Canker or thrush?

[leighks]

My almost 5 year old SLW Daisy has had this lesion near her beak for a few days. She’s super feisty and I can’t get a good look inside her mouth. I don’t notice an obvious odor but her appetite seems to have decreased a little. So far we have completed 3 out of 5 treatments of metronidazole but I haven’t noticed much of a change. I just ordered some copper sulfate in case she’s not better in a few days, I'm treating for canker but maybe it’s thrush.
Also Daisy is a house chicken, she has avian leukosis and doesn’t do well in the cold so she’s in til spring. No other chickens in the flock have ever had canker, and she’s been inside for almost 2 months now. Any way to tell if this is canker or thrush?

 

[The-White-Elephant]

My almost 5 year old SLW Daisy has had this lesion near her beak for a few days. She’s super feisty and I can’t get a good look inside her mouth. I don’t notice an obvious odor but her appetite seems to have decreased a little. So far we have completed 3 out of 5 treatments of metronidazole but I haven’t noticed much of a change. I just ordered some copper sulfate in case she’s not better in a few days, I'm treating for canker but maybe it’s thrush.
Also Daisy is a house chicken, she has avian leukosis and doesn’t do well in the cold so she’s in til spring. No other chickens in the flock have ever had canker, and she’s been inside for almost 2 months now. Any way to tell if this is canker or thrush?
View attachment 2964722

@azygous @Wyorp Rock @Eggcessive

 

[Kiki]

Open her mouth... Do you see anything inside the mouth and does it smell?

 

[Eggcessive]

A vet could sample the lesion and look at it under a microscope. Since she has leukosis, that might be a tumor. I would still try to get help to hold her head, and to look into her beak with a light. Canker usually presents as rotten smelling yellow plaques inside the beak and throat, and can spread to the crop. Thrush or candida is fungal and whitish, and can be a result of antibiotic use. Wet fowl pox can cause the yellow plaques similar to canker, but usually one would see the skin scabs of pox. Pox also occurs in not weather when mosquitoes are out.

 

[leighks]

Open her mouth... Do you see anything inside the mouth and does it smell?

It’s hard to get a good look in there, she really puts up a fight, but I believe I saw a yellowish plaque on the inside. I didn’t really smell anything.

 

[leighks]

A vet could sample the lesion and look at it under a microscope. Since she has leukosis, that might be a tumor. I would still try to get help to hold her head, and to look into her beak with a light. Canker usually presents as rotten smelling yellow plaques inside the beak and throat, and can spread to the crop. Thrush or candida is fungal and whitish, and can be a result of antibiotic use. Wet fowl pox can cause the yellow plaques similar to canker, but usually one would see the skin scabs of pox. Pox also occurs in not weather when mosquitoes are out.

Yeah no one is home right now to help hold her, she’s got a lot of fight lol. I believe I saw a yellowish plaque inside her mouth

 

[Kiki]

Yeah no one is home right now to help hold her, she’s got a lot of fight lol. I believe I saw a yellowish plaque inside her mouth

How much metronidazole are you giving?
Do you know how many milligrams the pill is?
Is it a pill?

 

[leighks]

How much metronidazole are you giving?
Do you know how many milligrams the pill is?
Is it a pill?

As per the recommendations on other threads here and @casportpony she is taking API general care fish meds- it’s metro powder 250, she’s getting 1/3 packet once a day (she’s 1.67 kg)

 

[azygous]

Here is information about neoplastic tumors caused by avian leucosis. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03079450801898815

I have a hen with such a tumor on her head, and she's had it for seven years. Not all of them are malignant.

 

[leighks]

Here is information about neoplastic tumors caused by avian leucosis. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03079450801898815

I have a hen with such a tumor on her head, and she's had it for seven years. Not all of them are malignant.

Thanks, interesting. I will take her to the vet if my treatments don’t help. I’m just hoping this is something simple.
Her ALV is subtype J, which manifested in abnormal feathers growing in with her last molt (she just grows the central shaft parts and has wispy down-like sparse vane feather bits everywhere except the top of her head, back, and wings (to some extent). Although tumors aren’t as common with this form (per the vet) she certainly could still develop them.