My lovely vet ordered me in some denagard. She looked for the cheapest option as she had already talked to me about the fact that it is in big amounts for farming and there are no small options for backyard flocks.
I have paid ten and twenty pounds for tylan and the cheapest denagard was fifty pounds which came out at sixty pounds after the V.A.T. was added. Gulp! I ran it by my husband and we decided to go for it.
I went to my local vets to collect it and when the receptionist put it on the counter I did double take. Wow! That really was a big amount and was bigger than I had anticipated. I imagined going on the “Down The Lane” forum and telling anyone near me who wanted some that they should come to me and I would let them have some for free.
Denagard with my tylan bottle in front for comparison
I started to read the complex instructions for use. I had expected something to add to the water like the tylan but this was to be added to the feed. I could add it to their mash I thought. I tried to find the quantity but it gave an amount to be mixed with a ton of food. Uh oh! It also said that not enough wouldn’t be effective and too much would send chickens into toxic shock.
Oh goodness! This was going to be impossible for me to measure accurately and would be much too dangerous to risk using. I called the vet and explained the situation to the receptionist. She said my vet would call me back which she did and she said to take it back and get a refund. We discussed that the girls seem to be improving so we agreed that I should carry on as I am and update the her next week.
Today I continued with the daily regime of three dishes of mash with the ground poultry zest and tylan water. They girls were eating one of the two dishes at first but over the last few days they have eaten two of the three dishes and today they ate all three dishes, hurrah!
This afternoon they had a communal dust bath. I haven’t seen the whole flock dust bathing together for ages. This is a good sign that they are feeling better.
Communal dust bathing
Freckles helps Dandelion with her dust bath
All the girls dust bath together
There has been no bubbling in their eyes and the sneezing has been quite a bit less. I am really hopeful that we are getting there now.
Click here to see the history of my flock.
We are alwayss prepared to spend on our girls, but I fully understand the dangers of not getting the dosage right – just such a pity that back-yard flocks aren’t catered for. Good to see pictures of them about their normal business; so pleased that they seem to be sustaining the improvement.
It is a slow trickle to catering for backyard flocks but I guess we have to be grateful that it’s better than it used to be. It made my heart sing to see them all dust bathing together.
Brilliant update and pictures. I think you did the right thing taking the Denagard back.
Thank you. I so appreciate the support.
Hmm. My vet gave me liquid denegard to put in their water and it was the same size as your bottle of Tylan.
My vet had no stock of denagard as sinulox is the second medication they suggest. This has to be put into the girls’ beaks which would be too stressful. I think she looked online for the denagard and it appears to be sold for farming. I will talk to her again next week.
I read up about it – it is used for poultry and pigs but yes generally in commercial operations where it is used in lower doses as a preventative as well as higher doses as a treatment
I am glad you took it back, it sounded fare to risky.
It definitely wasn’t meant for such a small flock and I felt it would have been much too risky.