Fowl Pox - Cull or Give Away?

elizabethbinary

Songster
9 Years
Mar 22, 2010
1,580
7
149
Brisbane, Australia
****! A friend from the floods needed some chickens that needed watched and I kept them separate for a couple weeks but needed the pen for my new chooks. Anyway some scabs have come up and since I can gather it's not frostbite and the chicken is sneezing... it must be fowl pox.

Clearly I can't keep these birds. I have told my friend about it and she has not replied but if she does not have immediate adequate shelter, I don't know what I'm going to do. I know they can stay alive, they'll just have a bad lay rate - but I use my other hens for egg sales and I have my Hamburgs I do NOT want getting infected (they're still under quarantine, but they might have to go with my flock that may/may not have picked this up, so far so good).

Can I give them away or are they a cull? (if my friend can't get them back, that is).
 
My flock developed fowl pox shortly after I got them. My part of Texas has lots of fowl pox because mosquitoes carry it from bird to bird and mosquitoes are everywhere. There is no way to prevent fowl pox around here unless you vaccinate the chicks and apparently nobody does.

I gave my birds supplemental care and let them fight it off. They were fine.
 
Is it dry pox or wet pox? You may need to check their mouths and clear any mucous out if it is the wet kind. Neither kind of pox is deadly -although some birds struggle with choking if they have lesions in the mouth. They should recover and then they will have immunity thereafter.
 
Yeah I've seen there's no prevention/cure. Problem is nobody says what to do with the chickens once the chickens have it!

So once they have it, it runs through like the flu and they don't really get it again? So it's not a huge problem at all? Just keep these 3 away from my girls until it passes? I saw one of my hens pecking at the lesions.
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Once a bird gets it they are immune, but also a carrier. Worse, the pox scabs are loaded with the virus so the infected birds shed virus all over their environment. Unless you can bleach the area thoroughly, you are likely to keep having fowl pox.
 
Chicken.Lytle :

Once a bird gets it they are immune, but also a carrier. Worse, the pox scabs are loaded with the virus so the infected birds shed virus all over their environment. Unless you can bleach the area thoroughly, you are likely to keep having fowl pox.

Does the egg-laying decrease effect them permanently or only during the initial outbreak?​
 
A few years back, I had a turkey who developed Fowl Pox. She recovered fully after a few weeks, and never showed any signs of it again. In addition, none of the other birds caught it, and she continued to lay just fine. While it is true that the birds remain carriers, I personally have never had any problems with Fowl Pox aside from that one incident.
 
I found fowl pox to be no big deal at all, but I never had the wet kind, only the dry, which is what it sounds like you have. I didn't worry about their passing it around because it is carried by mosquitoes and you certainly can't stop mosquitoes. They kept their black spots for 3 weeks then suddenly all the spots went away. And since they were now immune, the next year nobody got it. The only treatment I did was to dab the spots once with an antibiotic ointment if near the eyes, or an iodine surgical scrub (Betadine) if they were not. And all that does is help prevent a secondary bacterial infection, since the pox itself is viral so there is no treatment. I don't know that it was even necessary but it seemed sensible.
 
So... don't cull, keep them separated (just in case) and wait it out? Cool.

I know a few of mine have had their immunizations but I'm not sure which ones (I have long since forgotten).... but you'd think the breeder of my Hamburgs would've been big on immunizing (nothing loses a show quicker than warts, I'd assume). I'm going to call th guy and see about at least getting them all taken care of, since they're my show babies.
 

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