medicating animals--need help
Posted by VegHeadZealia on Jan 24, 2008 · Member since Mar 2007 · 1665 posts
A while back, when Liberty chicken was sick she was on an antibiotic. As you may know, the hens have to go live at an animal sanctuary. :-[ As a precautionary measure, all the hens have to go on an antibiotic and get tested for qiardia. The meds were really expensive when I got them from my vet. How can I fluid less expensive meds?
Liberty Chicken was on something called Baytril, from what can find online, the generic for baytril is enrofloxacin. It was an oral suspension liquid....all I can find on line is for dogs and cats. one for horses....
the giardia med was ronidazole....it was a powder in their water....I'm not sure what the generic is called....should i look at my local feed store...or order on line. if on line, from which company?
you can check your local feed store, but I'm fairly sure that they dont carry baytril.
From what I can remember (and Im often stocking my chickeroonies' med cabinet just in case) it's usually terramycin, penicillian injectable, oxytet, auremyecin stuff like that that local places carry.
You can check jefferslivestock.com , they are really great, their prices are good and they ship fairly quickly.
Be very careful about what you give your hen, most antibiotics are recommended for certain ages, and some can be really really tough on their systems so you might want to follow it up with a probiotic. Honestly, if it were me I wouldn't be giving her baytril and then hitting her with ronidazole. It seems like a bit of overkill, and baytril is really poweful to be giving as a broad spectrum "incase". I would really think a terramycin or oxytet would be a much safer broad spectrum as it's not as taxing on their systems.
I'm surprised they are concerned about giardia but not coccidia or roundworms??
The Animal Sanctuary shouldn't be requiring you to do this..they should quarantine them and observe them, any time I've welcomed a new flock member we observe for a week hit them w/ a dose of piperazine (worming med), and give them some cider vinegar to help naturally detox their little systems. If noticeably stressed I will also give them some sugar water...
you know...this is really helpful info...I will talk with the sanctuary about it and see what they think. I totally agree with antibiotics being a little bit of an overkill. We were worried about Giuardia because the hens had it at one point. but they were treated for it, so it should be gone now....You've given me some stuff to look into, thank you very much!
anytime you have a chicken question, look no further..if I dont know I can atleast direct you to someone who might.