# No antibiotics for livestock without a vet



## tsrwivey (Dec 31, 2010)

I haven't watched the new much this year, only the local morning news, & Ive apparently missed something big. Do y'all know about this? How much of this is the federal mandates? Which antibiotics should I stock up on the most? http://www.kltv.com/story/34144070/new-regulations-coming-to-east-texas-livestock-owners

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Federal and state regulations will soon be changing for livestock owners. These changes are designed to improve the quality of meat that hits the supermarket shelves.

"I though, 'Oh no. This is going to be a pain, when we have to doctor cows or horses," said livestock owner Charlotte Metcalf.

In Timpson, Metcalf who is a school counselor is using her winter break to tend to her cattle.

The feed she gives has no antibiotics.

I don't do it," Metcalf said. "They don't need it. They only need it if they are sick in my opinion."

Lindsay Syler, a veterinarian and the owner of Angelina Animal Hospital, said not all people are using un-medicated free feed like Metcalf. Syler agreed while the medicated feed can be helpful, there are also serious risks involved.

"Whenever we have drugs in food animals, especially cattle, there are certain levels on those drugs with certain withdraw times as to what these vets can use them for and how we can use them and what their withdraw time is before the animal can be sent to slaughter," Syler said.

To stop the medication abuse, the new regulations will require livestock owners to get prescriptions for almost all antibiotics used. That would require that livestock animals would need to visit the vet first.

While there may be an inconvenience for livestock owners, Syler said it is all about education for the entire food system.

"We do have a lot of people that will just go to the feed store, and they'd be using drugs that are not labeled for a particular animal," Syler said."They may be using drugs not labeled for a particular disease."

While Metcalf is confused right now on what she should do, she is trying to stay positive.

"I do understand the reasoning behind that and why that would be controlled because I understand that too many antibiotics in the cattle and then going straight to our food would be a bad thing," Metcalf said.

The new regulations will start being enforced on Jan.1.

The Angelina County Texas A&M Agrilife Extension Office will be hosting a seminar on Jan.16 where an A&M professor will address concerns and answer any questions. That meeting starts at 6:30 p.m. at the Agrilife office in Lufkin. The admission price is $10.
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## terri9630 (Jun 2, 2016)

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"We do have a lot of people that will just go to the feed store, and they'd be using drugs that are not labeled for a particular animal," Syler said."They may be using drugs not labeled for a particular disease."_

There's a reason for that. How many drugs/meds are marketed for Goats? There's not a vet within 4 hours that will see a rabbit. I better stock up on Today and Tomorrow because there's not a dairy vet in the area that will treat a goat and the regular vets that will see a goat don't know dairy. Stupid people.


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## Starcreek (Feb 4, 2015)

I read up on this when it first came out, and as I understand it, it only applies to MEDICATED FEED. I don't use medicated feed anyway, and I don't think it applies to purchasing antibiotics for a sick animal.


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## Starcreek (Feb 4, 2015)

The new policy doesn't outlaw antibiotics, but it does ban their use simply to spur growth, said William Flynn, deputy director for science policy in the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's Center for Veterinary Medicine.

Requiring veterinary doctors to sign off on their use is important, he added, because they have the "training and the expertise needed to advise producers; to help them make good decisions around antibiotic use."

The goal, said Flynn, is to "target that use to only those situations where you really need to use it, to try to slow down that resistance development."

Any farmers caught violating the new rules will be told what they must do to comply. If that step fails to produce results, he said the FDA can choose from a series of escalating penalties.

There are many tools available to farmers to improve livestock health without using antibiotics. Air filters can trap viruses and bacteria and stop them from reaching animals. Genetic scientists are breeding new livestock lines for disease resistance. Fine tuning feed rations can improve herd health.

It's unknown if federal animal drug regulations will become even stricter in the future, but farmers are almost certain that the consumer pressure will escalate.

"They want to know what we're using, how much we're using," said Fairmont, Minn., veterinarian Paul Ruen, who's also seen the region's hog farmers reduce their animal antibiotic use the past few years.

"When animals are sick we can treat them," he said. "But if they're not sick we shouldn't be using that product."

http://www.mprnews.org/story/2016/12/16/mn-farmers-ready-new-curbs-livestock-antibiotics


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## bigg777 (Mar 18, 2013)

I would seriously consider buying some amoxicilin and ciprofloxacin for your livestock and pets. Buy the 500mg. caps. of each in the largest amounts you can afford. Although the expiration dates stamped on the packaging state a date 12 months out from date of purchase, my nephew, who is a Navy Corpsman, told my brother this week that military testing shows that many antibiotics are still potent and reliable after 15 to 20 years, if packaged and stored properly.

Tetracycline is one antibiotic that you need to be careful with. It does go bad and becomes toxic after some time. 

I am not a medical professional, I did not stay in a Holiday Inn Express last night and the opinion stated above is just that, one man's opinion, caveat emptor.


