medicated feed aaaargh

[herbsherbsflowers]

Hello,

Well my 4 week old chickies are progressing very well but when my husband went to buy more food the other day he came back with a different kind than I had gotten the first time. I was worried about the difference but there was even more than I had thought. It turns out the first bag I got was medicated. The second bag is not. I just started using it this morning. He has gone out of town. So now I am solely responsible and my chicks are vulnerable. I had not intended on giving them medicated feed at all, but that could be the reason they have done so well. Do you think we are going to have problems with the unmedicated feed or should I go looking for some that is medicated.

Thanks for all your help.

 

[Chickenaddict]

I have heard that if you switch them from medicated feed to non medicated feed it shouldn't be a problem but don't quote me on it. I just picked up 8 new babies who were on medicated feed and asked the breeder if it was ok to switch them to non medicated because thats what my other babies are on and she said it was fine. If you ordered the chicks from a hatchery did you have them vaccinated? if so then i believe you should NOT have them on medicated feed and if they weren't vaccinated you should have them on it.

 

[ravenfeathers]

IIRC, medicated feeds have either a coccidiostat or an antibiotic. i really don't believe in using a feed with antibiotic in it at all, as it breeds resistant bacteria, but some people must need such a feed. a coccidiostat is a good thing as a preventative, but not strictly necessary. when my steers were calves, they lived on a big farm (where i worked) and were exposed to a lot of bugs, so i bought medicated food (coccidiostat) for them as a "just in case". the calf that was born and raised at home got regular grain and i just watched him as normal for signs of illness.

If you ordered the chicks from a hatchery did you have them vaccinated? if so then i believe you should NOT have them on medicated feed and if they weren't vaccinated you should have them on it

why is that?? that means that in an effort to control viruses, you have to forfeit your option to control bacteria? i hope that's not true!​

 

[RavenStorm]

Quote:
why is that?? that means that in an effort to control viruses, you have to forfeit your option to control bacteria? i hope that's not true!

There are different vaccinations, so you should make sure if your chicks have gotten one which kind it is. They can be vaccinated against coccidiostat, and if that is the case they tell you not to feed them medicated feed because that just negates the effect of the vaccine. If they were vaccinated for Marek's or something other than coxy, medicated feed is not a problem.

 

[lemurchaser]

If I remember correctly, after 6 weeks they don't need the medicated food anymore anyway. You're just a little ahead of that. It shouldn't be a problem.

 

[ravenfeathers]

Quote:
i wasn't aware that they had a coccidiosis vaccine for chickens. good to know! the literature i've found on the web seems to disagree a bit on whether it's okay to feed coccidiostats to vaccinated birds and i think it depends on the vaccine given. as a consumer, you might not know which vaccine your hatchery uses so it's probably best not to feed anticoccidial feed as that would deplete the immunity conferred by the vaccine. your birds will probably not get sick, but it does create resistant eimeria species which could endanger future flocks.

 

[herbsherbsflowers]

Thanks for your input. I went back to the store and they have the medicated food now. So I talked to this very confident young man who seemed to know all about chickens. He said they need it until they start on layer crumbles. My problem is that I never intended to have medicated food, but they have done so well, we have had no losses and they are all very healthy that I am afraid to switch them now although I understand all the problems with antibiotics. And that is one reason I wanted to raise my own chickens. The medication is some form of penicillin. I can go either way at this point since I have both kinds. I may blend them for a while and wean them off of it. I don't know if that really works but it sounds like a reasonable approach to me.

I ordered the chicks from Ideal and did not ask for and no one mentioned any kind of vaccination. Of course since I got the medicated feed without asking for it who knows what happened.

 

[Anne]

I have been using organic feed, which is non-medicated, for years.

I simply keep my pens clean and water fresh, and have never had a single problem with disease among my chicks.

Just make sure their environment is healthy and they'll probably be fine.

 

[therealsilkiechick]

i keep them on medicated starter till they r switched onto adult feed. it does not contain antibiotics it is ampolorium which is a oral vaccine for cocci. if u have gotten cocci vaccines done for ur chicks do not give them medicated feed it will cancel the stonger shot vaccine out and the only protection they have is the medicated feed for it. it only cancels out the cocci vaccine. technically if they r 8 weeks old or older they should have a resistance built up and don't really need medicated feed. yes u can ween them off of it if u wish too or just switch to non medicated.
silkie

 

[herbsherbsflowers]

Thank you very much to everyone who answered. That is what I really needed to know. If it is not antibiotic then I can live with that. I don't want them to get sick and if this building up their resistance not just blocking the disease that is what I want. So I think I will go on with the medicated feed and then switch to the other. Now we have scads of feed but I guess that is ok.