Black spots on my chickens combs

[imtethered]

another view of the Roo's comb

 

[imtethered]

I have another question onlong these same lines...
As it turns out I didn't have pox or mights, it was pecking spots.
I want to thank everyone who helped

Now I'm wondering if I should use dust as a preventative with my Chickens and if so does it affect my egg, will I be able to eat them?
I'm going to use Y~TEX Garden & Poultry Dust from Tractor Supply, the label is not very informative and I was hoping someone could help???

 

[flgardengirl]

Mosquitos or biting flies etc. will leave little scabs on the combs as well. If its already freezing where you live it probably isn't mosquitos though.

 

[serenityNH]

I just came on here to post the same thing about my girls. The spots look very, very similar. So it ended up just being peck marks?
Thanks!

 

[descaii]

Is it possible your chickens have the bubonic plague?

 

[chickenzoo]

Just looks like peck marks. The dusting wont deter the other chickens from pecking each other, but if you are worried about your chickens having mites etc..then you can dust and not worry about the loss of eggs.

 

[chickenteacher2]

Thanks, all, I thought my girls had either mites or fowl pox, but all the pictures of real pox, looked like, well, pox. This looked smaller, so I didn't know if they had a milder version or what, but pecking makes more sense. Yaay! It's not as bad as I thought.

 

[CHICTWEET]

In response to imtethered & walltenters, My small flock of 14 is suffering from the same symptoms of mostly small black dots on their combs. I am certainly no expert, but upon doing research I am of the conclusion that even the small dots as seen in the picture of imtethered's rooster, is indeed fowl pox. As I stated, I am no expert in regards to chickens, but I am somewhat of an expert in the area of research & drawing conclusion or predictions based on my research. I owned my own advertising & marketing agency for several years & worked in the field years prior to owning my own agency. One of my primary tasks was doing marketing research, drawing concrete conclusions from that research, making predictions based on my findings, spotting & predicting current & future trends & consumer habits. PHEW! after spitting all that out, my point is that I too first thought that my chickens had mites,pecking lesions, or a fungus, based on most of the photos of fowl pox infections . But my experience taught me that after researching if you still can not say confidently that this is or is not the answer, you need to do more research! So i continued researching the topic & I began to find photos, not as many as the more obviously large black & white lesions found in most of the photos, but enough photos of chickens with fowl pox that had the smaller black spots; more like my chickens & your photo displayed. I actually drew my conclusion based on the research information that I read. I found out that walltenters was right in the case of Avian pox looking much larger in a lot of cases, mainly in the cases of the 'wet' Fowl pox, or when they have both 'wet & 'dry' forms of the virus. But in the cases where the birds have just the 'dry' fowl pox, the virus generally starts out with the small black spots, & the spots may increase in size & quantity, or they may remain like 'pin pricks' if the birds are relatively healthy & get plenty of sunshine, fresh air, & room. The reason for the birds having only small black spots is that the virus will clear up with the above mentioned conditions before it spreads & worsens; the dry fowl pox which is noted by having only the black spots will generally run its course within 2 weeks. You can aide the recovery time & reduce the risk of the more dangerous 'wet' form of the virus which is characterized by the white blisters, spots or lesions, on the combs, wattles, feet, & even in the mouth, throat, beak opening, vents, & occasionally even appear on the body, and can lead to more dangerous secondary infections to the respiratory and ocular health of the bird when the virus gets in the eye area, beak & throat. The 'wet' virus can even lead to death, but it does not have to if it is caught in time & properly treated. The best treatment is the previously mentioned conditions along with Vitamins A, D, E, these oil vitamins are most effective in the oil form, as in liquid drops. B12 and the range of B vitamins is also very helpful in that it increases the birds energy, willing the bird to thrive and fostering a healthy appetite. Individual birds can be given infant vitamins like Poly-Vi-sol readily found in the baby section of drug & grocery stores, a few drops per bird. It is best to give the vitamins on a treat like a piece of bread or smashed egg yolk as it provides the extra protein which aides in their recovery (that is what the research recommended, personally I find it a little disturbing feeding my chickens eggs!). One more point, is that you do want to make sure you buy the "no-iron" formula of baby vitamins. You can also buy poultry vitamin formulas, but my guess would be that like most things specifically formulated for animal species, it will probably be more expensive, but I am just guessing at that. The last bit of information I found was that these vitamins are actually recommended anytime your chickens are not feeling well or acting listless, or not laying as usual, or may be sick. Fowl pox is spread by mosquito bites and by the scabs which fall off & can remain infectious for months. So it is probably a good idea to change the bedding & rake the chicken area, to prevent new infected birds.The final news is good; your birds will never develop fowl pox again, like chicken pox in humans, you only get it once & new birds can be vaccinated to prevent ever having it. I hope all of this information has been helpful. I tried to condense it down as much as possible, but it was a lot of information, so i am sorry it still reads like a novel. And please don't forget that this is the conclusion that I reached concerning my flock, and as I stated, i am NO chicken expert, so I hope this info will help you to reach your own conclusion concerning your birds. If you would like to read most of this for yourself go to: http://hoeggerfarmyard.com/how-to-easily-diagnose-and-treat-fowl-pox/

 

[giannini]

Hey Chictweet! Thanks for your post, and all of your investigation. I think my girls may have the dry form of the virus. It started on my leghorn who gets picked on by a few of the other girls. I thought maybe it was a peck injury. But tonight I gave all of my 8 girls a look over. It seems that a few of them have the little spots. It's VERY dry, and hot where I live right now so I think that is keeping it mild. Also, they are very healthy girls. I have just recently started using oregano oil, and I had purchased it originally to give to the chickens in case(and in lieu of) I needed an anti-biotic. Oregano is amazing. It has many qualities(anti-bacterial, anti-viral, anti-biotic, pain reliever, blah blah blah). If anyone is interested, you should google it. I'm going to start putting it in their water tomorrow.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

I have had dry fowl pox, it's quite a bit more than that, it covers their face, their eyes swell shut, it's crusty and quite horrible looking, those little black spots are nothing, maybe peck marks, not fowl pox, not near nasty enough.