What's the Dosage of Duramycin-10 for healthy Chicks?

[jlgoinggreen]

Hi I am new and have not really had a chance to introduce myself. I was just informed of your website/forum yesterday and have been so busy getting our little farmette ready that I have not had a chance.

A little about us and I'll introduce properly later (still a lot of work to do here):
We are Greg and Jennifer Lopez (it will be mostly Jennifer participating here since she hogs the computer and Greg works outside the home a lot tee-hee). We have 4 children ages 16, 13, 5, and 1. We also have my niece who's mother is deployed out of the country. She is also 16. We are originally from FL and just moved into our first farmette in PA. We have decided to start with Chickens and Goats.

I ordered my chickens from McMurray's Hatchery and I did not have them vaccinated. I wanted to keep my chicks as natural as possible, but then got scared from all I have read. I called the hatchery and they advised I buy medicated feed. I went into the tractor supply store to buy medicated feed and was told for what I want, I would be better off buying the Duramycin-10 powder and putting it in their water.

The problem is the dosage? There are different dosages for diseased chickens. My babies are healthy. The dosage also range in 200-400 mg......I work so much better with teaspoons. How many teaspoons do I give my "healthy" chicks in their gallon of water?

TYIA,
Jennifer

 

[texasgal]

A big Texas size

I don't have an answer to your questions, but I'm sure someone will ..

There is some conflicting info out there about medicating healthy chicks, but I know there are many that do it!

Oh, and we looooooooooooove pictures..

 

[ThePamperedPullet]

First, Welcome to BYC. Glad you are here.
OK, now personally I would not put them on a mycin drug unless they needed it. They can develope a immunity to them. The only thing we ever do with all our chicks is after the third day of drinking plain water we will put Sulmet in their water for a couple of days which helps prevent them from getting Coccidiosis. If you can get them on a medicated feed it will be much better for them. Out of over 600 chicks last year we didn't loose a single one to something they would need a mycin drug for.

 

[Ferngully]

glad to have you

Quote:

 

[speckledhen]

My sage advice? Do NOT put any antibiotics in the chicks' water, period. I never, ever give antibiotics to chicks. No way. Put a tsp of organic unfiltered apple cider vinegar with "the mother" (sediment) in a quart waterer. THat will help with any pasty butt problems from shipped chicks. I promise you, they do not need antibiotics.

They won't get cocci in the brooder (that'd be rare) and you can feed them the medicated (with coccidiostat "Amprolium") feed at the beginning if you want to help them with resistance to that.

 

[Katy]

Quote:
There is no dosage for healthy chicks!! I agree with everything Cyn said. There is absolutely NO reason to give chicks an antibiotic. All that does is build up an imminity to the antibiotic for when you might need it in the future.

You will find that often times the feed store employees know next to nothing about the chicks they sell or the products they are trying to sell.

 

[jlgoinggreen]

Thanks so much ladies. You probably saved my babies lives.

Now, what are the probabilities my chicks will be just fine if I don't give them the medicated feed? I would prefer to keep them as natural as possible if possible. That is the reason why I decided not to allow the hatchery give them the vaccines in the first place.

 

[edselpdx]

I don't specifically know what the "chances" are, but the medicated feed allows them to develop a natural immunity to cocci by keeping the load of cocci in the gut down to a level where their bodies can handle it.

Cocci is practically everywhere in the soil. They just need medicated food when they are put out on the soil for a relatively short while. The other option is to risk them getting cocci and you not noticing immediately and having really sick chickens later on who need the same medicines, possibly when they're laying (and thus passing the meds on in their eggs to you).

I definitely would not give them the mycin, as that's an invitation to developing some kind of resistant bug.

I DID use medicated feed (one bag from starting out until they went to organic grower/developer feed), but now feed organic layer. I don't sell any eggs, so don't have to be "certified" organic or anything. My girls are about 26 weeks now and laying. I've never had to give them any other medications. The choice is clearly yours, and I acknowledge the dilemma you're having with this one.

 

[speckledhen]

Medicated feed may help, but in wet areas, many chicks contract cocci anyway. I always have to treat a batch of chicks between six and eight weeks old here in soupy GA. Dont worry about that yet, though. I have done both medicated and non-medicated feeds and have to treat anyway. Dry areas may not have issues with it.

BTW, welcome to BYC!

 

[Whitehouse Quail]

For a tip, try using ViTal from the feed store. It is an electrolyte additive.