Drug use in Poultry
As of June 1, 2023, over the counter antibiotics became obsolete in stores and only a veterinarian could get them for you. This seems to have caused alot of anxiety for people, but not me, and I am going to tell you why.
I am talking about birds here, I will leave large animals and pets out of this blog post because they are a different category.
It’s not a secret that I have an absurd amount of birds of many species. It’s also not a secret that I distrust the government making decisions for me. However! On this subject I agree with the FDA.
Birds are fragile creatures and everything likes to eat chickens. In nature, the weak will become food for a predator. Unfortunalty, in the age of social media and readily available meds at Tractor Supply, a bad combination was created. The armchair doctors on Facebook diagnosed diseases that only necropsy's could do and prescribed antibiotics. Wrong doses, wrong applications, wrong everything! The result has been devastating int he sense of drug resistance and causing new issues.
It’s not hard to see on social media that people will throw the kitchen sink at a sick bird and see if something fixes it. The issues are many. First it’s just monetary, drugs cost more than a new bird. Second, once a bird shows signs of illness, it’s likely too late. Third, its a lot of trouble to hospitalize a bird.
I am just gonna talk about two meds in this blog for you to get the idea. One is a dewormer, for some reason people got it in their head that animals need to be dewormed on a schedule. I have NEVER dewormed a bird, goat or cow on my property. Never, Ever. All animals carry some parasite load, it is their immune system that keeps them in check, same with you. If a bird has access to everything it needs to be healty, and has an issue with parasites, it’s not healthy systemicaly. It needs to be culled from your breeding program. “Breed for Resistance” is a real thing, it can be done, I am doing it and so are many other breeders, hobbyists and farmers. Should you decide that you need to deworm, take fresh manure to the vet for a fecal, its cheap and it will tell you what kind of parasite and the load count and then you and only you can make the decision to get the correct medicine or not.
Second is antibiotics, especially the ****zoles. These include dimetridazole,
ipronidazole and metronidazole. These were taken off for many reasons, but I will only discuss 2, the most important to me. The medicine invades the cell wall of the protozoa or bacteria and invades the tissue of the animal. It is then part of the animal-FOREVER. Maybe a small amount but let’s say you treat your birds, harvest them and eat one a week for a year. You have now dosed yourself with enough antibiotics to create resistance. Guess what drug is used for Tuberculossis? Yep, that one! But it gets better! So in small doses, you can also cause cancer tumors to form in the bird and you!
Now your gonna say, I don’t eat my birds, which is a whole other blogpost (think about what’s in commercial meat), but lets say you medicate all your birds to keep them alive, it works, but you have to move and sell your birds to a young family. Are you going to tell them what you gave the birds during their lifetime? That some drugs I haven’t mentioned but see used all the time have LIFETIME withdrawals of eggs?
Everything we do in life has a ripple effect. In today’s society we are fixated on short term, instant gratification, and so on. Animals are a long term commitment, even in the short term. For example, you hatch chicks to sell , any medication you give them is in them for life, you are what you eat. Be mindful of decisions made today. Step back and study the situation, make a plan of what kind of owner you want to be before a situation arises. I am not against the existence of medications, but I am against the fickle ways they are used. I would prefer a medicine works if any of you get TB instead of saving a turkey’s life.
Just food for thought.
Here are some reference articles:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6027522/
http://wifss.ucdavis.edu/wp-content/uploads/2015/FDA/fdacoursefinal1/Prohibited%20Drugs_new.pdf
http://www.farad.org/prohibited-and-restricted-drugs.html