Fowl pox what can be done to help with it?

[Eggcessive]

Human chicken pox and avian pox are not the same and not infectious to one another. As long as your chickens only have dry pox, it may not be that serious, unless they get wet pox which can exhibit yellow lesions inside the beak and throat. Make sure they are eating and drinking enough. Here is some good information about pox:
http://www.thepoultrysite.com/diseaseinfo/63/fowl-pox-pox-avian-pox
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/vm021

 

[ten chicks]

Hi All !

Is there no vaccine for this ? My favorite girl has it bad, started about 3 weeks ago, and today another girl has started. Feel so bad for them. I just got over a bad case of Chicken pox myself ( at 65 tears of age !!! ) Did I give it to them or they gave it to me ???? Hubby is pediatrician - bet he brought it home to all of us !! LOL !

Sheila in Mexico

Yes there is a vaccine for Avian fowl pox and no you did not give fowl pox to your girls. Fowl pox is commonly spread by mosquitoes,it is highly contagious but relatively slow spreading,so separate any birds showing symptoms. Dry pox lesions usually dry up and fall off in roughly 2-4 weeks,but can affect your flock for weeks or months,be diligent on watching other birds.

Pox can be either dry(lesions on unfeathered parts of body)or diptheritic(wet pox)of the two wet pox is serious as it affects the oral cavity and upper respiratory tract(yellow/thick/cheesy substance). If mucus/pus causes respiratory issues then it may have to be removed manually to prevent choking/suffocation,dab iodine on lesions before or after removal,there maybe pits in tissue after removal. Birds may not be eating/drinking. Iodine can be used on dry lesions(dry pox) also. Birds are also susceptible to secondary infections with pox,usually respiratory in nature.

 

[Sheila in Mexic]

Thank you both for replying. I did vacinate for pox when I recieved them but now I think did not do it right - - - those two pronged needles sure hurt them and I hate to hurt an animal........... the last four hens I changed tactics and used an inslin syringe to apply .05ml in arm pit. Guess will have a long sige of this as it spreads through the flock.. Do not have room to isolate more than one or two birds at a time without exposeing them to the dogs who want to "play" with them. Hubby brough me some antiviral drops for babies and stared giving it to them as of this morning - hope it helps. In all my experiance with animals pediatric human meds have helped alot. ACV in everyones water helps with biteing insects - but I bet the first girl (red) came with it incubating in her. This year has be abnormally wet and the mosquitoes are like bi-planes.

Am trying to find a safe place to put the two bumblefoot patients as is................... sigh

 

[livininbrazil]

I´ve enjoyed reading through this. I currently have 4 x 1-month-old chicks with it. I´m thinking of moving my chickens´ run, as their run is near the road, where my neighbour´s chickens wander about, and they go down with it on a very regular basis. This is now the second year I´ve had it here with mine.
I´ve read that wild birds can also carry it, as well as mosquitos, so it seems it´s almost impossible to avoid it.
Last year a number of my young birds got it, and three small chicks stopped eating, they couldn´t see anything, so I hand-fed them for a week until they could see again. I lost one chick, and one of the survivors lost his eye through it. He now has a hard lump under his eyelid, I don´t know what I can do about that. Those three younger ones that got it were really sick. I bought some stuff here that´s supposed to help, but I´m not convinced it does much.
There is a vaccination against it, but I can only get it for 100 birds at a time, and it´s expensive, so not worth it. I don´t breed that many birds.
So now I´ll go and catch up the 4 and see what I can do to take the scabs off and apply iodine carefully. One has it all over its eye. I didn´t think to do that last year, I didn´t imagine it could help them, poor things. Everything I read just said that they get over it... (The older ones all got over it very well, just had scabby faces. You wouldn´t know now, and it certainly hasn´t interfered with egg production for them either).
Interestingly, it´s just these younger 4 that have it now. The older chicks seem to have avoided it so far. The adults have already been exposed last year, so they´re not likely to get it now, I think.
Right, off to catch me up some chicks....