Best Treatment for Blackhead Disease (Histomoniasis)

Hello!

Can somebody recommend me the best treatment for blackhead disease? And the dosage as well? Every when should it be dosed (monthly, etc) and for how long?

I've been searching here in our place and the only medicine available is dimetridazole.

Is there really no cure for histomoniasis? only treatment?

Follow up questions.

Does blackhead pass onto eggs?

Can you eat turkeys that are treated with dimetridazole?

Are ducks, geese, and pheasants affected by blackhead; or they're as resistant as chickens?

Thanks in advance!

up for this thread! anyone?

I've never had it in my turkeys, but I read a lot here about it and bought some Fish-zole "just in case" I need it. A search for "blackhead" returned over 2000 message threads. I doubt you are going to get new info that hasn't been covered multiple times in those threads. If you spend a while reading those threads you will be an expert in blackhead and prepared to treat it if it happens in your flock.

Thanks for the reply!

It's already happening!

Yes I saw a lot of thread but they dont seem to answer all of my questions.

Regarding the treatment procedures I read, these medicines are not available in my area so I have to ask for alternatives.

I ordered my meds from the internet, ebay I think. Much cheaper, but you have to not need them in a hurry.

Can it re-occur? Or they develop resistance to it once treated?

Yes it can reoccur as it's a parasite; they can get reinfested with it. Like coccidia, the adults do develop some resistance to it, but not like say, you've had measles so you can't ever get it again. So if a bird accumulates a heavy infestation a second or third time, it can still have liver damage to the point that it dies. Think of it like an intestinal parasite rather than a bacterial or viral disease. If your turkeys are eating a lot of earthworms in an area where the parasites are present, you should follow a worming program like a horse owner would worm for intestinal parasites. So when it's muddy and there's a lot of earthworms coming to the surface where the poultry can get them, that's when you should worm. For me it's a couple of times a year in the spring and fall. Ivomec will keep the cecal worms from settling in for at least 10 days, it's not like you have to do this every day. On the other hand, once the blackhead organism is in the liver and causing yellow poop, you have to treat for it for 14 days straight per my local avian vet.

They get blackhead like this: the blackhead organism is a parasite of the cecal worm. The cecal worm is a parasite of earthworms. The turkey eats the earthworms when it's rainy and the earthworms come to the surface to keep from drowning. If you get rid of the cecal worms with a wormer, you'll never get to the point where your turkeys actually have the blackhead organisms in their livers.

Are you in the US? Both ronidazole and dimetridazole are readily available by internet mail order in pills sized for birds from pigeon supply businesses like Pigeon Supplies Plus. They have them in 30 mg. and 12.5 mg. tablets. Dosage is 12.5 mg per kg (2.2 lbs) bodyweight once a day for 14 days.

Also, to respond to your question about eating turkeys treated for blackhead--none of these drugs are approved for turkeys or other poultry. (It costs a ton of money to get and maintain approval for a drug and there isn't enough of a market to turkey producers to pay for it.) That means that this is an "extralabel" use of the drug, and as such is prohibited for use in food animals. So no, if you are planning to slaughter your turkey for thanksgiving dinner, you don't want to be treating it for blackhead. With that said, tested times for how long after the last dose before it's not detectable in the blood anymore, for various species (but not tested in turkeys, mind!) range less than 7 days.

@poorfarm @dheltzel
Thank for your reply! I'm not in the US but I was able to have a dimetridazole. I had the opportunity to read the labels and it says that treatment should be from 5 to 7 days once a day.
How expensive are these meds in the US?

Does blackhead pass onto eggs?
Does dimetridazole pass onto eggs?

Is it true that oregano and ACV can treat (or prevent) this disease?