How to choose the first medication for chicks?

In the process of raising chickens, many breeders often face a dilemma: should they use starter medications for chicks? What are the key roles of these starter medications? Is it feasible to not use them? And, among the many options, which starter medication is most suitable for chicks? This article will provide you with detailed and practical answers to these questions.

First, let's explore the importance and main functions of using starter medications for chicks. The primary purpose of starter medications is to purify the hatchery sources from potential carriers of harmful pathogens such as Mycoplasma, Salmonella, and Escherichia coli, thereby reducing the incidence of diseases from the source. Secondly, starter medications can protect the chick's gastrointestinal system, effectively prevent diseases such as glandular and muscular gastritis, enhance the chick's digestive and absorptive capabilities, and significantly lower the incidence of gastrointestinal diseases. Furthermore, starter medications can boost the chick's immunity, relieve immune suppression, and lay a solid foundation for the chick's healthy growth. Therefore, from the perspective of improving farming efficiency and chick survival rates, the use of starter medications is indispensable.

Next, let's look at the specific choices of starter medications for chicks. For the purification of vertically transmitted diseases such as Salmonella and Escherichia coli, commonly available starter medications on the market mainly include aminoglycosides, chloramphenicols, cephalosporins, and quinolones. Below, I will introduce the characteristics and usage precautions of these medications one by one:

1. Aminoglycosides: Such as gentamicin and neomycin. These medications have low absorption rates in drinking water, resulting in high drug concentrations in the intestine, which makes them effective for treating intestinal inflammation. However, they have strong nephrotoxicity and may cause irreversible damage to the chick's kidneys, affecting its lifelong productive performance. Therefore, for breeds with short feeding cycles such as broilers, these medications can be considered for controlling intestinal inflammation when necessary, but for breeds with long feeding cycles such as layers and free-range chickens, their use should be avoided.

2. Chloramphenicols: Represented by florfenicol. Its effect on purifying Salmonella is remarkable. When chick quality is poor and Salmonella infection is severe, florfenicol can improve survival rates. However, it should be noted that florfenicol inhibits bone marrow hematopoiesis, leading to immune suppression and inhibiting immune organs such as the bursa of Fabricius, thymus, spleen, and cecal tonsils in chicks. Therefore, for normally healthy chicks, the use of florfenicol is not recommended.

3. Cephalosporins: Cephalosporin medications have systemic anti-inflammatory effects and are effective for symptoms such as intestinal inflammation and glandular stomach edema in chicks. They also have a high safety coefficient and are unlikely to cause drug overdose or poisoning. However, compared to medications such as florfenicol, cephalosporins are slightly less effective in purifying Salmonella. Therefore, they are more suitable for normally healthy chicks and not suitable for flocks with a high proportion of weak chicks infected with Salmonella.

4. Quinolones: Such as enrofloxacin and ciprofloxacin (ofloxacin is prohibited due to safety concerns). These medications are effective against Salmonella and have minimal organ damage to chicks, especially the kidneys. However, long-term use may lead to the development of drug resistance, affecting treatment efficacy. In frontline prevention and control, the combined use of enrofloxacin and amoxicillin can enhance therapeutic effects.

Besides the aforementioned medications, there are also drugs such as furazolidone and oxytetracycline used as starter medications, but these medications have greater toxic and side effects and can easily damage the internal organs of chicks. Therefore, when choosing starter medications, priority should be given to their safety, effectiveness, and impact on chick growth.

To simplify the selection process, we recommend the following proven starter medication schemes:

• Poultry Expert: It effectively purifies Salmonella and Escherichia coli, is safe and has no side effects, and contains taurine ingredients, which contribute to the healthy growth of chicks and improve survival rates.

• Gastric Comfort: A pure herbal preparation with no drug residues, specifically for the treatment of glandular and muscular gastritis. Using it once per batch of chicks can effectively prevent and treat the disease.

• King Medication: It synergizes with vaccines to stimulate immune organs to produce immune responses, increase antibody production, and thereby enhance the chick's immunity.

In summary, choosing the right starter medication is crucial for the healthy growth of chicks. In the early stages of chick rearing, we should pay attention to the use of starter medications and combine them with scientific chick-rearing management measures to ensure chick survival rates and promote their healthy growth. We hope this article can provide you with useful reference and guidance.