Once more canker (nov 6th)
In one of my latest articles I wrote about canker, which became a kind of nightmare for very many pigeon fanciers. Vets and scientists even feared we would lose control and lose the fight against resistance. For many it became impossible to raise a nice round of babies if the parents were not cured when on eggs. Some already had to give a double dose, if not, the medicine had no effect, and things would only get worse those scientists predicted. And it was we ourselves who were to blame. We had to pay a price for giving too many years too little of the medicine.
OPPOSITE
But strangely enough the opposite happened. While other diseases like Adeno and ‘one eye cold’ came up, canker became less serious year by year. To-day (in 2016) there are even champions that cure very little or… not at all! In my loft it is the same. For me trichomonas was also a big problem in the past, but times changed. In the last few years the vet never found canker, all babies grew up in the nest bowls very nicely, even though I have not given any medicine at all in the last two years. .
I thought I owed this to garlic in the drinker every day, all winter long. But this was no more than a feeling. Take also the Berlaar area where one great champion lives next to another. Almost without exception they all have garlic in the drinker in winter time. Now in the latest edition of pigeon magazine ‘Duifke Lacht’, published by Natural, was an interesting article about this matter. Scientists did tests and found that garlic absolutely has a positive effect indeed. It does not heal sick birds but pigeons that are ‘canker free’ will not easily be effected when they daily drink water with in it a clove of garlic. For sure such birds are far less vulnerable.
HOW TO DEAL WITH IT?
I said I myself did not medicate against canker in the last 2 years but I can read throats very well and I have a good smell. Therefore I advise fellow fanciers not to follow me. They better take no risks. I advise to do the same as many champions do to-day: First make the birds canker free y means of a cure and after that use the so-called ‘yellow drops’. Those are pretty new, based on trypaflarine, but very effective, provided (like with garlic) the birds have no canker, since they are not curative.
MORE PRECISE
To be more precise: WHAT MOST CHAMPIONS do is cure the birds for about 5 days before the season. This is far better than just give them a tablet/pill. In case there was an infection this should be gone after the cure and what you should do then is give the birds two ‘yellow drops’ every week. Thus there is no need to medicate during the rest of the year. One condition though: Those drops should be given EVERY WEEK. Most fanciers do that when the birds get home but it is also possible to do that on basketing day. When you skip a week, the birds may be infected in between and as I said those drops are not curative.
Those drops have one big setback, though. Some drops alone on your clothes are good enough to throw them away, since they are ruined forever. So be careful. It is said that there are already too many angry women that left their husbands for not being more careful with those yellow drops.