Ways to restore balance in a chickens GI tract?

[gritsar]

I need to get my chickens GI tract back to a natural balance. They were inadvertently fed medicated gamebird feed (yes, I'll be fuming about it for months!).

I know yogurt. I know apple cider vinegar. I can't get the ACV with mother around here, unless I order it online. Don't have the time rihgt now. Will regular ACV work? We may have to travel to the city tomorrow and I can check the health food store there for the ACV with mother.

My question is how much of each and when? Yogurt followed by ACV, yogurt alone or ACV then yogurt.

Also, acidopholius tablets (for humans)? Safe? Dosage?

TIA

 

[Judy]

My attitude is, probiotics are probiotics, so I would give whatever is convenient to give -- human pills, yogurt, kefir, feed store probiotics -- anything with active germs in it. I imagine the least expensive would be the natural yogurt. And no, regular old ACV is useless for that. Funny, in this small Southern town, Bragg's organic ACV is on the grocery shelf. They must stock it because people use it for themselves. Personally, I wouldn't worry a lot about dose. You're just giving a sort of starter culture of good germs; the body will handle it from there, I figure. I'd probably crush a human pill into a waterer if I had one, then dump it after half a day or a day and repeat. Or give them a plate of scrambled eggs and some yogurt once a day for a few days. Of course this is purely opinion and guesswork; I have nothing scientific to base it on.

They medicate some game bird feed with an antibiotic??? Good to know.

 

[gritsar]

Quote:
Thanks Dawn. Yeah, spotted the red print on the bag label when we got it home, after we'd already opened the bag so I put it aside, was going to deal with it later. Took a big red sharpie, put an "X" across the entire bag, wrote "DO NOT FEED!" on the bag AND told my SD not to feed that food under any circumstances. Guess what she fed my birds while we were gone?

Girls have had a bad case of the messy bottoms ever since.

You have to be very careful what you buy at the feed stores around here; most are geared towards the commercial operations and only keep enough chicken feed on hand for emergencies. I no longer deal with that feed store.

Side note: Guess my SD can actually read. I gave a ziplock freezer bag of two ribeyes basically the same sharpie treatment. Big red "X', substituted the words "unsafe to eat!!!", etc. on the bag and stuck them in the freezer because we didn't have time to enjoy them before we left on our trip. To my surprise, they were still there when we got home.

 

[ranchhand]

Quote:
Thanks Dawn. Yeah, spotted the red print on the bag label when we got it home, after we'd already opened the bag so I put it aside, was going to deal with it later. Took a big red sharpie, put an "X" across the entire bag, wrote "DO NOT FEED!" on the bag AND told my SD not to feed that food under any circumstances. Guess what she fed my birds while we were gone?

Girls have had a bad case of the messy bottoms ever since.

You have to be very careful what you buy at the feed stores around here; most are geared towards the commercial operations and only keep enough chicken feed on hand for emergencies. I no longer deal with that feed store.

Side note: Guess my SD can actually read. I gave a ziplock freezer bag of two ribeyes basically the same sharpie treatment. Big red "X', substituted the words "unsafe to eat!!!", etc. on the bag and stuck them in the freezer because we didn't have time to enjoy them before we left on our trip. To my surprise, they were still there when we got home.

 

[Country4ever]

I usually just mix a bunch of plain yogurt with active cultures in with some cooked oatmeal. Then I open up a capsule (or 2 if you have more than, say, 6-8 chickens) and mix it in with the yogurt/oatmeal.
They really eat it up. Its my understanding that you can't overdose on the active cultures, so don't worry about that in the short term. I would do this every couple of days.

 

[gritsar]

Quote:

 

[gritsar]

Ranchy, Keith saw the ziplocked ribeyes after we came home. He said that wasn't telling the truth, they were perfectly good ribeyes. I say it was.....


I put unsafe to eat. As in, it's going to be unsafe to be around your stepmother if you touch her ribeye.

Geez, I had to go and marry a boy scout!

 

[Country4ever]

LOL about the ribeyes! Great idea! (But I'm glad your SD didn't throw them out!)
Bon Appetit!

 

[MareeZoCool]

I feed my chickens yogurt. Plain yogurt. They come running when they see me with a spoon! Summers are the BEST time for chicken treating.

 

[Miss Lydia]

I make kefir and a couple times a week I will take chick feed and the water off the kefir grains and mix it up my chickens love it[ the reason I use chick feed is because it's a treat for my adult birds] yea I know crazy.