Dry Fowl Pox - Theory

[MariskaKilian]

About two weeks ago I had a chicken that suddenly had Dry Fowl pox. I looked on the internet but can't even find a case that looks as bad as my chicken looked. I thought she was going to loose her eye because it was a 1cm x 1cm big pox right next to her eye and her whole comb was covered in it. Huge big black pox. So I thought I'm going to lose her but then last week she started eating eggs. I didn't know at first that it was her and I caught all the chickens that joined the eating but not the one actually breaking the eggs (Lost about 120 eggs in one week) So Friday I caught her right in the act breaking the eggs and eating them. Saturday morning I got ready to go and sell her at the auction because she's eating eggs and I'm thinking to myself, nobody will want this chicken as she is full of the pox, so I might just give her away to anyone that wants her but when I got to the coop, there she was without any sign of ever having pox. All gone, not one ward, not even a white spot on her comb showing that she had it.

After I sold her I was wondering if this might be why she ate eggs and if it was the eggs that healed her so completely. She ate eggs for about a week and healed.

I only dealt with wet pox before and lost about 70 chickens so never with dry pox yet. Is this normal to recover so quick? One week and no sign of pox. Even her eye was healed? If someone has a chicken with dry pox I would love for them to try it and give feedback on how the chicken is. I don't have a chicken with it now so can't test the theory. I'll probably stir the egg good and give it in a bowl so that the chicken don't know its an egg and start eating eggs after that.

 

[QueenMisha]

I had a bought of dry fowl pox last year, mine definitely didn't recover so quick. Took about 8 weeks to run it's course through the whole flock, and another 2 after that for them all to be healed up. Most had active scabs for about 2 weeks.

Not sure about the eggs. I mean, maybe the birds somehow produced antibodies in the eggs or something? I have no idea. I know that mine did eat eggs during their infection - I had too many at the time and so was just chucking the extras at tree once a day and letting the birds eat whatever fell down (I know, I know, bad idea, results in egg eating - it didn't for my flock, but I've stopped doing it now, so the point is moot).

 

[MariskaKilian]

I would really like to see the outcome of this LOL you'll see us all feeding our chickens eggs every time they look sick haha