| A
POISON by any other name is still a
poison. To paraphrase Paracelsus from 400 years ago, it's
'the dose that makes the poison'. Simply stated, almost
anything in an overdose or a diet restricted to only one
ingredient would eventually become toxic to your birds. A
misplaced decimal point in medication dosage can cause
toxicity, and I've already written about the toxicity of
a group of drugs used to treat coccidiosis called
sulfonamides. Water mixable medications can become toxic
if the weather is hot and the birds are drinking more
water than normal. Even high levels of certain vitamins,
such as A and D, can be toxic and some doses of
medication that are perfectly fine for chickens and
turkeys can kill your waterfowl. (Remember that waterfowl
generally consume four times the water that chickens do.)
Toxins (or poison), fall
into several different categories. I can't list them all
here, but I'll try to give you an overview for general
reference.
Again, the use of sulfonamides
for the treatment of coccidiosis is highly discouraged.
Especially with the availability of amprolium, which is
safe. An effective dose of a sulfonamide is toxic to
poultry, and can have a negative effect on the immune
system. Hemorrhagic syndrome and organ damage can occur
as a result of sulfa poisoning, particularly in the liver
and kidneys. I discourage the use of sulfonamides for all
poultry, including waterfowl,
unless amprolium is unavailable. In this case, use a
'safer' sulfa such as sulfadimethoxine or sulfamethazine.
Avoid Sulfaquinoxaline (SQ).
Some antibiotics
can be troublesome if their use is not controlled. In turkey
poults, the subcutaneous injection of Gentamicin
can cause depression, edema, injection site hemorrhage,
and kidney damage. Streptomycin (and
dihydrostreptomycin sulfate), injected intramuscularly
(IM), can cause respiratory distress, paralysis, and mild
convulsions. Baytril is one of the safest and most
effective broad-spectrum antibiotics available.
Some antiprotozoals
such as Nitrazol and Emtryl
have caused growth depression, drop in egg production,
incoordination and tremors, convulsions, and death in geese,
ducks, pigeons,
and turkeys. Doses safe for
other poultry may be poisonous to waterfowl.
Quinacrine HCI (Atabrine), is fatal at a
dose of 50mg/kg of body weight in pigeons,
but is safe for other poultry at that dose.
Parasitic
and worming treatments should also be
used with caution. When you worm your birds, you're
giving them poison to kill the worms. With that in mind,
you should never worm a sick bird as a shotgun approach
to treatment. Rule everything else out first.
Benzimidazoles (cambendazole, mebendazole, and
fenbendazole), and phenothiazine are all pretty well
tolerated by most birds. Ivermectin is probably the
safest though.
Levamisole
(and tetramisole, which is no longer
available in most countries), should be used with
caution. (Because of it's chemical makeup, an effective
dose of levamisole is half that of tetramisole.) It has a
wide range of toxicity from as little as 66 mg/kg of body
weight in wild birds, on up to
300 mg/kg in geese. Levamisole
can be toxic to ducks at
40-80mg/kg of body weight.
Under the group of minerals
and metals, three stand out as the most
problematic: sodium chloride or sodium
bicarbonate (salt), lead, and calcium
(as in the over-use of oyster shell).
Most sodium problems arise
as a result of young chicks and
turkey poults consuming too
much saline water. Avoid using softened tap water to
supply water to your birds while brooding. Some waterfowl
have nasal salt glands that allow them to excrete excess,
but play it safe with them too since they consume more
water than chickens and turkeys. Sodium poisoning can
cause kidney damage (more so in young birds than adults
because their kidneys may not be fully developed when
first hatched), and heart failure.
Lead
poisoning remains a serious problem in this country -
primarily with wild birds and waterfowl,
but can be a hazard for the free-range backyard flock or
birds confined to an old coop with lead paint. Three
primary sources of lead are lead shot or bullets used in
hunting or target practice, lead weights from fishing
lines, and lead paint chips. Chickens
are more tolerant, but can die from lead poisoning as
well. Lead that is consumed typically remains in the
gizzard and gets ground and released into the system
slowly, so many lead poisoning cases are of a chronic
nature. Lameness, paralysis, weakness, wasting, and
watery green diarrhea can be symptoms. However, sometimes
ducks and geese can die from lead poisoning while still
in good flesh, which results in an inaccurate diagnosis.
Many state labs can test tissues from dead birds to
confirm metal or chemical compound toxicity.
