware of because bacteria on a chicken who is resistant to a med you use on it, can "gift" that resistance plasmid to a bacteria on your skin, which can "gift" that to other bacteria and so on. (Horizontal gene transfer) This can make certain antibiotics not even work on you or your other pets, even if you've never taken the drug or administered it to another animal.

I avoid antibiotics unless absolutely necessary, when when in use, use a full course only once.

 

[greenscape]

Point well taken.The reasoning of your statement is the reason I don't take antibiotics for myself. Just never thought about it in chickens etc.
So treatment is now stopped. I guess I need to find another antibiotic for future problems Only when there is a problem.