bird struggling to breath

[Guest Paulo]

aye hows he doing?

[samantha]

cheeky, my vet is lovely, she knew all about canker and wasnt convinced it was that, no cheesy stuff etc. but she said he did have swollen tonsils, lol

 

anyway i have antibiotics for all of them and i have separated him, ill take him back if he gets no better but ribble has offered to send me some capsules for all kinds of respiratory probs which i think wouldnt hurt to try too

 

 

thanks you pair  :K) :K)

[Guest Paulo]

Thats good he should get over res fine hope he gets well soon

[Wiley]

yea hopefully he starts picking up to full health which i reckon he will in no time

[samantha]

[Roland]

Not 3 ... more like 33 different basic  (I believe it is actually 27 on last count)strains that quickly become inmune after 2/ times the treatment given. So the remedy for canker has to be treart with different remedy of course. It is no different from what the ladies may suffer from... I.e Thrush.

Once in a while many treat with the same to great effect.

[samantha]

what now ?   :-/

[Guest Paulo]

sounds complicated to me

[stevebelbin]

Whilst racing, due to the stress, I was told to treat for canker every 3rd week with a different treatment each time, Flagyl, Spartix and Turbosole etc. With yours Sam, something must have stressed the bird for the canker organism to get a hold, sometimes its something stupid like losing a perch to a more dominant bird etc.

[samantha]

do you think it got stressed cause i went on holiday  ;D ;D ;D :

 

 

so you continually treat even if no syptoms develop ?

[stevebelbin]

It sounds daft but pigeons are creatures of habit and maybe someone else feeding your birds did cause a bit of stress  . Mine rarely see anyone else other than me and are very wary if anyone comes into the garden. My old loft was on an allotment path and the birds could see everyone walking past, so they got used to people other than me.

 

Yep, canker is one of the biggest killers of form in pigeons, so from what ive been told and read they are to be treated every 3rd week for it during racing. Im not saying you should as yours are kept as pets and dont go through the stress, that racing causes  ;D.

[samantha]

thanks stevebelbin

 

well the good news is he seems to be breathing quite normally now, i recon ill keep up with the antibiotics for the five days then treat for canker periodically,

 

the moody teenager who did the bear minimum for my birds while i was away, probably did stress them out, when i was telling him what to do he just snorted at me in rolled his eyes when i suggested that he talk to them while feeding them,  ;D i aways talk to them  :  ;D

[stevebelbin]

Same with me, I hate leaving mine with someone when I go away. My dad has been doing them the last few times and when I tell him what to do, he thinks he knows better and questions everything I tell him. Mind for a non fancier to be expected to look after 30 odd birds must be a bit daunting LOL, especially when the dropping start to build up after a few day.  ;D

[Roland]

Ad Schaerlaekens wrote an interesting anecdote regarding this very dilemma:

MARC ROOSSENS may not have been able to eliminate this problem through "drinker hygiene" only but he was not able to solve it with antibiotics alone. The addition of drinker hygiene was necessary. And because of these bugs constantly evolving, constantly adjusting their biochemical machinery, they develop resistance to every antibiotic we can throw at them.

Checking the efficacy of the trichomonicidal agent through a quick check with a microscope is the only way to go and some of your club members have already discovered that some of these agents have become useless. You have also found that regardless of which agent is used, the bird's immune system is needed to eliminate the "bug" from the body. This is the case for all other micro-organisms also.

 

This may help.  

"The antiprotozoal drugs which were used successfully in treating

this disease, such as dimetridazole and metronidazole, have been

removed from the market. Experimentally, a number of drugs are

active against trichomonas infection. Use of 0.1% copper sulfate

(100 mg per 100 ml of drinking water), 0.5% hydrochloric acid or

0.02% mercuric chloride (sublimate) is worth investigating. The

optimum time to treat breeding pairs is at the initiation of egg

production."

And another site.  http://www.birds2grow.com/art-canker.html

Then there is Acid Pak as Doctor Karl… forgot his name… ol well who states

AcidPak is not advertised as a cure for canker. It was just wishful thinking on my part that it may decrease the canker organisms in the birds.

However, I vaccinated some youngsters today and checked them out also. I found very little in 60% of the birds and 40% were negative. Among the negative ones are those bred by birds that were quite positive yesterday. All of my youngsters only know acidified water and were never treated against canker.

I do not fly in a local club and do not say that I could fly my birds successfully without antibiotics against canker although Gord has been doing just this for quite a few years now. I will select some of these young ones to participate in South Africa. I will try to ship birds whose immune status is good and will help these birds in any way I can to make them strong.

Un quote of course Acid in the water in any form cannot do any harm. I doubt if it is the 'ultimate' killer of bad bugs as many bugs do adapt. But all else being equal, it is very beneficial. Read your post and went out and checked the PH of the pond the birds were drinking out of and bathing in until two days ago. 6.0. Acidic. The maple leaves etc that fall in to the pond acidify the water over time. Peat moss will lower the PH drastically in my aquariums. Actually also will tea leaves!! But too astringent for small fish fry. Tried them and also green tea leaves.  With so small an amount of Canker in your birds, it may be a blessing to have some there anyway? Just wondering if it could be also beneficial?

And a mild form of Canker that has established keeps other forms out!

The more you change, or the less you allow birds share the drinker is obviously a great benefit.

 

[Roland]

Careful though with Copper Sulfate it can be hard on the liver.

[Guest Paulo]

"he just snorted at me in rolled his eyes when i suggested that he talk to them while feeding them,   i aways talk to them''

 

Quality I can just picture the lad was he like Kevin the moody teenager off Harry Enfield

 

"Its so unfair ''

[samantha]

 

 

thanks for all your help guys  

[Guest Paulo]

know what you mean about hate leaving them steve, I'm going away surfing for 4 days on 14th sept so gran will have to look after them but at least she's a fancier so knows what she is doing

[samantha]

stop showin off paulo !  

 

 

oh i dont know what im going to do when i go to florida in February  :  8)  ;D

[Guest Paulo]

it won't be as good as florida its only poxy newquay lol

 

Will prob die of hypertherma in september.

 

Nice cornish pasties and cider through oooer scumpy jack

[T_T]

Hi Sam,

             I think it is most probably Respiratory, especially if there is a noise coming from it's mouth.  If you pick the pigeon up and rest your ear across it's back, it will sound like two beach pebbles rubbing together.  You will find the pigeon looking in perfect health and showing no sign of sickness.  As for the cure ?  I've never found one.  You can give a treatment that will help it for a while but I don't think it will ever be rid of it.  If the pigeon was mine and of little importance, it would be BYE BYE SOOTY I'm afraid.

Wish you well with it.

[jimmy_bulger]

hi sam,

if you go onto the petron lofts site they have a medicle page for beginners ,its woth a look.

your's jimmy

[jimmy white]

questions questions :) how is the bird now? what antibiotics  did the vet give you? are all the other birds in the loft ok,? :) :) only trying to help :)

[samantha]

they are all looking lovely jimmy, i gave them all a good looking over yesterday and the 2 that looked a bit thin on head feathers are looking really healthy my sick bird seems to be back to normal, they all had the antibiotic, and ive put multivitamin in the water this week,

 

im quite pleased with myself  

 

thanks for asking jimmy, hope you are keeping well

[jimmy white]

ah glad to hear that sam , as i know you worry about your birds ,great news anyway,,,kindest regards ,,jimmy