Can you incubate/hatch treated eggs?

[NellaBean]

By treated I mean....a bird under treatment for something (coccidia, worming, etc). I am planning on worming mine soon, but was told to hold off on eating eggs for 14 days. Can I hatch them instead? My birds appear healthy but one has had bloody stool off and on for a bit now. Just finished a corid treatment and am planning on using Wazine soon to cover the worms side of it.

Anyone know?

 

[bargain]

I don't technically know a scientific answer and I've never medicated any of our hens as they are healthy, thank you Lord....

But if I had medications in a bird, I wouldn't want those same medicines passed on to an embryo in case it caused problems.

Just my personal thoughts.

Maybe we can find a scientific answer for this.

Have a blessed one.

 

[canada-goose]

You could try it.... I honestly have no idea.

 

[Paganbird]

Sorry, I don't know the answer either, but try it. What's the worst that could happen?
(The worst that could happen is that the eggs won't hatch. But still, they're your eggs, so no $$ down the drain.)
Better than just throwing the eggs in the trash, I think.
Oh, yeah, and if you try it...
Then you could let us know what the outcome was so we'd have an answer for the next person who asks this question.

 

[silkiechicken]

You can try if you want... but trying too close to medicating increases the chance of birth defects and decreases fertility. Reason being is the the drugs often act as an competitive inhibitor of some other biologically necessary component, or stops some required functioning of the organism, thus preventing the reproduction or causing death to the living things with faster life cycles within the chicken. The reason the drugs don't kill the larger organism or animal is that because their life cycle is longer, the "short" interruption to biological processes is tolerated. However, during the development of an embryo, the cells are dividing faster and a single mistake in growth can have huge results. One mutated cell on your arm as an adult won't kill you and you will still have an arm. One mutated cell on your future arm to be when you are only 100 cells total, will leave you either dead or without a part of your arm.

For example, someone undergoing cancer treatment loses all their hair and end up with terrible stomach pains and intestinal complications due to chemo. The body as a whole lives though the process, ideally without the cancer. The common link between the cancer tissue and tissues such as hair and intestinal lining is a fast cell cycle, meaning they divide quickly. If you give a drug or treatment to kill fast growing cells, all fast growing cells will die. Similarly, the growing embryo is growing and dividing as fast as the worms or parasites you are trying to kill, thus potentially kiling or damaging the embryo.

So in short, best toss the eggs if you want to hatch healthy chicks, or you can try to hatch them, but be ready to cull chicks with deformities and accept a potential low hatch rate.

As for your medication of the birds in the first place, if you didn't confirm a case of suspected parasites, it is possible that the drug will not work in the future and that runny poo could be an issue of weather and drinking more liquid to keep cool.

 

[NellaBean]

All good points and not surprising as I figured if we could not eat them, we probably shouldn't hatch them.

The only reason I have treated thus far is not runny poo, but bloody poo from a single chicken. It was off and on, not consistent. Still no idea why it happened. She never acted off, always great appetite, laid consistently, etc. I treated with corid for 7 days, just in case. She still is acting fine, so I will wait and see if I come across any more bloody poop.


thanks for the info!

 

[Tailfeathers]

When it comes to birds that have been medicated for coccidiosis by feeding them medicated chick starter or adding amprolium to their food, there is no worries. The amprolium does not make its way to the egg but rather just coats the lining of the intestines.

I can't speak to what would happen with birds that have been medicated for worms.

God Bless,