Medication question....

[SunAngel]

I've seen lots of advice given about what to give a flock with 'cold' symptoms. My question is, how do you give it all to them at the same time...antibiotics, VetRx, electrolytes?

Some say get a water soluble antibiotic to treat the whole flock in their water, can you add VetRx to the same water, or do you fill a different container? Or if you have chicks with cocci and CRD do you put both antibiotics and Sulmet in their drinking water? If you put more than one container of water in the coop/cage how do you know they are drinking from both?

If CRD moves through my whole flock, I can't see being able to do Tylan injections each day to all of them.

Do you just treat one thing at a time and hope the other thing doesn't kill them in the meantime?

Can you tell I am having a very bad chicken day?

 

[chickenjane]

When I have a chicken sick in the flock, I immediately remove them and put them in a carrier or "sick cage" away from the others, to help prevent spread of disease but also so I can monitor them better (i.e., are they eating, drinking, etc.) Then I treat the flock with ACV. Oh, and I would only use 1 source for the drinking water with everything added to it so you know when they are drinking they are getting everything.

Vet Rx and electrolytes should be a standard in these cases in addition to whatever medication you give them, they help boost the immune system. I also add ACV and vit C as well.

Sulmet should help kill both the cocci and the respiratory illness, but be careful because it is easy to kill the chickens on the Sulmet by overmedicating. Also, depending on the type of bacteria the chicken has, it may or may not respond to the Sulmet. With respiratory illness, it is a kind of guessing game. For cocci, my favorite is Amporlin which you can only get in liquid form now. It is expensive in the gallon but it will last a long time. It is not an antibiotic per se, so it is harder to overdose them, but you have to be careful what vitamins you give because it can prevent it from working properly (do not give vit B when using this.)
I would call Peter Brown at First State Vet and see if he has any suggestions would type of medicine to use.

good luck and I hope you have a better day (been there, done that!)

Marlene

 

[SunAngel]

Thank you very much for the help! I will get some electrolytes into their water as well.