terramycin

[riley]

i am getting my first chickens 15 rir, next week. so i went to tractor supply today to get the things i needed for their arrival. and the sales persontold me that they get a batch of chicks every year and they use terramycin on all of their baby chicks just as a precaution can anyone give me advice on this

 

[Renee]

I'd turn them in to the Antibiotic Police. Dang, there's no such thing, but there should be! Those chickens are starting out life with lower resistance to bacteria and they may develop fungal or yeast infections as a result of indiscriminate antibiotic use. I would not buy them.

 

[speckledhen]

NO, they are idiots. Terramycin is an antibiotic. Newly hatched chicks do not need that, period. Fresh water is what they need, and if shipped, you can put a teaspoon of sugar in the quart waterer for a day or so, but that's it.

 

[rockabilly7]

well i have no clue what rir is but i have been around vet clinics my entire life and terramycin is used in eyes when cats dogs chickens ( or pretty much anything else) have eye infections other than that it isnt good for much.

 

[speckledhen]

Again, I say NEVER listen to feedstore personnel. They rarely know what the heck they're talking about and they push Terramycin on everybody for everything.

 

[miron28]

i only use terramycin if they start to sneeze. i only had to use it once when i first got them i used it for seven days and never had to use it again

 

[speckledhen]

If you use antibiotics every time a chicken sneezes, you will help build a super-bacteria, resistant to all antibiotics. Then when you might need one, it will not work. Mine sneeze from time to time for various reasons, none of which necessitates any antibiotics.

People, please STOP using all these antibiotics! You're shooting yourselves in the foot, so to speak. You throw a weak antibiotic like Terramycin at something that you have no idea what it is or if it's even going to respond to an antibiotic. Viruses do not respond to antibiotics.

Whatever feedstore personnel tell you, please check here on BYC before you implement it. Honestly, I just want people to have healthy flocks and Terramycin wont help you.

 

[gritsar]

She's a very chicken-smart lady, that speckled is.
I've kept two bags of terramycin on hand just in case. I didn't want to have to make a frantic trip to town to find it during an emergency. I've never used it.

 

[speckledhen]

Kat, using Terramycin for something like a bird who has an injury may be what it's good for, if more than topical ointments seem required.
I had one hen who wasn't looking well recently; when I picked her up, we found part of a soft shelled egg protruding from her vent, and we pulled the rest out. Because we weren't sure what was going on inside, if she'd develop an infection in the oviduct, we gave her a couple of pencillin shots. If I didnt have anything else on hand, I would have used the bag of Terramycin I got way back when my first bird got bumblefoot. I found that this type of staph infection called for a stronger one than Terramycin, so the bag is still here.

For respiratory stuff, my policy is to cull, not treat, so no antibiotic, however strong, will be used if that happens her.

I just have no idea why anyone would give a healthy, just-hatched chick an antibiotic. Makes no sense.

 

[gumpsgirl]

Yeah, listen to Cyn (speckledhen). Using antibiotics right off the bat is a no-no. You will just be building a resistance to the antibiotics if and when they are ever needed. Adding some vitamins to the water would be much more beneficial than giving them antibiotics.