Off to the vet again I go

[VirginVegGrower]

Brilliant advice again as ever here tonight. Think you should all write an idiots guide for people like me. I am feeling this upwards learning curve - Eglu building took four hours with two adults/two children!
I think I will cover all bases and keep the Baytril and Tylan in my stock cupboard - am put off jabs by Madeline's sudden death after one... nearly kidnapped all the hens roaming around Omlet, so I know I am feeling brighter about hens again. Had a lovely morning with Sage and Eloise today - they are getting closer without their two momma hens. Still skitty but only to be expected after a three week ordeal.
Wish the others were here though to enjoy their new abode. I found one of Madeline's feathers stuck to the cube and decided it was her little message to me, so her feather is inside the house as I am sure she would have been first in

[VirginVegGrower]

When I give Baytril, I give it as injections, so this doesn't necessarily apply to oral (beakal? ;-) treatment. But whenever Baytril injections help, they do help really quickly. I usually see some improvement overnight, but I definitely want to see improvement after 24 hours. Often I had them walk around again like normal after three days, so if I didn't keep records I sometimes wouldn't know which one it was (okay, I keep a bit more than three ;-).
But if I thought a bird was better after five days, but not really well yet, I wouldn't hesitate to give the antibiotic longer. As a rule of thumb, you want two or three "healthy" days before stopping any antibiotic treatment.

Oh and I have never had a bird die within 5 minutes of any injection.

Good rule of thumb for me - thank you very much!

[baldrick]

my vet says adult birds benefit from jab then a course of powder but she doesnt jab chicks unless they are at deaths door (mine were) as they do just as well on the powder. I did used to find with my pet rats they were less likely to die of myco if they had both jab of baytril and the oral.
BTW I gave tylan in the drinking water. i mixed a gallon every day and used it for drinkers and wet mash allowing no access to any other source of water. easier than wrestling an already stressed bird and you are less likely to squirt it down the wrong pipe.....but thats just me lol!

[VirginVegGrower]

Vet has sold us some Tylan powder. It's now in store. Looks like paediatric amoxicillin - yellow banana.
Hens have helped themselves to the rainwater all day from the new run bars.

[nellie-m]

BTW I gave tylan in the drinking water.... easier than wrestling an already stressed bird and you are less likely to squirt it down the wrong pipe.....but thats just me lol!

The stress for the bird is a point, absolutely. However, I want to be sure they get exactly the amount they need. Even if I isolate a sick bird I can't tell for sure whether they take enough water from the drinker. When they're really poorly they sometimes can't be bothered to go over and drink...

I want to be sure that it's not simply due to an underdose if it doesn't help. And an injection is quick and easy, much easier than persuading them to take another drop from the syringe... and another... and another...

Step one: I pick up the bird, preferably in the evening when they go to roost, as it upsets them much less then. I try not to grab them from above as that alarms them more, I try to get their legs first then I can lift them up gently, but once I've got their legs, I'll not let go no matter what they say (or how loud they
say it ). That's the most stressful part for the bird. The rest is easy.
You may know the trick, but if you straighten their hock joints and keep the legs straight as you hold them, they will usually calm down much more quickly!

Step two: put birds on scales. There mustn't be any stress here. The key to success is handling in slow motion. Deep breaths, patience, be as calm and slow as possible. A calm, docile bird will perhaps stand or sit on it, but with the more flighty ones that doesn't work. These patients have to lie on their backs. Again, be slow and gentle in your movements as you turn the bird over, and make sure you keep the legs straight. Take your time, wait, believe me, they will relax. And then you can slowly let go for just the split second that you need to weigh them. (another method is to put the bird into a bag and weigh the bag with one of those spring scales but I haven't got one). Now you know which amount of antibiotic the bird needs.

Step three: I prepare the injection (it helps if you've got a helper here, so you don't have to put the bird back to get your hands free), put the bird on my lap, again on its back as described above, try to find a spot of skin between all that fluff and give injection into breast muscle (there's the breast bone behind that so you absolutely cannot get the needle further into the body than that). The hens don't seem to notice that much, and it doesn't upset them one bit.

A rather long description for a quick procedure... but really, it's much more complicated to describe it than to do it I had my vet show me how to do it when I had a coop full of birds suffering from ILT. I don't remember which antibiotic we tried first (that was years ago) and I lost two which was horrible, but when the result from the swabs came we switched to Baytril and I didn't lose any more.

[VirginVegGrower]

The stress for the bird is a point, absolutely. However, I want to be sure they get exactly the amount they need. Even if I isolate a sick bird I can't tell for sure whether they take enough water from the drinker. When they're really poorly they sometimes can't be bothered to go over and drink...

I want to be sure that it's not simply due to an underdose if it doesn't help. And an injection is quick and easy, much easier than persuading them to take another drop from the syringe... and another... and another...

Step one: I pick up the bird, preferably in the evening when they go to roost, as it upsets them much less then. I try not to grab them from above as that alarms them more, I try to get their legs first then I can lift them up gently, but once I've got their legs, I'll not let go no matter what they say (or how loud they
say it ). That's the most stressful part for the bird. The rest is easy.
You may know the trick, but if you straighten their hock joints and keep the legs straight as you hold them, they will usually calm down much more quickly!

Step two: put birds on scales. There mustn't be any stress here. The key to success is handling in slow motion. Deep breaths, patience, be as calm and slow as possible. A calm, docile bird will perhaps stand or sit on it, but with the more flighty ones that doesn't work. These patients have to lie on their backs. Again, be slow and gentle in your movements as you turn the bird over, and make sure you keep the legs straight. Take your time, wait, believe me, they will relax. And then you can slowly let go for just the split second that you need to weigh them. (another method is to put the bird into a bag and weigh the bag with one of those spring scales but I haven't got one). Now you know which amount of antibiotic the bird needs.

Step three: I prepare the injection (it helps if you've got a helper here, so you don't have to put the bird back to get your hands free), put the bird on my lap, again on its back as described above, try to find a spot of skin between all that fluff and give injection into breast muscle (there's the breast bone behind that so you absolutely cannot get the needle further into the body than that). The hens don't seem to notice that much, and it doesn't upset them one bit.

A rather long description for a quick procedure... but really, it's much more complicated to describe it than to do it I had my vet show me how to do it when I had a coop full of birds suffering from ILT. I don't remember which antibiotic we tried first (that was years ago) and I lost two which was horrible, but when the result from the swabs came we switched to Baytril and I didn't lose any more.

Wish you lived near me

[nellie-m]

Wish you lived near me

<<hugs>> so do I!

[VirginVegGrower]

Hugs back xxx
Still inebriated - iPhone doing the spelling corrections