Suprelorin Implant - Cost and side effects?

[KCNC06]

I'm not sure if I'm posting this in the right section since I'm asking about a duck, but the woman at the vet's office said they do these implants pretty frequently in chickens so I thought it might be better to ask a wider audience.

I brought my duck to the vet today, she's a White Layer and will be 2 yrs old in September. She started laying when she was 4 months old and laid a lot of eggs. Took her a while to settle into a one egg per day routine instead of 2-3 eggs per day. She went about 10 months laying 1 egg a day. Nice normal eggs, good quality shells, nothing weird. Then one evening she dropped out a little fart egg. Weird but I didn't think too much about it. About a month later she dropped another smaller fart egg. Meanwhile still laying a normal egg every morning. Then maybe around her 1 yr mark of laying, her shell quality started to deteriorate. Her eggs started having thinner shells that broke easily. Then some would just be the rubbery membrane. She still mostly laid eggs with good shells though. Up until about a month ago when she pretty much only laid eggs that broke easily or didn't have a shell. She also started producing a lot more "fart" eggs but they were tiny, like the size of pea gravel or jelly beans.

So we went to an avian only vet. He drew blood and did x-rays and said everything looked normal. Her hormone levels and everything else looked completely normal, except her calcium level was high. So apparently her poor shell quality isn't from a lack of calcium and therefore it must be a faulty shell factory? Is that the only way to diagnose a faulty shell gland? By ruling out calcium deficiency? The vet was not very talkative. I couldn't tell if it was because that's just how he is or if he didn't have answers so didn't have anything to say. Definitely made me feel more frustrated and confused than I was before the visit. Especially because the whole appointment cost well over $800. I asked if it's possible that her shell gland might start working again, or working better, after the implant wears off. Like maybe the shell gland is just "tired" and needs a break to reset. He just shrugged. I asked if there are any side effects to the implant, he said "No." (I swear I couldn't get more than a two word answer out of him.) I asked how I'll know when it's worn off and if she needs a new implant, like is it okay to let her start laying again and see how the shell quality is. He shrugged again and said "Sure." *Sigh*

Anyway. Now I'm curious if anyone here might have experience with this implant and might be able to help me with some of these questions. Also wondering if the price is fairly standard everywhere...because honestly I can't imagine spending this much money every 4 months. The implant itself cost $297 for a 4.7mg implant. I would assume there's an exam fee or something else that goes with each additional implant. I absolutely love my ducks but I don't spend that much money on myself for Dr's visits or medication. If she has to get the implant every 4 months, we're probably looking at $1,200 or more every year until she naturally stops laying. That's...crazy.

 

[cavemanrich]

Hope everything goes well for you and duck.


WISHING YOU BEST,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

 

[Amalthea666]

Hi there,
I'm just about to go through the implant with my male mallard. The vet said he may benefit from this implant. I am still sceptical on if it's the right thing to do.
I also have a female muscovy who is laying at the moment and she is laying healthy eggs, but she is scratching aggressively around her neck and her feathers are falling out.
The vet suggested that she is sexually frustrated because I'm not allowing her to complete the cycle (as I take away the eggs).
I love my feather babies so much, but I need more information before I get the implant in her.

 

[CoriM]

I'm not sure if I'm posting this in the right section since I'm asking about a duck, but the woman at the vet's office said they do these implants pretty frequently in chickens so I thought it might be better to ask a wider audience.

I brought my duck to the vet today, she's a White Layer and will be 2 yrs old in September. She started laying when she was 4 months old and laid a lot of eggs. Took her a while to settle into a one egg per day routine instead of 2-3 eggs per day. She went about 10 months laying 1 egg a day. Nice normal eggs, good quality shells, nothing weird. Then one evening she dropped out a little fart egg. Weird but I didn't think too much about it. About a month later she dropped another smaller fart egg. Meanwhile still laying a normal egg every morning. Then maybe around her 1 yr mark of laying, her shell quality started to deteriorate. Her eggs started having thinner shells that broke easily. Then some would just be the rubbery membrane. She still mostly laid eggs with good shells though. Up until about a month ago when she pretty much only laid eggs that broke easily or didn't have a shell. She also started producing a lot more "fart" eggs but they were tiny, like the size of pea gravel or jelly beans.

