Post Medication Egg Discard

[ptfdf71]

I am giving my flock Tetracycline for a respiratory infection, after done giving meds, how long do I have to discard the eggs before they are safe to eat again?

Thanks,

Adam

 

[speckledhen]

Most people would probably tell you 10-14 days after the end of the meds. I'd say 14 myself.

 

[65browneyes]

Here's a dumb question........why discard the eggs after administering (correction from "egg's" to say "meds")? I've always heard to do this, but never why.

 

[silkiechicken]

Because the meds will go though the chickens body and be in the eggs... if you ate them you'd be medicating yourself too.

 

[65browneyes]

Okay.......dumb question #2........would that be a bad thing? I mean, would the meds administered to the chicken make me grow a 2nd head or anything? I know, I know, ridiculous, but I gotta ask! LOL

 

[silkiechicken]

Well, some people are allergic to sulfa containing drugs so that can potentially kill them... and some have accidentally shown that meds cause birth defects in eggs they try to hatch... and it's not good to medicate yourself if you don't have to. Other than that you can eat the eggs, and most likely it won't do much due to the very low dose you'd get from a few eggs.

 

[panner123]

To many meds in your system is what causes super bugs. It is like takeing a drug when you are not sick.
JUST PLAIN NOT GOOD FOR YOU!

 

[65browneyes]

Well, I certainly understand the un-necessary self-medicating. I wasn't sure about the 'veterinary drugs' affect on humans, is all.

Thanks for the info!!

 

[Katy]

What about if you put ivomec on them for lice?

 

[speckledhen]

I think that Ivomec EPRINEX has no milk or meat withdrawal time, so egg withdrawal would be the same, but Ivomex INVERMECTIN would have at least a two week withdrawal. Remember that most of these meds are not made for chickens anyway, so all these are basically educated guesses.
One reason I have to not give my layers any antibiotics with withdrawal times is one of my egg customers. She has a heart condition that makes it critical she not have any residues from any medications. Before she started buying my eggs, she needed to know if the feed I gave them had any antibiotics in it. That is one reason I must be careful not to medicate my birds. If I had to do it for some reason, I'd have to withhold that girls' eggs from that customer for a long period of time to be safe.