Official BYC Poll: Are You Comfortable Injecting Vaccines or Medications Into Your Birds?

[FlarryEyeGrey]

I'm finally doing enough hatching that it makes sense to vaccinate for Marek's. I've never done it with chicks, but I'm pretty comfortable with SC injections in general.

 

[GermanKennhuhn]

I have not, and will not, vaccinate my birds, and I prefer to steer clear of oral antibiotics whenever possible, nevermind injected. However, if the bird‘s life depended on vitamins that needed to be introduced to the bloodstream quickly, I would be willing to inject them. I’ve never done it before, so I would have to do some reading.

 

[cluckmecoop7]

There isn't a "no" answer

 

[Sylvester017]

Wish I had the guts to do injections myself but since I have a great vet he does injections to our pet chickens if they need it. Being a vet he's into saving animals, even injured wildlife that the park rangers bring to him, so he's saved a couple of our pet chickens thru the years and never suggests euthanizing. It had to be me that asked him to euthanize 3 birds over the years with conditions that were beyond saving, DH and I are very attached to our pet birds so they aren't breeding or business stock. The worst medical application we've done is when we had to syringe a prescription medication down a chicken throat and that's traumatizing enough for me!

PET CHICKENS

 

[tripletfeb]

I voted other because, while I haven't needed to, I could if I had to. I used to work at a vet's office so doing any of that kind of stuff doesn't bother me at all

 

[kerbotx]

I have a couple of times before, into the breast, using a special needle normally for a dog's insulin, so the needle was short & tiny. Didn't kill the bird, didn't poke myself! Hope to never repeat it!

 

[nuthatched]

It seems many posters don't quite get the spirit of the question. I've never done it but I'm sure I could if it was needed.

 

[JesusisGod]

Not "vaccinating" them, vaccines are shams

 

[STACEYH]

I haven't done it but I could if needed.

 

[Shadrach]

I have until recently been fortunate and the chickens I've looked after have been by and large healthy and in an area of the world that rarely saw the killer diseases that can be so easily reduced in severity by vaccination.
It would be a shame if this thread turned into a pro or anti vaccination rant.
I'm going to concentrate on the "comfortable with injecting" part of the question.
There are numerous methods of introducing medication into a chickens bloodstream. I have favoured the make a solution and dip bits of bread into it and give to the chicken method in the past and more recently I've adminsitered worming and coccidiosis treatments by this method. I've been in the completely frustrated group at times in the past when a chicken has point blank refused to be even remotley cooperative and would not eat anything that I had carefully doctored with the medication. I've spent hours catching and then trying to treat the few complete nutters that kick off the moment you try to restrain them.
It has been times like this I wished thhe medication required came in an injectable form. A quick capture, a towel wrap and an injection would have saved me and the chicken from so much stress.
On a few occasions in the past the only option availible was an intramuscular injection of a particular drug. With the right syringe and needle and a basic understanding of a chickens physiology I found it less of a problem than my prefered "bits of bread" method.
There is less concern about whether the patient gets the correct dose. None of the chickens I've injected showed any diistress from the needle going in, or the pressure of the fluid goinng into the muscle.
So, while not an expert injector I've done it enough to realise the advantages of a needle and syringe and if every drug came in an injectible form my house would on occasions look like a junkies playground.