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## Starcreek (Feb 4, 2015)

*Are all antibiotics affected?*
It is important to note not all antibiotics will be considered VFD drugs (Figure 1). The use of injectable antibiotics will not be affected. At this time, FDA has only moved antibiotics essential to human medicine and being fed to animals to VFD status. Also, as a part of the new FDA changes, water soluble antibiotics, which are important to human medicine, will now require a prescription from a veterinarian. This transition of water soluble drugs will include Aureomycin® Water Soluble Concentrate (Chlortetracycline).

http://www.cattlenetwork.com/news/new-antibiotic-rules-2017


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## terri9630 (Jun 2, 2016)

Starcreek said:


> I read up on this when it first came out, and as I understand it, it only applies to MEDICATED FEED. I don't use medicated feed anyway, and I don't think it applies to purchasing antibiotics for a sick animal.


I just read about it on the FDA's website and it says it is for all feed and water antibiotics but it also talks about pulling all OTC antibiotics and have them given only by vets orders/prescription.


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## LastOutlaw (Jun 1, 2013)

I've heard that some farm stores including some tractor supply have misunderstood this new law and have pulled ALL Antibiotics from their shelves. If you find this to be the case please contact their corporate headquarters to inform them which stores have done this as well as inform the store itself that the new laws only cover antibiotic feed.


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## AmmoSgt (Apr 13, 2014)

We are running out of antibiotic that work. Most bacteria are resistant to at least one antibiotic and many are now resistant to multiple antibiotics. And the worst part is most bacteria that s resistant are resistant to the best antibiotic for the bacteri , because that is the one most used. MRSA is only deadly and scary because it is resistant to almost everything http://www.webmd.com/skin-problems-and-treatments/understanding-mrsa#1

Anyway , it's getting harder and harder to find new antibiotics , my personal favorite is about the frog in the milk http://discovermagazine.com/2014/may/27-milking-frog-skin and they are seriously looking at alligators because their wounds don't seem to get infected , even living in a swamp.

It's pretty serious, we could see a lot of people that antibiotics used to save their lives die because nothing works on what they got .

The best way to slow down drug resistance is slow down the use of drugs.. but once resistance is out In the general population bacteria can share it with other bacteria , even different types of bacteria http://emerald.tufts.edu/med/apua/about_issue/about_antibioticres.shtml

One of the more novel approaches is to stop bacteria from talking to each and planning attacks https://www.ted.com/talks/bonnie_bassler_on_how_bacteria_communicate

http://www.bbc.com/news/health-34857015

http://health.howstuffworks.com/medicine/medication/5-realities-of-post-antibiotic-world.htm

http://www.theatlantic.com/science/...-avert-our-post-antibiotic-apocalypse/483360/


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## DrPrepper (Apr 17, 2016)

AmmoSgt said:


> We are running out of antibiotic that work. Most bacteria are resistant to at least one antibiotic and many are now resistant to multiple antibiotics. And the worst part is most bacteria that s resistant are resistant to the best antibiotic for the bacteri , because that is the one most used. MRSA is only deadly and scary because it is resistant to almost everything http://www.webmd.com/skin-problems-and-treatments/understanding-mrsa#1
> 
> .


 I'd like to clarify a few things here. There is no single antibiotic that works against all bacteria, and there never has been. Bacteria have many different characteristics, and what may kill one bacteria may not kill another. For example, some bacteria have really strong cell walls. An antibiotic that works primarily by damaging the cell wall may not work on that bacteria. On the other hand, an antibiotic that works by interfering with cell replication might be able to destroy the bacteria in spite of the strong cell wall.

MRSA _can_ be deadly (but not always), but it is not always very resistant. MRSA is simply _Staphylococcus aureus_ that is resistant to oxacillin (used to be methicillin, but MRSA sounds better than ORSA, and so the old name stuck). *Most *MRSA is susceptible to other antibiotics such as linezolid, Sulfamethoxazole/trimethoprim (also known as Bactrim or septra), and vancomycin. Unfortunately, there are new strains of Staph aureus that are resistant to vancomycin, which is the most common treatment for MRSA. Vancomycin resistant S. aureus (VRSA) is much harder to treat than MRSA.


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## tsrwivey (Dec 31, 2010)

I'm not interested in antibiotics in my meat, nor have I ever given them to my animals. Cam's nearly 5 yrs old & has had only two rounds of antibiotics in his entire life. One of those was given prophylactically at birth. (He has my immune system & he's not institutionalized.). However, I'm sick to death of my choices being limited & being made to pay out the wazoo for other people's stupidity. And I just don't trust this. I REALLY don't trust this. I'm not prone to conspiracy theories but my gut is telling me they're going after our ability to produce food on small, nonfactory, backyard, farms. 

1). Who is going to take an animal to the vet, pay for labs, & then for the meds? How long can you afford to spend more on a run of the mill livestock animal in vet costs than it would cost to buy the food at the grocery or replace the animal?

2). If we don't take said sick animal to the vet & instead opt to let the illness run its course, will we be charged with animal cruelty, have all of our animals removed, etc? 

3). If one animal has a contagious illness, will we be able to get antibiotics for the entire flock based on the positive exam of one animal or are we going to have to bring each bird in one by one like they make us do with kids?

4). Who is going to see all these livestock animals? From my research on small livestock, I recall a common theme being a lack of availability of competent veterinary care. Seems like we're going to end up with owners unable to buy the meds to treat their animals & unable to get them to a vet who will see them & prescribe the meds.

5). It would be interesting to know who is really behind this & how much money was involved.

6). A good bit of money & power are changing hands & none of it is going to the people.

7). More government interference in medicine, what could possibly go wrong?


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## Starcreek (Feb 4, 2015)

Save​


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