Tetracycline dosage question

[kassandra09]

I'm a new chicken owner of 4 ISO brown layers, about 1.5 years old. They have an upper respiratory infection and the vet just stopped by to see them and give me a prescription for tetracycline.

She told me to give them 2.5 teaspoons a day in 1 litre of water for 5 days. She said she calculated that based off the package, but when I go by what the package says that dosage is way way way off and way too high!

The instructions say 400g (the entire bag) would need to be in 2000 litre. 1 teaspoon is 4g. This means that my vet told me to give 10g in 1 litre of water.

Is this crazy or is she right?

I just removed their water and gave them to antibiotic water according to her instructions and I'm terrified I'm going to kill them or overdose them on meds...

By the package instructions 4g (1 teaspoon) would need to be in no less than 20 litres, and here I am more than doubling that dose in 20 times less water!!!

UPDATE: The vet called me to say she made a mistake. I am only to give between 1/4 of a teaspoon to 1 teaspoon per 5 litres of water.

Thank you for your help

 

[casportpony]

Let me look into this for you!

 

[Debbie292d]

Poultry DVM is a respected site and it says
40-200 mg/L drinking water

That's pretty broad though IMO. Let's see what @casportpony comes up with.

See more at: https://poultrydvm.com/drugs/tetracycline

 

[casportpony]

1 teaspoon is 4g.

Did you weigh it yourself?

 

[kassandra09]

Did you weigh it yourself?

No, that's what it says on the packet. I took a screenshot and attached it to my post hopefully the attachments work.

 

[kassandra09]

Poultry DVM is a respected site and it says
40-200 mg/L drinking water

That's pretty broad though IMO. Let's see what @casportpony comes up with.

See more at: https://poultrydvm.com/drugs/tetracycline

That would make more sense according to my package instructions, but that would also mean I'd only be giving a tiny fraction of a teaspoon in a litre of water. Could it really be that powerful? (Package says 1 teaspoon equals 4 grams)

 

[casportpony]

No, that's what it says on the packet. I took a screenshot and attached it to my post hopefully the attachments work.

I've weighed the tetracycline & oxytetracycline powders before and they weigh closer to 3 grams, that's what I asked.

 

[kassandra09]

I've weighed the tetracycline & oxytetracycline powders before and they weigh closer to 3 grams, that's what I asked.

Does the vet's dosage recommendation make sense to you given it's super different from what's on the back of the packet?

 

[kassandra09]

UPDATE - The vet just called me to say she messed up the dosage! I should only be giving 1/4 of a teaspoon (low end) to 1 teaspoon (high end) for every 5 litres of water.

Thanks everyone

 

[Debbie292d]

UPDATE - The vet just called me to say she messed up the dosage! I should only be giving 1/4 of a teaspoon (low end) to 1 teaspoon (high end) for every 5 litres of water.

Thanks everyone

Maybe she was reading along here. That's awesome though. Good luck!