# Nystatin Dosages for Pigeons



## Vasp

I have some Nystatin on hand that was prescribed to me not long ago for candidiasis in a baby parrot's crop. It's 100,000u/ml, and I was supposed to feed 0.15ml once a day. Unfortunately, the little one did not make it for entirely other reasons not related to the candida, and I have this medication on hand and would like to use it on my rescued pigeon, who is on Amoxicillin & Ronidazole already. 

I believe the combination of Antifungals, antibiotics and Ronidazole is not dangerous from what I've been told, but any backup on that would be good, as well.

If it's of any help, the baby cockatiel was very small in comparison with this pigeon. He must have been in the 30/40 gram range at that point.

Any help with dosing her will be much appreciated.


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## Feefo

According to my formulary the Nystatin dose for pigeons is 100,000 IU/kg orally q24 for 10 days.

Cynthia


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## Vasp

Excuse my ignorance, but what is q24?

And also, mine just says "u"; as in, 100,000u/ml. Is that the same as IU? I have no idea.


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## Feefo

That is the problem with Nystatin, I never understand those measurements. The question came up on another forum years ago, I will try to find the answer.

I think q24 means once every 24 hours.


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## Vasp

Okay, I figured that's what it meant, but it's a bit of a mystery to me what the 'q' stands for. I will look around also, on google perhaps, to see if a "unit" is equal to an "international unit". It's difficult to know how they are differentiated.


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## jenfer

The dosage I have is 300,000 IU/kg body weight twice daily (although I have used it once daily instead). Here, Nystatin suspension comes in a 100,000 IU/ml concentration. 

And "q" stands for "every." So q24h is "every 24 hours."

Jennifer


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## Vasp

That is a lot of Nystatin!
I imagine "u" is the same thing as "IU", simply that they are saying "units" instead. I don't know why they'd do that. My bottle has 100,000u/ml, and that sounds like it would be exactly what you get there.

As for dosing from there...
Pigeons obviously aren't usually a kg. Let's say my pigeon is 300 grams. That's 0.3kg.  Would I take this number - 300,000 IU, and multiply by 0.3? I'd get 90,000, then, which is a little less than a ml.


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## jenfer

Vasp, you are exactly right. Based on a 300,000IU/kg dosage, a 300 g pigeon would get .9 ml of a 100,000IU/ml suspension. Nystatin is really safe, anyway, since it's not metabolized and works on contact, so you can't really overdose it.

Jennifer


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## Pidgey

Yep, can't overdose it but you can throw it away, after a fashion. As jenfer says, it's NOT absorbed by the body--it literally just stays in the "lumen", which is a fancy way of saying that it's in the hole through the entire GI. Of course, there isn't REALLY a hole--it's a passageway and it's mostly collapsed except where a bollus of food is passing through. 

Now, if a bird has a mass of putrid or rotting food in the crop due to stasis, you might very well want to throw a bunch more down there so that there'll be more to slosh around and prevent fermentation due to yeast action--that's what it does, stops yeast and fungal growth on contact. If a bird is passing food through and there's no huge accumulation, go with less.

Pidgey


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## pdpbison

"IU" is 'International Units', I do not know if that is equivilent to 'U' which I assume would mean 'Units', but, maybe it is.



"q" is "per" if memory serves, as per hour, per day, per 24 hours.


ACV-Water also helps for any Yeast or Candida or static Crop recovery or related.


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## Vasp

Thank you, everyone. That really clears things up. I've called the vet's office and asked around and the general consensus is that "u" = IU. I was feeding a baby bird a very similar dosage to what is intended for pigeons, although obviously it was much smaller due to the bird's size, so even without their say on it, it is not too hard to make an inference about it.

The pigeon weighs 269 grams, so I'll calculate that and round it if necessary. She does not have a very heavy infection if any at all, it is mostly precautionary and based on how her poop looks. I can always smell candida when there is a heavy load, and I've flushed her crop as well and did not find any. I can usually palpate the crop and feel it, when there is a yeast build up, so her dose need not be too high, I feel.


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## myfelzayat

*treatment of ornosothis*

Dear Sir
thanks a lot in advance, i have two questions:
1- can ornithosis be transmitted from man to pigeon? i supposed that i got the disease from birds, then i treated them while i steal have the disease, then the birds suffer again. so i asked this quesition.
2-i treated my birds with (100mg doxycycline+50mg erthromycine+50 iU spiramycin) per day for 5 days. is this dosage O.K
THanks a lot
m elzayat
cairo
Egypt


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## Jay3

This is an old thread, and most probably won't see your question, so I'll PM you on how to start a new thread, so more will see it.


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