Peacocks and chickens together - what meds do I need?

[casportpony]

WOW! I go to dinner and come back to 8 replies. The peachicks are 6 to 8 weeks old now and are being kept separate from the chickens. They will likely free range when they get older whereas the chickens will stay in their coop and run.

Are the Corid, Metronidazole and Safegaurd curative or preventative meds?

Corid can be used in low doses as a coccidiosis preventative, it's what in medicated chick starter.

Safeguard is sort of a preventative.

Metronidazole is for treatment, but I have heard of some turkey people using it as a preventative, but cannot find any "official" documentation on that.

-Kathy

 

[skidud]

If they are healthy, I would just worm them, no other medicine needed, IMO.

-Kathy

OK, so what kind of dosage and schedule would you recommend?

 

[msmolly]

Like the title says, I'm looking for a list of medications that I should have my two new peachicks on. Also any meds that I should have on hand should one get sick. I'm figuring meds for blackhead and coccidiosis would top the list but I'm sure there are others I'm missing.

Hi Skidud, I am also from Northeast Ohio. When it comes to chickens and peafowl...I "run with scissors" so to speak! I keep my chickens and peafowl together-and free range them etc.... I don't sweat too much about blackhead etc... but do give medicated feed, and other than 1 sick peachick this summer (that Castportpony coached me through) I'm happy with the results. That said, bare in mind, I have a very small flock and they are not concentrated on a small area of ground. My sick peachick this summer was probably due to the fact, that I became a little too relaxed about the proper medicated feed, and the mother peahen had those wee babies out free ranging, in all that rainy, cold miserable weather we had this spring- from the time they were just 5 days old! Plus, worst of all, I was mixing all the chicken feeds together in a couple big tubs, Scratch, chick starter and turkey starter all together, and just letting the birds eat at will. I had never had any health problems with my birds-and since they free range(but come in at night of course) I wasn't concerned. I now see that was a mistake, as I wasn't ensuring that the peachicks got the medicated turkey starter they really should have had exclusively in the early weeks. Happily, it all worked out, thanks to this wonderful community- my sick baby lived, and other than two peeps being nabbed by hawks- all is well here. So... I"m sure there are good, Peafowl people having massive strokes reading this- sorry guys....

. But I believe there is a happy middle ground. Having a small flock of birds may be the difference here. Please though, take my words with a grain of salt. I'm am not advising you to be as cavalier with your bird's health as I am. But- I'm just putting it out there, that while I break alot of the rules, I still have a good thing going here.....so far.
Feel free to private message me here, if you don't want the "good" bird people to witness all the bad advice I can give you!

Good luck, Molly

 

[Yoda]

WOW! I go to dinner and come back to 8 replies. The pea chicks are 6 to 8 weeks old now and are being kept separate from the chickens. They will likely free range when they get older whereas the chickens will stay in their coop and run.

Are the Corid, Metronidazole and Safegaurd curative or preventative meds?

If your going to keep them with chickens it is best to get them on Medicated chick starter and feed it to them til they are 6-7 months old. I do not allow mine to touch the ground til about that age. I would keep fish zole on hand just in case of blackhead. I do not know how a coated tablet beaks down so I would not use those. The fish zole is fine, you can find it in any aquarium store or on Ebay. Safe Guard is a wormer and you will worm the birds as soon as they touch the ground or within 3 days of touching the ground. You will add the wormer to the drinking water at 3cc/ml per gallon and replace it with a fresh mix each day for 3 days, wait 14 days and repeat. Now I wait another 14 days after second treatment and then dose with Ivermectin pour on for cattle, this will kill any worms that the Safe Guard missed and also any mites or other external parasites. I use for adults 1cc/ml applied directly on the skin at base of neck. You will lift the feathers up and squirt it onto the skin, only about half of the Ivermectin will be absorbed into the skin and the rest will be soaked up by the feathers. Use half the dose for 6-7 month old chicks. I worm my peas 2 times a year, just before breeding season or Spring time and then again after breeding season or the fall. Be sure that when worming the birds they have no other source of water. I have Amoxillin and it was a waste of money cause it did nothing for my birds. I would recommend Tylan 50 for young birds and tylan 200 for adults. Peas seem to get respiratory infections so this winter pay close attention to your birds. If you see a runny nose check it out and if you hear the bird breathing like it is congested these are the start of a respiratory infection. Giving the birds a shot of the tylan 50 will help it fight it off a lot better then the amoxicillin. If the tylan doesn't work then try Baytril. You are the preventative, watch and learn your birds behavior and when you see a change in it then you will know something is wrong. Meds can help the bird fight it off but it is up to you to watch them and notice when they are sick. For me when my birds do not come down to eat there is something wrong and if they stay inside the shed and not come down I know they have an infection. Your bird's behavior will tell you a lot about each one of them. But again I would get them on a medicated chick starter seeing they will be with or next to chickens. The starter will not prevent the birds from getting Coccidia but will help them fight it off and build an immune systen to it. If they were going to be with turkey I would recommend medicated turkey/game starter. Also to help boost their immune system you can add chick poultry vitamins to the drinking water as well.

 

[casportpony]

Yoda's right, Tylan is probably a better choice for upper respiratory infections, but I'm not sure it will work for a secondary intestinal bacterial infection from blackhead. For that I would use Clavamox, amoxicillin or Baytril.

-Kathy

 

[p3lester]

i have a peacock . a male about 3 and ahalf years old out freerangen with my chickens . i heard that keeping him with chickens will make him sick and could kill him? is this true? and if so how do i prevent it?

 

[skidud]

i have a peacock . a male about 3 and ahalf years old out freerangen with my chickens . i heard that keeping him with chickens will make him sick and could kill him? is this true? and if so how do i prevent it?

I would start a new thread or better yet, search for blackhead disease.

 

[casportpony]

i have a peacock . a male about 3 and ahalf years old out freerangen with my chickens . i heard that keeping him with chickens will make him sick and could kill him? is this true? and if so how do i prevent it?

Welcome to BYC!
​

This thread has a bunch of info:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/804570/coping-with-blackhead

-Kathy