Avian Pox & Zucchini

[Horgers]

We just experienced an outbreak of dry pox throughout our flock. The first infected hen was completely blinded by sores and scabs for more than a week- so much so that my husband researched humane ways to put her out of her misery. After all of my reading, the best advice I found was to quarantine the infected from the others. Every day, another hen got moved into the quarantine coop until finally there were so many that we moved anyone that wasn't at risk of being pecked to death back to the main flock. The weather in East San Diego has been miserable - most days in the 100's, which I feel exacerbated the virus and the spread. At the same time, our garden was exploding. For the first time, I offered chickens in both flocks zucchini that was starting to go to seed and they loved it. And, almost overnight we began to see a huge improvement in our infected chickens, and a reduction in the spread. I looked it up, and not surprisingly, zucchini is high in antioxidants. So, with no evidence other than our own experience, I think raw zucchini - and possibly other veggies high in antioxidants - may be a good treatment for similarly infected birds.

 

[Eggcessive]

Glad that you have seen some good results with the zucchini treats. Sorry that your flock has suffered with a bad case of pox. My chickens have always enjoyed the extra zucchini in our garden, and you might be onto something. Of course, they do need water and their usual balanced chicken feed as the large portion of their diet.