Flock Pox?

[kirstonz]

We took in 20 battery hens. They have been doing so well and are really starting to act like chickens do! A lot of them have bad feather loss. Then last night I noticed some black circular spots on the chickens combs. Also some have black spots on their back's where feathers are missing. None of the spots look raised and they appear to be old? Some of the ones with feather loss have bright red skin though. I'm wondering if they are nearing the end of their infection? They had always been in battery cages so I don't think it would be frostbite. Or could it be some sort of scar from a previous infection?

I'll try to get some pictures of the black marks to add in right now.

 

[149east]

If it's fowl pox - we had it externally and it was no problem. But then my oldest hen got the wet (internal) kind, she developed all the cheesy stuff in her mouth everybody writes about. We held our breath, gave vitamins and electrolytes and finally broad spectrum antibiotic in an eye dropper. Somehow she did pull through. But definitely the 'dry' kind was no problem at all

 

[kirstonz]

Thank-you! So even if the spots don't look bad they could be in the middle of the break out? I was thinking it could just be nearing the end since it looks so mild. Is there anything we can do to prevent it from turning wet?

 

[149east]

You will notice I am a 'new egg' so others may have more info than I do, it was hard to find info on whether the different poxes are the same strains of a single virus, different viruses, or what. What I can just share is that the contagion was incredibly uneven: my grandmama hen (6 years old) got the 'wet' kind, 1 of my young ones got the dry kind, and none of the other 6 got any fowl pox at all (including another older hen - also 6 years old - she was totally unaffected). The one that got the 'dry' kind never got the 'wet' kind, and vice versa. So fingers crossed for you! There is a lot written about fowl pox, some of it's pretty scary but my flock is living proof that you can pull through - even with the wet kind. Good luck!