[eggless]

Hi everyone, we have a poorly hen and the vet has given us baytril.  Not really sure what the problem is, but there is an infection of some kind (possibly dysentry or egg peritonitis).  She seems a little bit better today so I hope we've caught it in time.

We gave her the first dose last night, and it was a bit of a struggle and we were really worried that we were distressing her.

Has anyone got any good advice about giving the medicine with least distress?  We found it really difficult to get her beak open.

[karlooben]

baytril can be added into the water but u can srygine it into thier beaks which is differcult as i found out  poor girl ended up wearing half of it .

is she housed on her own ?

[eggless]

Thanks, Karlooben.  Yes, the vet suggested seperating her from the others - which we've done.  Needed 3 pairs of hands to syringe it into her - we did that so that at least that way she's getting all of the dose - as she's off her food and drink.

[Tazzy]

Hi,

Hope your girl is better soon, know how you feel as one of ours was quite poorly recently. We are having to give all of ours anti-biotics twice a day and also have to use a syringe. The easiest way we have found (so far!) is for one of us to hold a chook and then gently wrap a towel around her to stop her wings and legs from moving too much. This is as much for our protection as it is theirs, those legs can come quite sharp! The other person just gently eases open the beak and syringes in the dose. Don't try to do too much all at once if you have a large dose as you want to avoid any going down the windpipe; we make sure that the edge of the syringe is near to the top of their tongue. All I can say is practice makes perfect, but I think a lot of practice is needed. Good luck

Tazzy

[Aunt Sally]

As Tazzy said, wrap her up in a towel and syringe it in a little bit at a time to give her time to swollow it.

[mumsy]

I put baytril on a small piece of bread & let it soak in then feed it to them!!!!

[karlooben]

i tried that one mumsy and forgot to mention it , and yes it does work .

[eggless]

thanks for all the tips.  We've got better at it since the first day.  The towel wrapping method worked for us.  She's definitely on the mend now, and now she knows what's coming, she's not quite so easy to catch!