Immune boosters? Tips for cankers?

[LongRanch]

I have a small backyard flock of just 11 birds, and in the past month we've dealt with scaley leg mites, lice, sinus infections, cankers, and yeast infections.. Everything kind of hit us at once. Natural treatments did nothing so my poor birds have had a whammy of wormer, antibiotics, antifungals, etc.. They are free range birds that get tons of greens, bugs, and fruit (we have a small orchard and they eat all the fallen fruit), plus they eat organic feed and seeds, and all our healthy food scraps. I give them lots of probiotics. I keep their coop very clean. They have a dust bath with DE and clay that they use regularly. They are happy birds. We have just had some bad luck and I hope to prevent anything else from happening. I bought a vitamin supplement today and have VetRx on order. Are there any 'magical' immune boosters I can give them? Also I'm still dealing with cankers on two of them... One has them in her throat and she is starting to have a rough time.

They have copper sulfate and apple cider vinegar in their water and are taking metronidazole. Is there anything else that will help? Thanks in advance.

 

[Eggcessive]

Are you mixing ACV and copper sulfate in the water? I would avoid that. Did you buy these birds from a local breeder? Wet fowl pox can sometimes be mistaken for canker. Chickens with canker should be separated from healthy birds. Probiotics and vitamins in the feed 2-3 times a week is about all I would do for immunity. Here is some info about canker treatment:



Control of Canker (trichmoniasis) from The Merck Manual

Because trichomonads in pigeons are so readily transmitted from parent to offspring in the normal feeding process, chronically infected birds should be separated from breeding birds. In pigeons, recovery from infection with a less virulent trichomonad strain appears to provide some protection against subsequent attack by a more virulent strain. Successful treatments include carnidazole (10 mg/kg body wt), metronidazole (60 mg/kg body wt), and dimetridazole (50 mg/kg body wt, PO; or in the drinking water at 0.05% for 5–6 days). None of these drugs is approved for use in birds in the USA, but they could be used in non-food-producing birds by veterinary prescription. Bird feeders and waterers should be cleaned regularly and if an outbreak of trichomonosis is documented or suspected, feeders and waterers should be removed for ~2 wk and cleaned with a 10% bleach solution.

 

[LongRanch]

Yes I am putting it in the water. I did a lot of reading and everything kept saying 1/4 teaspoon copper sulfate per gallon of water and 1/2tsp acv per gallon of water for 5 days. They are getting metronidazole, but the cankers are worse today. They get probiotics almost every day and I just bought a vitamin supplement. I did not remove them as originally I thought the first one had a sinus infection (she had tons of goop coming out of her nose so I thought the canker near her mouth was swelling of the sinuses), and soon after I removed her, they all developed similar respiratory issues so I put her back since I planned on medicating all of them the same... they were together for a couple of weeks before i realized it was a canker. No point in removing them now, they have all been together for weeks and are all getting the same treatment. All of my birds are from 6 different local breeders and I haven't had any new additions for two months. It's not fowl pox, they are definitely cankers. Other than my poor little Orpington who I will soon need to euthanize if she does not improve (cankers in the throat) they are all moulting but are active, eating tons etc.