Is an ounce of prevention worth a pound of cure?

[GregH]

After a few mysterious deaths in my aviary over the last two months the veterinarian at the university here in Los Banos recommended that I use of an anti bacterial poultry/swine antibiotic product called Vetracin. It's a soluble powder containing 0.11mg/g Chlorotetracycline HCL plus vitamins A & B as a preventative measure just in case there is a low level infection amongst the birds. The dose rate is recommended is 1 tsp/4l water which I estimate to be 0.0826 mgCTC/l for 4 days in the drinking water. Does anyone know if this stuff at that dosage is OK?

I've heard of lorikeets getting fatal yeast infections after antibiotic treatments but I'm not sure about finches being susceptable. Any thoughts before I administer it would be greatly appreciated.

[Misso]

hi greg, sorry can't help ya, i was lost at Chlorotetracycline lol.

Hope you work it out, good luck

Jarryd

[Page0044]

To much for me as well Greg, sorry

[gomer]

soory mate never heard of that one either?

[jusdeb]

Dont know if this helps but one of my hand reared quarrions had a course of antibiotic injections after which she had to take probiotics for birds for a while till her droppings went back to normal.
The antibiotics do knock their digestive system around a bit and the probiotics worked but it did take a while .
Any way ask your vet if your unsure cant see it doing any harm anyway....cheers

[Suerus]

Finches are susceptible to thrush following treatment with antibiotics - but there are obviously risks involved with not treating them either.
If you decide to go ahead with the course of antibiotics perhaps you could have something like Nystatin on hand and keep an eye out for the symptoms of thrush -such as the finch becoming suddenly ill, very quiet, still and fluffed up - wet then dark green droppings. Your vet should have more info for you.

[Pete Sara]

hi greg cant say that i have had a problem with fungal infections in my birds. but up in the tropics it would be a problem .. the only thing major i have had is a megabacteria problem . it came in one bird but made a lot of others sick in the proccess so since this i have a semi preventitve programe , every two weeks i put 10ml of apple cider viniger in to 1 lt of water helps raise the acidity in the water and the bacteria dont like it, helps get rid of the algae as well. but i would try the antibiotics on the less expensive birds first in a holding cage but i guess up your way nothing would be cheap over here we have an avian vet get called tim oldfeild iw ill see if i can find his email addy for you i had to use it when i had gouldians and thats his specialty he might be able to help with the dosage rates.....pete

[GregH]

Well I have seen the verdict on teh site and yesterday I had a visit from the local bird club and they are against using the antibiotic as a preventative too. Luckily all these swine and poultry medicines don't cost much and I haven't had any deaths for 3 weeks and now have a nest of cutthroats so I'm not going to use it. As Slim Dusty said "I've got a feeling that the cure is worse than the disease". the club mumbers reckon that the high humidity at this time of teh year causes heat stress that will kill birds unexpectedly so I guess that there is some Darwinian selection going on but I have to literally pay the price.