Annuals Medicating laying hens

[Martinhouse]

About three weeks ago I treated my hens, Barred Rocks, with tetracycline in their drinking water. And right around the time they finished up that water, one or two of them started laying again, even though I do not have a light in their pen/house.

The eggs are big beautiful light brown ones and I am wondering how long should I wait until the eggs I'm getting will be free of tetracycline, since I am deathly allergic to it. I won't even cook and feed those eggs back to the hens for fear newer eggs would contain a little more of the meds from the second time around.

Sure hope someone knows the answer to this for me. So far no one I've asked has any idea about this.....even my vet is pretty clueless about chickens. I have gotten decent eggs at Dollar General, but it sure would be nice to improve one of those with one from my own hens, when I want a couple of eggs for breakfast.

 

[West]

I'm just interested in the why you gave them that?

We give our newly hatched gentian violet in their water as a microbe anti-infective and just a couple drops in a gallon or more water.

Plus mix DE in their feed for anti caking and for parasites.

 

[Martinhouse]

Nephew was working on the roof of the chicken pen and heard a couple of them had very rattly breathing. He recommended the tetracycline. He gave me some of his and told me how to administer it.

I tend to listen to him as both he and his mom have always had all sorts of animals and do all the treating themselves.

The two birds still died, as they were pretty far gone, but the other ones seem super healthy and as I mentioned before, two or three of them have started laying again, which my birds have never before done at this time of year.

 

[West]

Okay, we have always gotten eggs this time of year. Granted vary few though, and no lights. Especially as the flock fluctuates in size. Right now we are down to only about 15 hens and a few roos.

Just picked up three 7 month old hen's, two Rhode island reds and one Astralorp (sp?) For free. Found them on craigslist, college kids, got bored with them, also got a sack of feed. And their laying now.

 

[Nich1]

Okay, we have always gotten eggs this time of year. Granted vary few though, and no lights. Especially as the flock fluctuates in size. Right now we are down to only about 15 hens and a few roos.

Just picked up three 7 month old hen's, two Rhode island reds and one Astralorp (sp?) For free. Found them on craigslist, college kids, got bored with them, also got a sack of feed. And their laying now.

West, I LOVE Australorps! Of my 4 original birds, 2 were Black Australorps and 2 were Barred Rocks. I just lost the last of the originals...an Australorp. She was 12 when she died. Such sweet natures, they are. They are never aggressive to the other birds but they make their point without it. She was the top of the flock. I think you will enjoy them all. I've just added more Rhode Island Reds and they are nice, too. They do seem to be a bit more aggressive to the others but in every flock, each finds where they belong and live happily ever after.

I don't have lights either as I feel they were made to have a "vacation" and I usually freeze a few eggs along the way for the slim production times. This flock is 12 hens and one rooster. Of the 12, only 2 are Australorps right now so when it's time to get some more, that will be the breed of choice. I've used Safeguard for worming since no egg withdrawal is needed and have put DE into the nests for mites. Seems to work out well.

And yes, I love my birds. :-)

 

[Martinhouse]

I put pine straw in the nest boxes to repel bugs. Seems to work really well and I don't have to spend any money on it.

Of the few various breeds I've had, I found the Black Australorps to be the worst for smashing and eating eggs in the nests. And the roosters seemed the most aggressive of any I've had.

Still hoping someone can tell me how long I need to wait to be sure there is absolutely NO tetracycline in the eggs I'm gathering.

 

[summerthyme]

Excretion of tetracycline and chlortetracycline in eggs after oral medication of laying hens - PubMed

After dosing laying hens orally with tetracycline (TC) through either drinking water (0.25 and 0.5 g/l for 5 days) or feed (300 and 600 ppm for 7 days), and chlortetracycline (CTC) through feed (600 ppm) residues were determined by an agar plate diffusion technique in cylinders with Bacillus...

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Abstract
After dosing laying hens orally with tetracycline (TC) through either drinking water (0.25 and 0.5 g/l for 5 days) or feed (300 and 600 ppm for 7 days), and chlortetracycline (CTC) through feed (600 ppm) residues were determined by an agar plate diffusion technique in cylinders with Bacillus cereus as test-organism, separately for albumen and for yolk. The sensitivity threshold was 0.07 micrograms/g in albumen and 0.15 micrograms/g in yolk for TC and 0.01 micrograms/g in albumen and 0.06 micrograms/g in yolk for CTC. Drug excretion via egg was 3-fold higher for TC than for CTC. The drug was excreted preferentially into the yolk (about 75% of the total amount) and the elimination period lasted between 6 and 11 days for TC and 9 days for CTC, after treatment. Tetracycline use in laying hens is discussed, taking into consideration the proposals presented by the joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives.

