dry pox in chick Help!!

[Judy]

Thanks again, Pop! I'll see if I can find some around here Monday.

 

[threehorses]

Quote:
There is great purpose to the betadine - preventing secondary bacterial infections where the scabs are. Usually they're not problematic, but when they are - they can be devestating and go systemic.

I know of one case of dry pox at the moment where the whole head of the chicken is inflammed and the eyes are closed (and by inflammed I mean hugely inflammed) that started as simple dry pox sores.

Incidentally, the illness is spread by dropped scabs and by insect vectors. Once the bird has a scab, the virus is inside of them - so treating topically won't stop that spread (but you can help them not get skin infections by treating the scabs or under them).

But the scabs themselves become a vector of disease as they drop off - I bet that's what they meant about doing the shoe polish, but that leaves the underside of the scab? You can't catch all those scabs - mine all dropped off in one day when I didn't pick and throw them away. You can vaccinate, but I haven't (until this year's bad pox and now I think I shall.)

Good news is that once they have this, they're immune for life! Bad news is that it takes 3-4 weeks for recovery. Boosting their nutrition (with special attention to vitamin A) during this time is the best way to go.

 

[ellieroo]

Okay black shoe polish will be tried I knew there had to be something! Thank you all so much. We have horses and I have an arsenal of meds for them and the dogs and the cats and ... you all get the picture! Someone should wright down those old tried and true healers my guess is a lot of them are excellent!

 

[Judy]

Thank you, again, threehorses! And my chickens thank you, too. Especially my poor little P. Rock. I'll bet I can help her with the Betadine.

 

[threehorses]

Sometimes those scabs stick - mine I couldn't get off, period.

You could alternately try neosporin ointment on each one. The petroleum in it should soften the scabs' hold and treat at the same time. That might help.

I'm still intrigued with the black shoe polish thing! I'm with ddawn on that!

 

[Judy]

Well, I went with the Betadine except on the worst one, the P. Rock, who had lesions scattered all over her head including right by her eyes, so I used Neosporin (good thought, threehorses; I might have thought of it, too!) She'd been pecked on her head since I saw her earlier this PM, and several of them attacked her pretty badly while I was in there, so I isolated her, too. Never heard a chicken scream like that before; won't forget it if it happens again; I can hear the louder noises from inside the house, fortunately.

I couldn't get the lesions off, either. Very few were raised, they were just little black splotches, or that whitish scattered powdery looking stuff that they get first.

The BO roo also needed Neosporin for lesions near his eye, and he is a keeper, so I'll be able to follow his progress. The P. Rock will go in the freezer tomorrow, along with the last of the extra roos and maybe a couple more hens.

I was going to try the shoe polish on some of them for comparison, but got busy with the P. Rock's problems instead; had to set up a cage in the coop for her. I believe they would have killed her.

 

[threehorses]

Omigosh, for such lovable animals, they can be so horrible can't they?? /cry!

And yes - sometimes those lesions just sick like you'd never get them off. I really just couldn't this year without doing something like soaking their heads in oil, which I was reluctant to do. They just got pretty bad and honestly I'm about "done" with pox! They were all healthy though - sometimes that's the side effect, ones that just feel crappy. You do apparently still have to watch out for combined wet/dry pox (because what? Dry pox isn't bad enough??). I've been reading a lot on this (well lots of stuff) lately because of my disgust with this year's pox. So if you get a chance, or ones that look droopy, be sure to check inside their mouths for the cheesy stuff. HOPEfully you will have none of that and only a light case.

And it takes 4 weeks - yay. But at about 2-3 weeks, I started to notice that the black scabs looked more brown - and then next day boom - they were all gone.

The turkeys here - heavens, they get it bad. All that unfeathered area. They were literally like little plague victims one day, and then pretty and pink faced the next. (Boo for all the scabs I'll never find - time to buy some Oxine and hope it works!) So be forewarned.

I'll be one of the ones looking for updates or just general whining (well earned - please feel free) about "when will this end? ever?"

/hugs ddawn. You have a lucky flock!

