Hen with tongue sticking out - cant eat

[Mjarissa]

Metronidazole dosage is 50 mg per pound of weight given orally twice a day for 5-7 days.

Thanks!

 

[Eggcessive]

Just looking up some dosages again, and it seems most recommend 50 mg per kg or 25 mg per pound daily.

 

[Mjarissa]

Hi all!
I'm now on day 7 of metronidazole. It's hard to tell if it's doing anything. For sure the canker is not growing that fast. It might still be growing a bit and has definitely not disappeared.
We've been feeding her all this time by hand but now comes the time that we have to be away for a week and our chickensitter is probably not able to feed her on his own.
What else can we do? I don't want to let her starve... But it just doesn't seem to go away. Or does it take a long time before the effects of the medicine show?

 

[Eggcessive]

Can you post any pictures of the possible canker? Can you try to have a vet see her? Does it have a bad odor now? Some people try to remove cankers (and using povidone iodine or silver nitrate sticks to paint the wound) to keep them from blocking the airway. Canker will pass to your other chickens if she is around them, and it is good to disinfect feeders and waterers. Here is a good article to read:
https://www.bhwt.org.uk/hen-health/health-problems/oral-canker/

 

[Mjarissa]

I don't, it's very hard to keep her beak open long enough to take picture with my terrible camera. But I will try.
I have removed the canker twice during this process. Pieces the size of a pea. The last time it bled and left her beak swollen so I'm hesitant to remove it again and feel like I don't have to because it doesn't seem to grow. Her breathing is also quite fine, no noise or visible difficulties. It's just that she cannot swallow things on her own. Even when feeding her liquid food with a syringe she has troubles swallowing.
She has been separated from the flock, but she doesn't eat/drink on her own anyway so there is no chance of her spreading it like that.

Other than that she is active and still tries to eat when I offer her snacks, she just doesn't manage to get it down.

Here in the area (portugal countryside) there aren't any avian vets. We have visited many when we had a dying chicken but they all looked at us like we were crazy and told us it's cheaper to just buy a new one

 

[Eggcessive]

If you have to leave her, she may suffer from not being fed and watered. So, I would consider putting her down if that happens. That bis also the best way to control the spread of canker to other chickens, since she would spread it if she ever were to recover.

 

[Mjarissa]