FOWL POX do I treat lesions or leave them alone??????????

[chuckzoo]

Clean out bedding, wash and spray with a disinfectant that kills the fowl pox virus. I would have to check the data sheets, but Vircon-S, oxine and novalsan are good disinfectants.

OK, at the risk of making a total fool out of myself, if Vircon-S kills the virus could it be used to treat the lesions?

 

[tulie13]

Quote:
I believe the answer to that would be NO, just from the idea that you wouldn't generally want to put a "cleaning solution" onto a living creature. Besides, they have it in their systems already. The only reason to clean everything out would be to possibly prevent any NEW chickens from getting this, but yours should be immune to it in the future. And disinfecting the coop isn't going to prevent a mosquito flying in and biting any new chicken on the comb, and then BAM you've got it again. I wouldn't worry about it. It looks nasty, and you need to watch their eyes (if they get a lesion near their eye, it may want to stick shut), but other than that, it should run its course and be gone in a few weeks. Don't panic!!! If you have an eye sticking shut, rinse it with sterile saline and put some Terramycin eye ointment in it (or some other ophthalmic eye ointment). No biggie!

 

[chuckzoo]

Thanks tulie 13, and yes I was starting to panic and you calmed me down.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

My point about cleaning out and changing the bedding and disinfecting was for after the disease has run its course to prevent chickens who have not had the disease to acquire it from contact with the scabs from the infected birds. You're right; that won't prevent mosquitos from infecting them, but removes a constant threat. Treating the yard and coop to prevent mosquitoes is as or more important in my opinion.

 

[Sunny Side Up]

I live in an area that used to be swampland here in South Florida. There is little you can do to eliminate mosquitoes without spraying tons of insecticide around, which I think is worse than the bugs. I try to reduce the number of things that collect standing rain water, but there are mosquitoes who can breed in a cupped leaf. Every summer I have chickens affected by fowl pox, but it is always the new young birds. The older ones already have immunity, even though I see mosquitoes swarming around them as they roost.

I rarely treat the lesions, and have rarely had any problems with the affected birds. They usually get better all on their own. It does bear watching, to make sure it isn't affecting their eyes or nostrils. Only once did I have birds get the wet form of the pox and die. And this year I had a tiny Dutch bantam roo get some lesions on the very end points of his comb and it seems to have caused them to fall off. Or maybe they got pecked off because they were already raw.

So if you have some rare & valuable birds, or special show birds, you may want to take more protective measures & more radical intervention. You can even vaccinate the birds against this. Otherwise, just watch & monitor to insure it doesn't affect their soft moist tissues, watch for infection, and wait for it to run its course.

Some folks here use black liquid shoe polish to cover the lesions. The waxy liquid seems to help them dry up & fall off.

 

[markat2011]

I have ran into the same problem all of a sudden with this stinkin "fowl pox". I have two black japanese bantam hens and a mille fleur duccle rooster that are showing signs of this viruse. I too clean and disinfect my coops, feeders, amd water containers. I dilute 50/50 water and household bleach in a garden sprayer and spray every inch of the coop. I am sooooo devastated by what has happened, but from everything i have read the only thing to do know is sit back and let it run its course. THIS SUCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[iguanasal]

My chickens that get this hve recovered on their own but some young free range ones weakened and have died off one of them we decided to put in the brooder and give him vitamin water with a little antibiotic and he seems to not be getting any worse and is better off with the pampering I recommend if UR birds have this make sure they are warm and have fresh cool water and very broken down food so they keep eating and drinking often and stay strong during there recovery

 

[BrentecVaccines]

There is no treatment or cure for fowl pox. The lesions are not life threatening and they are self limiting i.e. the lesions recover leaving dry scabs. It is best to protect the birds by vaccination. The vaccine is effective and also cheap. If some of your chickens already show signs of the pox, vaccinate all that have no signs immediately to stop the spread. However, the more serious disease of birds that is highly fatal is Newcastle Disease. But this too, can be prevented by vaccination.

 

[bleu chick]

I am in Houston where we have mosquitoes year round. I put a small fan (from an old computer server because they are super sealed and aren't affected by all the dust) on a timer to keep mosquitos off the girls at night. However my fan finally died this spring. We replaced it with another non server fan that doesnt put out much air movement. And suddenly I have 3 hens with dry pox. Since I have never had this before, I blame the mosquitos (not the cleanliness of the coup).

I fully recommend putting a fan on a timer in your coup. The one that lasted about 7 years was an old 10 inch round server fan (must have 110 power). They run about $40-$50 used but they last way longer than any else I have tried. They are built to work in hot and dusty conditions.

 

[DDMiniFarm]

I've been reading the posts here on Foul Pox and Blackhead as I've apparently had a case of both at the same time.

We had a rooster get very ill and almost overnight. I separated him on a Friday when I noticed him acting off. He was taken to the vet the following Monday and by then both eyes were swollen shut and looked horrible.

They put him down and I took him to the state lab for an necropsy. Preliminary report is Pox and Blackhead. With a possible 3rd something or the other. We are just waiting for the results to come back from the culture.

I'm glad I found this site and all the great information that I have learned. My coop is cleaned often. It is 8x16 and I keep a box fan going during daytime hours. Some of the chickens free range during the day so of course the fans do not work then with those.

I currently have one bird with spots on her comb and one that has cleared up drastically. I noticed 2 spots on the turkey today so I hope that all it is on him is Pox and not blackhead.

We are waiting on the tox reports because we (the vet and I) want to make sure to treat appropriately as you can't eat the birds or eggs for 1 year if you worm them.

So again, thanks for such great information from your own personal experiences. I'm new to birds and I plan to learn as much as I can.