Anybody have experience with Ronsec for canker?

[smooch177]

I’ve been fighting canker in my flock for over a year. Initially seemed responsive to metronidazole, then had to change to ronidazole. That has seemed to keep it at bay but as soon as I stop treatment they are sick again within days. I’ve also done everything else I could find to help, acidified copper sulfate, etc. I’ve been hesitant to try Emtryl because of the reports of low safety index.

I’ve found mentioned on a few sites a combo pigeon med recommend for resistant strains called Ronsec (ronidazole 25mg/secindazole 25mg per tablet). Dosage instructions for pigeons states one tablet per pigeon (450-500g body weight) on a full crop after feeding. Skip one day and repeat dosing on the 3rd day. I haven’t been able to actually find any dosing recommendations for chickens??

Thanks in advance for ANY help or advice!

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Let's see if @casportpony or @dawg53 have any information for you.

 

[casportpony]

Dosage instructions for pigeons states one tablet per pigeon (450-500g body weight) on a full crop after feeding. Skip one day and repeat dosing on the 3rd day. I haven’t been able to actually find any dosing recommendations for chickens??

I would think the dosing would be the same for chickens as it is for pigeons.

 

[dawg53]

Are you sure you're dealing with canker and not wet fowl pox or other type of malady such as cancer, staph etc? I recommend sending your sickest bird in for necropsy to find out exactly what you're dealing with.

 

[Mosey2003]

How many birds are we talking about? 10 or less, or quite a few? Are you disinfecting your feeders and waterers daily? Going on a year implies to me that they're getting over it and then re-infecting right away.

Myself, if it were 10 or less and I just could.not.get.rid.of.it I honestly might cull the lot, disinfect like a madman, and leave the coop and pen empty for awhile. Treating all the time like that sounds miserable. But, I probably cull more quickly than many, and I know people have different opinions about it.

 

[dawg53]

Actually, birds with canker are carriers for life. In this instance it might be best to cull.

 

[smooch177]

Are you sure you're dealing with canker and not wet fowl pox or other type of malady such as cancer, staph etc? I recommend sending your sickest bird in for necropsy to find out exactly what you're dealing with.

I really think it is canker based on symptoms (yellow oral plaques, GI symptoms) and the fact that they actually respond when they’re on meds. Most recently, within 48hrs of putting them back on or stopping ronidazole, it’s like night and day, they go from lethargic, not eating/drinking, some with muffled voices to perky little piggies. I have a flock of 8, 5 girls that are 3yrs old and 3 that are a year old. The older girls got hit with something early on because we’ve dealt with more than our fair share of recurrent and chronic illness..but the bummer is my younger girls started showing these symptoms shortly after being outside last spring, but they’ve always recovered much more quickly and don’t seem to go downhill as fast as the older girls when I stop the meds.
And unfortunately there’s a significant amount of pigeons and doves that I cannot control their access to my chickens, I feel like the cycle is never going to end

I definitely wouldn’t doubt there might be an underlying condition or coinfection, especially in the older girls. I did read up again about wet pox, I have never visualized anything in the airway besides the yellow oral plaques but in a 2-3 of my older hens it does seem to be a fairly rapid progression to a partial obstruction of their airway, enough to where I cannot even pass a feeding tube at times.

For a coinfection like staph, what has worked the best for you? Since oxytetracycline has been off the market, I’ve had a tough time deciphering the best tx. I do have one that has confirmed chronic osteomyelitis of a hip, so absolutely I wouldn’t doubt something like staph, E. coli, salmonella, aspergillus...could be lingering in the mix.

Unfortunately I’ve lost a few girls over the past 3 years, I took two of them to our state lab for necropsy and it was worthless. At this point, I wouldn’t cull any of chickens unless their quality of life was poor. I’m hoping I can find some answers and relief for all of us!

Thanks for the guidance

 

[Eggcessive]

It is sad that your state lab is not very helpful with a necropsy. I called the WV state lab the other day for a poster here. That is where I am from, and they do not even accept birds for a necropsy anymore. My present home state Ohio, seems fairly willing to do them for a low cost for backyard birds—$23 and they will charge extra for more tests.

Casportpony is a good help on where to find antibiotics that are not abailable. Many fish and pigeon medicines are available by mail. If you don’t mind giving Baytril (enrofloxacin) which is banned in chickens, that one is pretty good for treating many gram positive and gram negative bacteria, including mycoplasma. I ordered some today just to have on hand, and it is $23 ($31 with tax and shipping) for this 100 ml bottle of 10%:
https://www.jedds.com/shop/misc/

 

[smooch177]

It is sad that your state lab is not very helpful with a necropsy. I called the WV state lab the other day for a poster here. That is where I am from, and they do not even accept birds for a necropsy anymore. My present home state Ohio, seems fairly willing to do them for a low cost for backyard birds—$23 and they will charge extra for more tests.

Casportpony is a good help on where to find antibiotics that are not abailable. Many fish and pigeon medicines are available by mail. If you don’t mind giving Baytril (enrofloxacin) which is banned in chickens, that one is pretty good for treating many gram positive and gram negative bacteria, including mycoplasma. I ordered some today just to have on hand, and it is $23 ($31 with tax and shipping) for this 100 ml bottle of 10%:
https://www.jedds.com/shop/misc/

I know, it would’ve be very helpful to know exactly what I’ve been dealing with this entire time. I’ve also been to several ‘avian’ vets dozens of times when the illnesses initially started and unfortunately received many misdiagnoses and poor advice. This board has offered much more accurate and helpful information than I’ve ever received from the hundreds I’ve spent on vet bills!

I have no problem whatsoever using baytril. My girls are my pets (I’m allergic to eggs! ) so it’s always been about trying to find the best treatment, prevent resistance, minimize side effects
Cool, thanks for that link, I do have some but it looks like it’s close to expiration and I can’t remember where I found it. I think you’re right, a good choice for gram positive and mycoplasma coverage, I have a strong suspicion of that as well...I know, most would give up on them but I can’t, we’ve fought too hard, too long! There are days when I’m frustrated, exhausted and wonder what am I doing this for? Then I walk outside and they all come running, each one with their individual goofy personality makes me smile everyday

So I think I’ll go ahead and give the Ronsec a shot along with a course of Baytril, keep disinfecting, pray that the pigeons & doves migrate soon and cross my fingers

Thanks again! byc peeps really are the greatest!

 

[artsyrobin]

I know this is an old post, what was the opinion of Ronsec? I have a boy in isolation, nothing is working so far- he is losing his beak to it @casportpony ?