Fowl pox?

[bryan8]

One of my hens has black dots on her comb.. I'm not sure if it cuts or fowl pox.

What is the teatment for fowl pox?

Thanks

~Bryan

 

[Judy]

Does sound like fowl pox. It's a virus so there really is no treatment for the disease itself. It will run its course and then they will be immune.

Many put some Betadine or Neosporin on the black spots to prevent a secondary bacterial infection, which is not unlikely if there are a large number of them, or they cover large areas. Also, watch for wet pox, which is lesions in the mouth/respiratory system, which can be fatal. Some say vaccinating them after the lesions start helps to shorten the course or make it milder, but most just let it run its course and watch for complications, I believe. I did the latter, and they are fine now. I had one (of 25 or so) who got a really heavy load of lesions, and the others started attacking her and pinning her down and pecking. Her whole head was swollen from secondary infection, and I ended up culling.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

Fowl Pox is spread by mosquitoes, so you need to remove standing water, add Mosquito Dunks to any that you cannot remove amd spray all brushy areas where mosquitos gather as well as the coop with something like malathion that will kill mosquitos. This will reduce, but not eliminate them, so in addition, nightly spray the coop with a repellant such as you would use on yourself.

Iodine on the lesions will cause them to dry out and scab over and heal sooner; swab any internal lesions with listerine (original iscky tasting kind).

 

[PunkinPeep]

A friend of mine (Bedste on BYC) had fowl pox in her flock, and she chose to vaccinate the birds who weren't sick, and had great success. The vaccine is about $6/1000 doses, so it might be worth it to you.

Let me see if i can find the link to her thread.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=257709

She actually has several, and there have been quite a few fowl pox threads here lately. I think this one will give a lot of helpful information to you.

In wet areas like where we live, mosquitoes are not preventable, and i'm not willing to use the amount of poison on my land that it would take to really keep the mosquitoes away. So i think for us, the vaccine is quite reasonable, and it's pretty cheap.

 

[oldhen2345]

OH Lord, I think a couple of my birds have Fowl Pox. I did look in Aunt Boo's mouth and did not see any lesions or scabs. Freida would not let me look. I hate I did not notice it sooner. I have just put out four 5 wk old chicks in the yard. Should I wait a week and vaccinate them? Should I vaccinate all? How can I stop the spread? I went out tonight to check out the birds- they get head to toe checks, sprayed for mites and wings clipped in the spring and just before the weather gets too cold.

 

[Isaac 0]

View attachment 2376121View attachment 2376123
OH Lord, I think a couple of my birds have Fowl Pox. I did look in Aunt Boo's mouth and did not see any lesions or scabs. Freida would not let me look. I hate I did not notice it sooner. I have just put out four 5 wk old chicks in the yard. Should I wait a week and vaccinate them? Should I vaccinate all? How can I stop the spread? I went out tonight to check out the birds- they get head to toe checks, sprayed for mites and wings clipped in the spring and just before the weather gets too cold.

I'm sorry to hear your birds are having problems. It does appear to be dry fowl pox.

I see you haven't received a reply for a few days. If you start your own thread, instead of posting in an old thread you tend to get more replies.

Regarding your questions as far as treatment. For the hens affected with the lesions, I would apply either iodine to disinfect and dry the lesions out, or use an antibacterial ointment to keep the lesions from infecting the tissue underneath, or spreading into her mouth subsequently leading to the wet form which is harder to treat, and more deadly.

The lesions are highly contagious so it may be best to separate the hens affected with them for now. Cleaning, and disinfecting the coop may be beneficial.

If you want to vaccinate them, that is up to, generally, birds recover after a weeks/month, and then are resistant to the virus thereafter, but, I did find some literature here that suggests there may be benefits even if the birds currently are affected with the virus.

"Vaccination effectively prevents the disease and may limit spread within actively infected flocks."

 

[oldhen2345]

I'm sorry to hear your birds are having problems. It does appear to be dry fowl pox.

I see you haven't received a reply for a few days. If you start your own thread, instead of posting in an old thread you tend to get more replies.

Regarding your questions as far as treatment. For the hens affected with the lesions, I would apply either iodine to disinfect and dry the lesions out, or use an antibacterial ointment to keep the lesions from infecting the tissue underneath, or spreading into her mouth subsequently leading to the wet form which is harder to treat, and more deadly.

The lesions are highly contagious so it may be best to separate the hens affected with them for now. Cleaning, and disinfecting the coop may be beneficial.

If you want to vaccinate them, that is up to, generally, birds recover after a weeks/month, and then are resistant to the virus thereafter, but, I did find some literature here that suggests there may be benefits even if the birds currently are affected with the virus.

"Vaccination effectively prevents the disease and may limit spread within actively infected flocks."

Thank you so much. I really appreciate it. Have cleaned and bleached the waterer and feeder and will clean and Oxine the coop today. I will rake and sift all the feathers / poop from the run and put down fresh sand. Will probably do all of this once a week for a month to help cut down on any infections.

 

[Eggcessive]

I would keep the young chicks away from mosquitoes and the pox affected chickens. It is a much more dangerous disease in baby chicks. Fallen scabs or disturbing scabs can spread the disease, but it is mostly spread by mosquitoes. Here is a good article about pox:
http://extension.msstate.edu/publications/fowl-pox-backyard-flocks

 

[oldhen2345]

I would keep the young chicks away from mosquitoes and the pox affected chickens. It is a much more dangerous disease in baby chicks. Fallen scabs or disturbing scabs can spread the disease, but it is mostly spread by mosquitoes. Here is a good article about pox:
http://extension.msstate.edu/publications/fowl-pox-backyard-flocks

Thanks. My chicks are in a separate enclosure entirely and have not left it to free range as yet. I did clean and rake out the enclosure before putting the chicks in, but the hens did go in there to investigate before I populated it. As soon as the vaccine arrives, all of the unaffected poultry will be vaccinated. Since the pox lives on for awhile on the ground, I guess any new chicks I bring in over the next couple of years will have to be vaccinated as a precaution.