Drug Use and Misuse in Pigeons

By: Dr. Steve Weir D.V.M. ~ Catoosa, Oklahoma

This article is primarily meant to address some of the issues related to the use of legitimate drugs for various diseases in racing pigeons. As one reads the journals today it seems that it would require an entire drug store to keep all of the medication that is available for our birds today. Many of these drugs when used properly are very helpful for our birds health, however, in my experience I see many people using these drugs in a way that will ultimately hurt our birds. The following are some of my thoughts on this issue.
It is virtually impossible to fly pigeons successfully in stiff competition without using various drugs to control some of the pigeon ailments. Years ago when no drugs were available for canker, coccidia, worms and respiratory disease everyone flew their birds with some level of infection with these organisms. Since everyone had the same problem they had a pretty level playing field. Today with drugs that are available to treat these ailments, those that use them have a BIG advantage over those people who do not. Past articles outline my recommendations for treatment of these various diseases before and during the race season. So suffice to say that in most cases, those who treat and control these organisms will beat those who do not. Treatment on a regular basis during the race season for diseases such as canker, coccidia, respiratory disease and malaria have advantages and disadvantages. As we have already seen you must treat for these diseases to be successful, but as we treat on and off season we often see drugs losing their effectiveness over a period of time. This is unfortunate, but I see no way around this dilemma. With the advent of drug usage to control disease we are probably are raising " drug dependent" birds. Before drugs, pigeons that had a high natural resistance to the various diseases performed the best. Drugs have in many cases made this natural resistance much less important in the selection process. The result being that we do have a population of pigeons that have a hard time flying along hard season without the help of drugs to control the disease organisms. Once again this is unfortunate, but unless everyone was willing to completely stop drug usage to control disease and let natural selection take over again, those that medicate would beat those that didn't. Pragmatically speaking- it just won't happen. Antibiotic usage is probably the most controversial in this debate and you should keep the following in mind. One antibiotic is not "better" or "stronger" than another if the organism being treated is sensitive to both. You should only use an antibiotic that has been shown via culture and sensitivity testing to be shown to work in the infection you are treating. Respiratory infection may be an exception since we have rarely seen failure with the tylosin/tetracycline combination. You should always treat with the proper dosage. Make sure you use the proper strength in their water or you will get poor results. You should always treat for the proper amount of time. Typically this is a minimum of 5-7 days. The only exception is during the race season for respiratory infection in which we usually treat for 2 days upon arrival from the race. This goes against my veterinary training in this area, but it seems to do a good job in controlling infection. Using drugs like baytril to treat any and every disease symptom is a dangerous practice. It seems that whenever we get a new good drug ( baytril is the popular one now), pigeon flyers put it in the water for everything. This only results in bacteria becoming resistant to the drug and it then becomes useless when you really need it . Again, make sure of the disease your are dealing with, use the proper drug, at the proper dose, for the proper length of time to treat it. Save a good antibiotic like baytril for when you really need it. We have recently seen the advent of so called "natural" or "herbal" remedies for various diseases coupled wit the implication that "natural" or "herbal" correlated with " safe". Many of these various herbs and natural products do work relatively well, however , they work because they contain actual drugs. Many of our antibiotics and even some of the toxic anti-cancer drugs come from "herbs". So it is important to remember that "natural" does not automatically mean "safe" or are they necessarily superior to the drugs on the market.

Well I am sure that this article has raised more questions than answers it has given. If you gain anything from this discussion I would hope that you would: Get an accurate diagnosis of your disease problem. Use the proper drug. Use the proper dose. Treat for the proper length of time. Resist using the newer drugs unless really indicated via various tests to prevent resistance from occurring.

Good flying.