 

[Judy]

Yeah, wet pox has been worrying me. In this heat they all look like they are in some resp. distress at one time or another, which does not help a bit. So far, nothing else, though, no cheese. One reason the P. Rock goes to freezer camp is that I fear this is just the sort of case that could become wet. If that's how it works.

As for 4 weeks, humph. It will be fall before they get through passing it around, I fear. The PR's, NHR,s, SLW's, and the BO have multiple lesions. The BA's and EE's have none, or one or two tiny ones. I have lots more BA's than anything else. I figure when I am through treating the first group, the BA's and EE's will be next on the agenda. Or maybe they are less susceptible; who knows. Will be interesting to watch. I have not seen any of the black spots turn brown or disappear. Wish I had written down when this started. The lit said, no treatment, so I have been ignoring it. Oh well.

Actually I have two flocks in separate quarters. The yukky cases are in the new one, which is around 23 weeks, and this is who I was treating tonight.

The old flock (they are around 18 months) have just a few tiny black spots on their combs. This bunch is free range and goes to the woods in the heat of the day; I can't go near there without loading up with bug spray because of the mosquitoes; there is a small swamp in there. I do think I saw black spots last summer. For sure, the swamp was there last year as well, and we had plenty of mosquitoes. So they must have been exposed last year. So why am I seeing any black spots if they should now be immune? Their egg production is fine, BTW, and they look healthy.

I messed up any experiment by putting a roo from the new flock with the old flock yesterday. He sure took to his new harem, month old chicks and all. The harem did already have those few black spots. His case is very mild. I did not treat them. The month old chicks have no black spots; they are from the feed store. Going to just watch and see in that flock, I think, if no one gets in trouble.

Anyway, they will all get eggs, yogurt and vitamins tomorrow morning. No turkeys here, yet. No telling what the next animal will be, though.

 

[threehorses]

Well technically one shouldn't have turkeys with chickens. /looks askance So be glad!

On the ones in the woods - did they get black spots last year? Weird thing here - we usually have pox, little cases yearly. This year - birds not on old ground, not on ground at all, hardly any mosquitoes (we were in a drought), and the worst pox yet. Go figure! But surely your mosquitoes this year started something. Who knows what they do when we're not watching.

It can be other insect vectors, but honestly I can't imagine what could be more infective than mosquitos as far as bugs go. So if yours didn't have pox last year, it could be they just missed it.

Mine - and I almost hate to admit this - but the ones that had pox this year I didn't separate out. I figure everyone in the cage at that point was exposed. Most all got a spot or two, two got none, several got quite a few, the turkeys got hammered. (First case of turkey pox ever...) So honestly as far as the new roo with the old flock, I wouldn't worry horribly.

It's the younger ones I worry about more - because they're just more delicate. But my younger ones have always done good, so hopefully yours will too. Maybe they'll not get it at all. I wonder if they were vaccinated?

The diphtheric cases are just the ones that worry me. Honestly I never worried about combinations until this year when I heard of two. Most of the literature says only one or the other. But my disease books say both is possible, and low and behold... But hopefully it's not common.

And yes - most literature - even great disease texts say "no treatment" - but good old practical poultry keeping, there are some treatments to prevent secondary problems. So technically and correctly there are no treatments for the virus pox. So sometimes the wording of those books and the technical papers is misleading to people like you and me who just want our birds to be healthy first, technicality of rules come second.

That was another important lesson I learned this year: Everything you know about pox, rethink.

P-Rock might be fine. Honestly a bad case often turns out fine. (Boy, haven't I learned that this year - seriously I could kick myself for not photographing the turkeys - I just have 2 cockerels.) So if you keep her - or not - keep that in mind.

Hopefully your cases will be done soon. Seriously it was the last minute when mine dropped scabs. It was day 1293 = scabs. Day 1294 = brown scabs. Day 1295 = disease? What disease?

<--- For those reading this, I'm joking about it being 1295 days - just felt that way.

HUGS to you. it's all a learning experience even after years of it. There's always some good new yucky surprise for poultry lovers!

 

[Lollipop]

Boy, I feel for all of you that are dealing with this. Fortunately things are quite good here in GA and mosquitoes have been scarce, at least in my area. Don`t miss dealing with pox at all. Hope all recover soon.

ellieroo, Please advise on your situation as info is available....Pop