Calcium
overdose is a common occurrence when people over-use
calcium supplements such as oyster shell. Oyster shell
offered to any female before first egg can cause kidney
damage. Never mix oyster shell into feed where young
females or males of any age can free-feed. Oyster shell
should be provided to laying females. However, if you see
'calcium bumps' on your eggshells, they're getting too
much. A good vitamin and mineral supplement added to
drinking water can sometimes provide enough calcium.
Vitamins A, D3
(cholecalciferol), and B6 (pyridoxine),
can be toxic when overdosed. Excess Vitamin A can reduce
egg production and growth rate, and cause osteoporosis. A
simple top-dressing of Vitamin D3 on feed consumed by chicks
has caused kidney damage in field studies. Also be
careful when using rodenticides that contain 25-hydroxycholecalcoferol
(from the same family of D3), as poultry,
pigeons, and wild
birds can also be poisoned. Vitamin B6 is
toxic to pigeons at 200mg/kg of
body weight by injection.
Disinfectants
and fungicidal fumigants such as phenolics,
quats, chlorine bleach,
formaldehyde, organic mercurials,
thiram, and captan
cause toxicity when ingested or inhaled. The overexposure
rates are too numerous to list here, so use them all with
caution. Oxine is a relatively safe disinfectant and
fungicide, and can also be used as a medical treatment
for upper respiratory fungal infections when fogged. It's
200 times more effective than chlorine bleach, colorless
and odorless, and relatively safe to use for just about
anything.
Almost all insecticides
are toxic and most attack the nervous systems of all
birds. One group that's relatively safe and
effective to use is pyrethrum and synthetic pyrethroids.
Most poultry dust and flea and tick sprays used for the
control of feather mite contain a form of pyrethrum.
These products are relatively safe to use. It's been
difficult for me to find documentation that anything else
is as safe. Most rodenticides (rodent
control), are deadly to all birds,
so poultry keepers should avoid all of them to be on the
safe side.
Two common toxic
gases that affect all birds
are ammonia and carbon monoxide.
Corneal ulceration and blindness can be caused by ammonia
fumes from overspent litter. Heart rate and breathing may
be affected with bronchial hemorrhage, and egg production
can drop when ammonia levels rise. Growth rate of
youngsters will be affected and they won't thrive in an
environment where there are strong ammonia levels. Clean,
dry litter will avoid this problem. If you can smell
ammonia in your coop, your levels are too high. Carbon
monoxide poisoning can occur when birds are exposed to
faulty ventilating systems, engine exhaust, and when
open-flame brooders and furnaces are used without proper
ventilation.
Household
and commercial products such as alcohol,
antifreeze (ethylene glycol), old
solvent cleaners that contain carbon
tetrachloride, fertilizers, and
mothballs (naphthalene), are highly
toxic and most cause liver and/or kidney damage in all
birds.
Botulism is caused by a biotoxin
and is a common problem among waterfowl
breeders with a pond, but can also be a problem when dead
poultry are left in litter to
be picked at by the live birds. Very small amounts of
this toxin are deadly.
Another biotoxin is algae
and there are several species of blue-green algae that
when concentrated by rapid growth (bloom), may poison all
birds when consumed. Poisoning can cause
paralysis, a dilated, distended heart, and liver damage.
Anyone who keeps a pond should research the proper care
and maintenance of ponds. It's a fragile ecosystem that
can help, or sometimes harm, your waterfowl.
My last group of toxins is phytotoxins
(plants). Since the group is complex and ranges
from deadly to chronic, I'll just list some of them here.
If any bird free-ranges and has
access to nice grass or pasture, it will probably avoid
these. If they're the only things to eat though, the
birds may consume them and die. Simply use this list for
awareness: avocado, black locust, bladder pod,
cacao, cassava, castor bean, coffee senna, sickle pod,
corn cockle, cotton seed meal, coyotillo, crotalaria,
daubentonia, death camas, eucalyptus cladocalyx, hemlock,
jimsonweed, leucaena leucocephala, lily of the valley,
milkweed, nightshade, oak, oleander, parsley, pokeberry,
potato, ragwort, rapeseed meal, canola, sweet pea,
tobacco (includes nicotiana), velvetweed, vetch, yellow
jessamine, and yew. You should
be able to locate these names somewhere on a seed packet
if the seed is sold under a more common name. I would
carry this list when shopping for plants and seeds for
your garden.
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