# Metronidazole dose for canker



## gabi_250 (Aug 20, 2015)

Hello,

I suspect my very dear pigie has canker. Today, I found something which could only be vomit and his droppings suddenly turned yellowish and watery.

What is the appropriate Metronidazole dosage for a pigeon? I've seen people mention 50mg per day for 2 days, but that seems excessive. Isn't 50mg too much for a pigeon?


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## John_D (Jan 24, 2002)

The dosage should be 50mg PER KILO of bird weight.

50mg for a bird weighing only around 300 grams (as an example) would be way too much. In such a case it would be about 15mg daily for at least 5 days, and maybe as long as 10 days.


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## gabi_250 (Aug 20, 2015)

Thank you very much for your response. I have just bought some pills meant for pigeons and each pill contains 30mg. I will weigh my bird and dose accordingly. I'll also feed him some probiotics.


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## Whytpigeon (Sep 14, 2015)

gabi_250 said:


> Thank you very much for your response. I have just bought some pills meant for pigeons and each pill contains 30mg. I will weigh my bird and dose accordingly. I'll also feed him some probiotics.


You can half those pills . Or there may be a new dosage out there that wants to hit the canker hard right off and being a high dose it is only safe to do it for a few days. But I do not know that as fact.


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## gabi_250 (Aug 20, 2015)

Hello, *Whytpigeon*. Yes, I am feeding him half a pill a day. I decided to feed a quarter in the morning and the other in the afternoon. I added probiotics to his drinking water. 

He seems alright now and I am starting to worry I'm treating him for the wrong thing, as he doesn't have any other symptoms than the ones previously mentioned. I will need to check if his appetite changed.

I care about him a whole lot and I don't know what I would do if I were to lose him. I'm really stressed out because there are no avian vets in my area and the regular vets are clueless about birds...


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## John_D (Jan 24, 2002)

Could be its working already, but do give the full course anyway.


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## gabi_250 (Aug 20, 2015)

Will do. I'll stick to a 7-day course, unless he has some awful adverse reactions to the antibiotics.


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## Jay3 (May 4, 2008)

For an adult pigeon it would be 50 mg of Metronidazole once daily for 5 to 7 days, and 30 mg once daily for a squeaker. That dosage works. If you underdose, then you are only helping the trich to build up an immunity to the drug. Sometimes takes longer so I usually go 10 days so it doesn't come back on them.


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## gabi_250 (Aug 20, 2015)

Hello, *Jay3*.

I'm very worried about overdosing my pigeon. I once treated a squeaker with 30mg of Metronidazole once daily and it died very soon after. Maybe it was completely unrelated to the dosage, but I'm wary about giving him more.

The reason why 50mg sounds excessive to me is because I compare it to the amount of antibiotics you would feed a human (500mg, maybe more, would be appropriate for people and a bird is more than 10 times lighter than a person).


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## FredaH (Apr 5, 2016)

Animals have higher doses than people, the thyroid meds my dog has would kill a human, a doctor once told me and my dog has been prescribed SIX 50mg tramadol tablets each dose in the past (50mg per 10 kg body weight) , whereas a human cannot take more than two tablets at a time. So I wouldn't think the metronidazole dose was what killed your bird as it seems pretty standard dosage.


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## gabi_250 (Aug 20, 2015)

Hmm, I see. I will read some more about this topic and tomorrow morning I will probably switch to a higher dose.


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## Jay3 (May 4, 2008)

gabi_250 said:


> Hello, *Jay3*.
> 
> I'm very worried about overdosing my pigeon. I once treated a squeaker with 30mg of Metronidazole once daily and it died very soon after. Maybe it was completely unrelated to the dosage, but I'm wary about giving him more.
> 
> The reason why 50mg sounds excessive to me is because I compare it to the amount of antibiotics you would feed a human (500mg, maybe more, would be appropriate for people and a bird is more than 10 times lighter than a person).


Maybe you treated him too late, or maybe he died of something else.


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## Charis (Feb 11, 2007)

The 50mg/kg dose of metronidazole is an older dose that doesn't work anymore probably because canker has become resistant. 
I use 50mg per adult pigeon 300-400 grams. For pigeons less than that, 30mg. I never break the dose up because it works better as a single dose.
Bird doses and human doses are very different...really can't be compared.


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## Msfreebird (Sep 23, 2007)

I have always used 1/4 of a 250mg tablet for adult birds (62.5mg), and half that for squeakers (31.25mg). Have never had a problem.


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## Jay3 (May 4, 2008)

Msfreebird said:


> I have always used 1/4 of a 250mg tablet for adult birds (62.5mg), and half that for squeakers (31.25mg). Have never had a problem.


Hey Waynette! Great to see you here! Thank you for coming in. Your input is always welcome. Wish you would come on more.


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## gabi_250 (Aug 20, 2015)

Thank you all for your replies!
Pidgie is doing great, I've been feeding him a whole pill (as indicated on the packaging).


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