Can't get rid of canker in a bird... is it possible at all?

Dear all,
Just thought I'd ask those of you who have dealt with canker in the mouth of your chickens. Have you ever seen it go away?
Over the past couple of years I have seen probably 6-8 of our chickens with canker and I have NEVER managed to save even 1 of them. I have tried, including on our doctor's advice, Flagyl, Ronidazole, Itradrops, Nystan, even turmeric golden paste, always ACV, now cleaning the mouth with the "F10" disinfectant (used also for wound irrigation, so it's not something crazy)...

The thing is that EVEN in cases where after e.g. 10 days of treatment the thing comes off fairly easily as 1 piece (most recently from around my roo's tongue), after a few days it starts growing back AGAIN.

In the last case I took my roo to the vet's and the doctor examined a swab and did not found actual Trichomonas under the microscope, but still it seemed like typical canker (and even if not, we also treated the roo for fungal infection with Nystan).

Now his digestion has stopped altogether (and I did start him on probiotics and digestive enzyme when i noticed that things got very slow), and the crop is not emptying for 2 days now, he has become extremely thin and will probably pass away very soon.

I can't understand why some simple organisms would be so hard to kill off, and how after complete removal of that stuff in just 2 days a whole new clump grows back on again. How is it possible? And what to do about it?

I am extremely sad and frustrated at the moment, I can't believe I am going to lose another sweet bird to this.

Anyone ever experienced this before? Thanks a lot in advance...

Sorry to "bump" this, but this issue is a real nightmare for me, just thought maybe someone here has had a similar experience with battling canker and maybe you have managed to actually get rid of it in an individual bird - if so, please do post how.... Thanks!

If you used Flagyl and Ronidazole, it's not canker. It's probably wet pox. There is no treatment for wet pox since it's a virus. Lesions can form in the mouth, trachea, esophagus and lungs. Birds can die from suffocation or starve to death not being able to swallow feed.
You can remove lesions in the mouth and swab the infected area with iodine. However there will be alot of blood after removing the lesions.
Fowl pox is normally caused by mosquitos, but other biting blood sucking insects can carry the disease as well. I'm sorry you're going through this.

Wow, thanks so much Dawg53 (sorry I forgot your name, I know you've helped me already in the past and big thanks for that!)

Our vet did mention wet pox, but I think once I have seen it in one of our birds and with Ganadexil (Enrofloxacin, same as Baytril?) and swabbing with iodine and removing it did clear up completely and never came back. But these other isolated cases have been so persistent Thanks so much, I will do that anyway then.

Keep in mind that there are different strains of fowl pox. Birds become immune to one strain after the virus passes through the flock. Then a different strain can come along and infect them again.

Some bacterial infections can look exactly like canker and wet pox.

-Kathy

Can you have lab work done on the pus?

-Kathy

Dudu said:

Wow, thanks so much Dawg53 (sorry I forgot your name, I know you've helped me already in the past and big thanks for that!)

Our vet did mention wet pox, but I think once I have seen it in one of our birds and with Ganadexil (Enrofloxacin, same as Baytril?) and swabbing with iodine and removing it did clear up completely and never came back. But these other isolated cases have been so persistent Thanks so much, I will do that anyway then.

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have you tried raw garlic? after 6 days of flagyl I gave a clove of garlic a day for at least a week. I cut it in half and put it in my cockerel's mouth. it's gone but when it is hot he sounds like snoring.

Sorry for not responding sooner. Our boy who I was desperately fighting for has passed away. We did open him up and it seems that he only had this hard puss in the mouth behind the tongue, not anywhere else (not in the crop, not in the gizzard). But his digestion just had stopped and he was awfully thin.

Now I have another one (strange that it is so soon after this one, and they don;t even live in the same yard), this one is still ok, there is no excessive saliva in his mouth, just this hard thing behind the tongue also, and some light respiratory sounds. Treating it with Flagyl pills and swabbing with iodine, once the thing already removed itself after 2 days but now it is there again.

I had asked our vet about the lab tests but he said it would take about 2 weeks and anyway since he is already receiving antibiotics, we are doing whatever is possible. I may ask again though for this new case.

I will start Nandi on garlic then, why not, thanks so much! Hope something can help.

Thank you so so much for your input.

Do you rase pigeons near the chickens? Do the water that your chickens drinks is in the open,were wild bird can drink from? I think that you can avoid this repeating phenomenon by improving your biosecurity of your floc.