Rooster has black smudges on cone and face

[Minniechickmama]

Go out at night after he roosts and grab him. That is the easiest way.

Do you have any other roos or a bully hen? That sort of looks like what happens when one of my birds gets pecked on by a bully.

However, if it is pox and they are irritating to him, I would also consider some kind of hydrocortisone cream or even some antiseptic type cream with allergy treatment in it, like Benadryl cream.
Or if you want to go more natural, try aloe vera, it is soothing and harmless.


Good luck with him. He looks like he wants to run away while you were taking the picture.
Welcome to the forum!

 

[3eggeaters]

Thanks.

 

[BrattishTaz]

I have no experience with fowl pox so I can't really know for sure if that is what he has or not. I can tell you that my rooster looks like that right now because he was just in a fight with a neighbor's roo.

My big boy has had similar injuries as well and it usually heals in a week or so.

ETA- I just read you can tell the difference between injuries and dry fowl pox by watching to see if it spreads. Injuries will not spread.

 

[3eggeaters]

Oh, good to know. Thank you!
I only have one other full grown adult. I have never seen my hen tear into the rooster before but maybe she got fed up with him.

 

[Minniechickmama]

I don't think I have this problem, but sometimes they will peck at each other in the coop when they are locked up. Some hens can get pretty nasty, so even if you haven't got another roo, you could still have a domestic dispute on your hands.
I don't know how common Fowl Pox are, but I would look more closely to see if it isn't just injury. When they fight and things dry from the wounds, it looks black like that.
Being that he is light colored though, I would think you would notice blood on the feathers if that were the case.

 

[Albanydog]

I have never seen pox before but have had roosters look very similar only to heal up on their own. Theirs has always been caused by fighting with other roosters, just dried blood, scrapes and scratches. Hope it isn't serious for your roo.

 

[3eggeaters]

Hope that is all it is and that I can keep him out of trouble from now on... He's a pretty handsome devil when he's not all banged up!

 

[NorthTexaschick]

He looks like he's been scrapping to me.

 

[Minniechickmama]

What breed is he supposed to be? and I agree with the previous post, he does look like he has been doing a bit of scrapping with someone.

 

[Chickengal505]

Can I ask something real quick? If it was indeed dried blood, wouldn't it be scabby, as OP said it wasn't? Or wouldn't she be able to wipe some of the dried blood off?