Most of what I have read says treat once a day for five days, but some pigeon sites say to treat twice a day for weeks. I have done both. One could try once a day for five days, then twice a day if it doesn't clear up.
The maximum dose my vet told me to use is 23 mg per pound orally twice a day for several weeks, but that was for treating necrotic enteritis.
When I treated one pigeon for canker I gave it 23 per pound orally for for five days and that cleared it up, but it didn't work for the second pigeon. With the second pigeon I tried for weeks with various amounts, but it never resolved, so I culled it.
And as
@dawg53 already said, even if it clears up, they will remain carriers for life.
While experimenting with doses on the second pigeon I found that one of the side effects of too large a dose are seizures, so one should be careful using larger doses.
Metronidazole is quite bitter, so I would not recommend putting it in drinking water.
Keep in mind that other things can look like canker.
- Bacterial infection
- Wet pox
- Cancer
Thanks dawg53! I'm guessing that I need to discard her eggs, correct? And if so, for how long?
Technically, metronidazole is *banned* for use in all food animals, so you are never supposed to eat the eggs or meat of animals treated with it. I use it, and I eat the eggs after about two weeks.