So we went to an avian only vet. He drew blood and did x-rays and said everything looked normal. Her hormone levels and everything else looked completely normal, except her calcium level was high. So apparently her poor shell quality isn't from a lack of calcium and therefore it must be a faulty shell factory? Is that the only way to diagnose a faulty shell gland? By ruling out calcium deficiency? The vet was not very talkative. I couldn't tell if it was because that's just how he is or if he didn't have answers so didn't have anything to say. Definitely made me feel more frustrated and confused than I was before the visit. Especially because the whole appointment cost well over $800. I asked if it's possible that her shell gland might start working again, or working better, after the implant wears off. Like maybe the shell gland is just "tired" and needs a break to reset. He just shrugged. I asked if there are any side effects to the implant, he said "No." (I swear I couldn't get more than a two word answer out of him.) I asked how I'll know when it's worn off and if she needs a new implant, like is it okay to let her start laying again and see how the shell quality is. He shrugged again and said "Sure." *Sigh*

Anyway. Now I'm curious if anyone here might have experience with this implant and might be able to help me with some of these questions. Also wondering if the price is fairly standard everywhere...because honestly I can't imagine spending this much money every 4 months. The implant itself cost $297 for a 4.7mg implant. I would assume there's an exam fee or something else that goes with each additional implant. I absolutely love my ducks but I don't spend that much money on myself for Dr's visits or medication. If she has to get the implant every 4 months, we're probably looking at $1,200 or more every year until she naturally stops laying. That's...crazy.

What was the outcome for your duck after the implant? I am considering one and have a similar situation but in addition, my duck won’t molt.

 

[KCNC06]

What was the outcome for your duck after the implant? I am considering one and have a similar situation but in addition, my duck won’t molt.

The implant worked for 2 months before she started laying again. Her eggs had good shells for a little while but then got soft again before she stopped laying. I didn't get her implanted again because the cost was just too high and I really, really did not care for that vet. I don't think he had implanted a duck before since he didn't know how long the implant lasts in ducks (2 months is the normal amount of time). He also couldn't, or wouldn't, answer any other questions that I had. I feel like he probably uses the implant in other types of birds, and he's probably an excellent bird Dr, but I didn't get the impression he really knew much about ducks.

Anyway. She's still with me. She's in her nest box looking at me right now like she's wondering why I'm playing on my phone and not getting her morning bath ready. Her sister had pretty much the same issue with her eggs. She laid for almost 2 yrs straight before she finally had a hard molt and stopped laying for a little over 2 months.

I checked the price of the implant last year, can't remember what it was up to but it had increased. If you can afford close to $300 every other month for the implant, plus however much a vet will charge for the office visit and "surgery" fee, it's nice giving them a break from laying. It's really terrible that it costs so much to treat these poor girls. It's also really rotten that this implant was less expensive when it had to be imported from the manufacturer in Australia. It has to be refrigerated too so it seems like importing a refrigerated medicine from Australia would be more expensive than making it here in the UD right? Nope. Whatever US manufacturer makes it now is a total piece of in my opinion. It's still cheaper to get it from Australia but not possible in the US anymore.

 

[CoriM]

Sounds like you pretty much just got a little break for her body and now you're back in the same situation? Did your duck molt after she had the implant? My duck hasn't molted and her feathers look terrible, so I was just hoping to try it once and trigger a molt and give her body a break, in hopes when she started laying again the eggs would be stronger. I'm having second thoughts...I'm not sure what to do. It's going to cost me $265 for the implant and visit. I would only do it once though.

It's very hard to find a vet that knows anything about ducks. The avian vet I've gone to hardly treats any ducks, so it always seems like a guessing game. One of my first ducks was having her feathers pulled and I had no idea, I thought it was some terrible disease because I never saw it happened, nor suspected her sister would do such a thing. I went to two vets, the second being avian and exotic, and spent $800 there as we came back for test after test and subjected her to several antibiotics and treatments......why he couldn't recognize the aftermath of feather-pulling is beyond me. But once I realized what was happening we fixed the problem right away. I've had similar experiences with other issues at the vet with ducks to the point where I mostly just try to take care of things at home myself....seems like my luck is just as good.