So, it looks to me if you used normal dosing amounts and times, waiting 2 weeks after the last treatment should give you a decent margin of safety.

If I find anything that contradicts the study above, I'll post it.

Summerthyme

 

[summerthyme]

Ok, a couple more articles confirm a 14 day withholding period for tetracycline and oxytetracycline...

Summerthyme

 

[Martinhouse]

Summerthyme, thanks so much!

I think it's been close to two weeks now.....can't remember exactly when they finished the pan of water I'd dosed. I didn't make note of it because I was not expecting the birds to start laying again until late February or early March.

Not sure what to do with the eggs I've gotten since then. I don't have a dog or I'd just hard boil them and dole them out until they were gone. Geez, I hate to waste food, but I don't know any of the people around here who have dogs.

I need to find a rooster, now, too. I only had the one, and he was one of the two birds that died before I gave the meds, so the eggs I'm getting now surely are not fertile. Am hoping to find a Buff Orpington Rooster, but I'll take any which is reasonable to breed with my Barred Rocks.

 

[China Connection]

Get dirty with Chickens. They hate clean water. Dirt and everything on the floor. Greens and sprouts plus insects if you can. Rock dust and shell-grit as well. Mine get no meds.

 

[ioujc]

I give mine mint and other herbs>>>>they seem to do fine. But they are also free range. Which I may stop allowing them to completely free range, as I have lost 5 in the past two weeks>>>>>never had any problems until now. Must be some hungry coons and possums out there about now.

 

[West]

Summerthyme, thanks so much!

I think it's been close to two weeks now.....can't remember exactly when they finished the pan of water I'd dosed. I didn't make note of it because I was not expecting the birds to start laying again until late February or early March.

Not sure what to do with the eggs I've gotten since then. I don't have a dog or I'd just hard boil them and dole them out until they were gone. Geez, I hate to waste food, but I don't know any of the people around here who have dogs.

I need to find a rooster, now, too. I only had the one, and he was one of the two birds that died before I gave the meds, so the eggs I'm getting now surely are not fertile. Am hoping to find a Buff Orpington Rooster, but I'll take any which is reasonable to breed with my Barred Rocks.

Scramble with other old stuff in fridge any left overs.

And feed back to the chickens. Wait another couple weeks/month and by then it should be worked out. And in the mean time you get free feed.

 

[Martinhouse]

West, I have plenty of feed for my chickens, including odds and ends of high nutrition things other than the standards feed.

I need those eggs for myself, so I need them to be totally free of the antibiotic before I dare eat any of them.

Wish I knew someone who would take the eggs I've been gathering. Seems no one even owns dogs anymore on my road. Wonder if I could bring them to the feed store. Surely someone there would take a couple dozen big brown eggs.....most of those "good ol' boys have lots of dogs. Hmmm. Worth a try, I suppose!

 

[Cag3db1rd]

I have a nice young roo you can have. I live in city limits. One of my pullets was a cock. (That just sounds funny)

 

[Martinhouse]

Gee, thanks but Tulsa is a little too long a drive for me for a rooster.

Am hoping to find one or two of them within a lot less than a three hour drive from here.

Maybe you could keep that roo caged indoors and just let him out to do his job with the hens this coming spring. The way things are going right now, you could probably make a few bucks by then, incubating fertile eggs and selling them, or even just selling the fertilized eggs.

 

[Cag3db1rd]

As long as no one complains, I will probably keep him. He's georgeous. He's an easter egger roo. He is afraid of humans, especially my son, so he stears clear of everyone. So far, he crows a little before sunrise, and hopefully it will stay that way. Maybe being the only male, he won't feel the need to outdo anyone else's crow. I don't know. Last time we had roos, it was all day, all night, non stop crowing, but there were 4 of them hubby n Weebit brought home and dumped on me. If all else fails, I have already been told I can bring him out to a friend's farm.