Dosaging Chickens. . . making sure they get enough sulfadimethoxine

[RebelsHope]

Okay, that title sucked, but here is my situation. Someone gave me three chickens, they are a few months old. I noticed that one had a really poopy butt, but I took him anyway and just planned to keep them away from the rest of my flock for awhile. Well I washed of the poopy butt bird then noticed a rather normal poop, with a bloody streak in it. I figure it is cocci, so I got some sulfadimethoxine soluble powder. I know from goats that you want to make sure that they are getting enough, so my question is for three birds how much is that going to be? I mean I have a small waterer, but with only three young birds they don't drink that much in a day?


It says on the package to dose at .05%, does that mean that they don't need to drink all the water as long as I keep the water they have available to them dosed at a concentration of .05%? Then how do I do that?

 

[threehorses]

First, any issue that involves diarrhea, pasty vent, etc the birds should receive probiotics in addition to whatever medicine you choose to give.

Sulfadimethoxine is an antibiotic. It will kill the good bacteria in the gut as well as bad, so you want to shore up the numbers of good bacteria through treatment and every other day for 2 weeks thereafter. More on probiotics at the end of this post.

On the med, if it's the 3.77 ounce package and it says use that for 50 gallons... then 3.77 ounces divided by 50 gallons = 0.075 ounces per one gallon. (3.77/50=0.075)

Using an online conversion program, I found this:
0.075 Ounces = 0.45 Teaspoons (per gallon)

So use a kitchen measuring spoon (not just a teaspoon) and give 1/2 teaspoon of this medication per gallon of water for a 0.05% concentration mix (recommended if it's the Durvet as seen here: http://www.durvet.com/DS/168_DS.pdf ) That water should be their only source of water for 6 days, made fresh daily.

Give for NO LESS than 6 days. Give probiotics daily for 6 days, then every other day for 2 weeks.

Probiotic choices:

plain yogurt - 1 teaspoon per bird. (Do NOT use if you're using a -mycin of -cycline drug. It's safe for this med, though.)
acidophilus capsules/tablets (from the vitamin section of most grocery stores, pharmacies, Walmart, etc). 1 capsule or tablet's powder per bird.
Probios dispersible powder or another live-bacteria probiotic from the feedstore: 1/4 ounce per bird per day.

Use the probiotics by making a quickly eaten damp (not wet/sticky) mash to feed them first thing each morning. For yogurt, mix with a little water and then mix that water in their crumbles and let it absorb. For the other powders, mix with a little water and again mix with crumbles.

If you pick up their food after they roost, they're hungry first thing in the morning. Give this to them first to make sure they eat all of it. Then give them the rest of their free-choice pellets or crumbles for the rest of the day.

Or - if you use one of the powders, mix with just enough water to make a paste or thin gruel and put into the side of the beak. It doesn't have to be exact just so they get some.

 

[RebelsHope]

Thanks so much! I am terrible about making conversion down that small. I don't know why. I also just wanted to make sure that I was getting the right idea about how to make it.

 

[threehorses]

LOL I used to be terrible, too, before the lovely internet!

 

[PoultryPedia]

The volume in teaspoons for different substances will not always weigh the same in ounces, so the [0.075 Ounces = 0.45 Teaspoons] conversion above can't accurately be used for all medicines, unfortunately.
One way to figure would be to use 1/50th of the package per gallon of water. You could measure out how many teaspoons are in the package by spooning it into another container, and then use that number in your calculations.

 

[Fred's Hens]

Four year old thread. Just sayin'.

 

[das Huhnchen]

Yep, four year old thread, and some people are searching for solutions for their sick hens. Now it's four years and some months old thread.
Just sayin'.

Thanks, SpeckledHills, that's how I figured out how to dose my sick hen.

There is a lovely conversion program here: Online conversion of weights and measures, measurement conversion

 

[julierupert]

The conversion to teaspoons---very helpful.

I have two 12 week pullets and a 17 week pullet. The older bird has the bloody stool and everything I have read indicates that I should treat all 3. My question is that the packaging states not to administer to chicken over 16 weeks. The feed store recommended this treatment. Is it OK to use since we will not be eating these chicken?

 

[PoultryPedia]

julierupert--

You may have already made your decision, but if not--People quite commonly do use this medicine for chickens of all ages. There is a 5-day withdrawal for meat, but I don't know about eggs. There may be some kind of risk associated with eggs.

You can't use the "0.075 Ounces = 0.45 Teaspoons (per gallon)" conversion in this case, because ounces is weight & teaspoons is volume. Different medicines have different volumes for different weights, so the same conversion ratio does NOT work for all different medicines.

The 3.77 oz. package I have of Durvet Sulfadimethoxine Soluble Powder contains 3.34 oz sulfadimethoxine medicine. It says it should be given at a dose of 0.05%, which is 1 full package per 50 gals of water. For this package, this works out as 1/8 tsp. powder per 1 1/4 gals. drinking water, mixed fresh daily. If the medication you have has a similar concentration of medicine in it (About 88.5% of package powder is actual medicine), then that dose would be correct for yours, too.


Later correction: Having a similar concentration actually is irrelevant as a stand-alone fact, now that I think about it more. You would need to know the concentration was similar AND that the package was 3.77 oz AND that 1 package was supposed to be given for 50 gals of water.
I apologize for that confusion!

 

[PoultryPedia]

Later note: I'm seeing posts by 2 other people saying they have used the Durvet med at 1/2 tsp per gal. and a post by another person at 1/8 tsp per gal.
I am thinking I measured my whole package of powder out by teaspoons, & then divided by 50 to figure the amount per gallon.
If someone else has an unused package they measure out by teaspoons, please would you report the total amount on this thread so we can verify the correct dose? Thanks!