Well I hope your girls slow down and are able to enjoy a happy retirement!

 

[KCNC06]

Sounds like you pretty much just got a little break for her body and now you're back in the same situation? Did your duck molt after she had the implant? My duck hasn't molted and her feathers look terrible, so I was just hoping to try it once and trigger a molt and give her body a break, in hopes when she started laying again the eggs would be stronger. I'm having second thoughts...I'm not sure what to do. It's going to cost me $265 for the implant and visit. I would only do it once though.

It's very hard to find a vet that knows anything about ducks. The avian vet I've gone to hardly treats any ducks, so it always seems like a guessing game. One of my first ducks was having her feathers pulled and I had no idea, I thought it was some terrible disease because I never saw it happened, nor suspected her sister would do such a thing. I went to two vets, the second being avian and exotic, and spent $800 there as we came back for test after test and subjected her to several antibiotics and treatments......why he couldn't recognize the aftermath of feather-pulling is beyond me. But once I realized what was happening we fixed the problem right away. I've had similar experiences with other issues at the vet with ducks to the point where I mostly just try to take care of things at home myself....seems like my luck is just as good.

Well I hope your girls slow down and are able to enjoy a happy retirement!

I'm sorry to hear your experience with vets has been like mine. It's so frustrating. Especially when people tend to...kind of make you feel like a rotten duck parent if you don't go to a vet for whatever issue. Like not going to a vet means you don't care. In my experience, the vet was more than willing to take my money but really didn't give me a whole lot of information. The vet I use for my dogs and cats is a good old fashioned "country vet" even though our sweet small town is getting gobbled up by suburban sprawl. She still supports the "wait and see" mentality for stuff that isn't urgent and doesn't charge an arm and a leg for procedures.

How old is your duck? Maybe she's just not ready to molt. The hard molt that the implant triggers is pretty hard on them too. It's just hard on other parts of their body. Mine had the real hard molt, lost all her big wing feathers and tail feathers. She hasn't had a big molt since the one the implant triggered though. Her older sister (she's 2.5 months older), the one who also had shell issues too, she's had two hard molts on her own now. My girls will be 5 yrs old this year.

Is $265 the estimate the vet gave you for the implant or for everything? I'm pretty sure $265 is how much I paid for just the implant. We also had to do x-rays and blood work, then there was a physical exam fee (I didn't notice that he even did a physical exam and I was in the exam room), and then there was a surgery fee for injecting the implant. I was shocked when they handed me the bi and it was over $800. One of my cats "wrecked" his knee the next month and amputation was recommended. The bill for that was going to be $500. That was for the surgery, post-op pain meds, antibiotics, etc.

 

[CoriM]

Your bill was insane! I cancelled my appointment and decided to wait a little longer. She is two. My charge was going to be $90 for exam and $175 for implant which was just injected, not called a surgery. I am in WA state.

 

[KCNC06]

Wow! That's a really good price!! I don't know why the vet we went to called it surgery to inject the implant. It was just inserting the implant. To be honest, I probably would have had her implanted again if it wasn't so expensive. Plus the vet we went to is over an hour away from us so that was a bit much. But the fees were just outrageous. Especially since he literally didn't answer any of my questions. He'd just shrug. The results of her blood work seemed like a shrug too. He had the list of everything they tested and what her results were but the "normal range" column was blank the whole way down. Why bother testing any of that if you don't have a normal range??

My girl was almost 2 when we went through all this. I hope your girl's hormones calm down soon and she takes a break on her own. My other duck was a little over 3 yrs old when she finally took a break.

Your bill was insane! I cancelled my appointment and decided to wait a little longer. She is two. My charge was going to be $90 for exam and $175 for implant which was just injected, not called a surgery. I am in WA state.

 

[CoriM]

Sounds like a terrible vet! We're in a tough spot as duck owners, because there just aren't many options and sometimes you're in a desperate situation where you really need the help.