Oxytetracycline and ducks? also, should it be flavored?

[hooktontravel]

Hi all. I want to give my chickens some oxytetracycline in the water. Problem is I have a small flock and my 2 ducks are in there. I read on one website that this is toxic to ducks. I found a few posts here that indicate it is an okay treatment... but not anything that specifically adresses it.
Is the Oxtet HCl (comes in the 10gram packet) okay for ducks?

and also, will the chickens drink it reasonably well, or should I put something in for flavor? years ago we used it when I had dairy goats and we'd go with the 4H group to a major multi-state show. the leaders had us put all animals on it preventatively since they had multiple years where every animal they took became seriously ill... so anyway, we'd put in the oxytet and some kool-aid to help make it more palatable for the goats. Are chickens less picky? will they drink it anyway? My guys are 6 and 5 months old and pretty picky -- don't eat kitchen scraps mostly, wouldn't eat hot oatmeal I took out on a cold morning, but picked some of the peas and corn out of it... they love mealworms and raisins and sometimes grapes. the ducks are much less picky.


I have found a bunch of threads with dosing information from @casportpony and others, so i'm set with dosages for the chickens, and how to break it down so I can mix a quart at a time. I just want to be sure i won't poison the ducks in the process. They drink a lot more, and if I put separate water the chickens always drink from the ducks' bucket... :/ (but one duck is bonded/best buds with a chicken as they hatched together, so it's not easy to split ducks from chickens, either.)

Thanks so much!

 

[hooktontravel]

Anyone? am I about to go poison some ducks out there?

 

[casportpony]

Anyone? am I about to go poison some ducks out there?

Curiously, what sites said it was toxic? It is not toxic to ducks, but you should not treat your ducks if they aren't sick, the same way you don't take antibiotics just because someone in your house is taking them. Make sense?

-Kathy

 

[hooktontravel]

This one. I thought they'd be fine with it, but then I found this & was concerned: https://www.cuteness.com/article/use-terramycin-poultry "The medication is not labeled for ducks or geese; it and many antibiotics are toxic to waterfowl." was the part that concerned me. I couldn't find a date for the article, either.

I agree about not treating if they're not sick. I was intending not to use antibiotics at all, actually. Having one bird die out of a flock of only 7 I decided I would go ahead and try the antibiotic on the others who seem ill. (I had a necropsy done and the bacteria tested as sensitive to various antibiotics, including tetracycline. it was a long slow decline and a very mucosy death for poor Momo.) I have 2 separated to treat but if I need to treat more of them i'm not sure I can fit them in the dog crate for quarrentine. Just wanted to make sure the ducks wouldn't die if they got some antibiotic!

I will see if I can free-range the birds who aren't sick, maybe, while everyone else stays inside the fence...

 

[casportpony]

This one. I thought they'd be fine with it, but then I found this & was concerned: https://www.cuteness.com/article/use-terramycin-poultry "The medication is not labeled for ducks or geese; it and many antibiotics are toxic to waterfowl." was the part that concerned me. I couldn't find a date for the article, either.

I agree about not treating if they're not sick. I was intending not to use antibiotics at all, actually. Having one bird die out of a flock of only 7 I decided I would go ahead and try the antibiotic on the others who seem ill. (I had a necropsy done and the bacteria tested as sensitive to various antibiotics, including tetracycline. it was a long slow decline and a very mucosy death for poor Momo.) I have 2 separated to treat but if I need to treat more of them i'm not sure I can fit them in the dog crate for quarrentine. Just wanted to make sure the ducks wouldn't die if they got some antibiotic!

I will see if I can free-range the birds who aren't sick, maybe, while everyone else stays inside the fence...

I have no idea where they go that info, but here is what the waterfowl section of an avian veterinary book says:
http://avianmedicine.net/content/uploads/2013/08/36_waterfowl.pdf


-Kathy

 

[hooktontravel]

thanks so much! People post crazy stuff on the internet and I figured this was a good place to get answers from people in the know! I appreciate your time to post that.