The larger the birds the more they will consume of the medicated feed so getting the correct dose BUT...
my hens freerange about my garden and on some days eat almost no chicken feed. I therefore give flubenvet to them all in one go at the same time each day on a treat - chopped grapes usually"
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I'm not sure that this method of administering Flubenvet would be effective against all the species of worms it is intended to kill. For example worms which live in a chx digestive tract get their nourishment from the part digested food the chx eat. Only medicating a single meal means the worms will not be exposed to the medication continuously over the 7 days. (Note This scenario is not the same for those which get their norishment from the digested food or blood stream for which the uneven application of medication is smoothed out by the chx metabolism). I have checked this point with Madeleine McVie of Janssen Animal Health and below is a paste of the emails. Obviously if you don't want to curtail the chx frree ranging livestyle during the treatment you will have to risk that the medication they are getting is sufficient. See below which you can make of it what you wish.
Regards
"Subject: RE: Flubenvet - medicating the feed
Thanks for your reply Madeleine,
I’ve been using Flubenvet for many years now and I certainly follow your advice with my own chickens and advise people who buy birds from me to use it in the manner you suggest. However I know some chicken keepers who believe because their birds free range and don’t eat so much fed feed they aren’t getting the correct medication so they offer a daily allowance in a single treat feed. I’m concerned that as Flubenvet treats a broad spectrum of worms some of which live in the digestive tract and get exposed to the medication from the part digested food the chicken has eaten. Feeding the daily allowance in a single meal will mean that these worms are exposed to a higher concentration after eating the medicated feed and have no exposure at all at other times. Would this be detrimental in killing the worms, ie would allowing the worms access to unmedicated feed, rather than continuously medicated feed, during the worming period allow them to survive the treatment?
Best regards
Terry
Good morning Terry
Thanks for your email.
As I’m not sure how these owners would be calculating what a days medication is, I cannot say whether the chickens would be dosed at the correct rate so I would advise against this method of dosing.
The higher levels in a single feed won’t do the animal any harm, however it is not clear if they would be getting the full dose as needed and are therefore not being fully wormed.
For free range chickens, we recommend confining them for the week of treatment, to ensure they are only fed the medicated feed. We have not done trials using only one medicated feed per day so I cannot give you a definitive answer to your query, other than to say we don’t recommend it.
I hope this helps
Kind regards"
Madeleine McVey
Animal Health Technical Advisor
Finance Administrator
Janssen Animal Health