Canker, Flagyl not a cure ?

[Oven Ready]

We have a young bird (Japanese Bantam at three months) with what I'm pretty sure is canker. Yellow lumpy deposits in the mouth, particularly to the rear and the sides, it cannot close it's beak completely but I noticed no foul odours.. It scrapes off with a blunt dental pick but doesn't wipe off with a cotton bud. I tried to get a photo but it's not easy, the camera just can't get close enough.

We've started Flagyl at 50mg (quarter a 200mg tab) and I'm thinking two a day. Maybe too much but I like to go for kill or cure dosages unless someone can persuade me that Flagyls side effects are severe enough to limit the dosage.

I've two questions that I'd appreciate some consideration.

1. I have a feeling that Flagyl prevents the symptoms but leaves the victim as a carrier - I know this is true of things like Mareks, but I'm not sure about avian canker, can anyone confirm this?

2. If the above is true, does anyone know what sort of dosage the flock needs (mg/l maybe?) to prevent them from becoming symptomatic and how long they need to be on the Flagyl?

Yes, we do get feral pigeons hanging around, the chickens free range so drink water from anywhere and we have a large pond which is used by all manner of wild birds. We do what we can to keep the pigeon numbers down and to chase them away but there are always some around.

thanks

 

[Oven Ready]

Good News, Bad News.

Good News
Five days of 50mg Flagyl (one a day) got rid of the canker completely. I was impressed, I had intended keeping treating for 7 days.

Bad News
The chick died this morning, I thought I'd O.D'd it with Flagyl but on closer inspection it had an infected wound right at the base of it's tail, near the preen gland. I never noticed it.
We had a dog attack last Wednesday that took twenty of our birds, including eight chicks. The dog has since been 'dispatched', as was a cat that I thought we'd scared away with the BB gun as I hadn't seen it for a while but it foolishly wandered into the kill zone.
I think perhaps this little one had been nipped in the tail or pulled by the tail and that's how he got the infection.

None of the other chickens appear to have any signs of canker, so we're not going to treat the flock as I don't think your supposed to eat Flagyl treated birds.