Hen Has Black Spots on her Comb and Wattles

chickeepoo

Songster
11 Years
Mar 10, 2008
319
1
139
Orlando, FL
Only one of my 4-month old hens has developed black spots on the bottom of her wattles and the back area of her comb- plus a couple of whitish spots that look like dried blisters (?) What is this, and how do I treat it? My four birds free-range during the day around our yard and have their poultry food available to them. And do I need to separate her from the others?
 
My camera is on the blink, but I'll try to describe it. The edges of the wattle and the back edge of the comb have black, bubbly/crusty spots varying from 1/8 to 1/4", with one bigger one on the bottom of the wattle… almost looks "moldy" to me. We've had lots of rain lately and mushrooms growing, but I didn't think the birds would grow anything. The hen doesn't act sickly, and this has to have developed just in the past couple of days to the point I would see it today.

I just checked all the birds closer and saw that they ALL have the condition to varying degrees… googled the symptoms and it looks like Avian Pox, hopefully the dry type. They aren't having breathing troubles or symptoms around their nose and eyes, so I guess that's a good thing. Has ANYONE dealt with this before? From what the site read, there is no treatment for this- I just didn't quite get whether the virus just eventually leaves them (as long as it doesn't get bad and they have to be culled), and whether the eggs they'd eventually lay are OK to eat, etc., or whether I have to cuoll them all and start fresh.
*note- I did visit my friend's property who has free-range chickens and who has noticed something similar on her birds in the past, but she loses birds occasionally to predators and they're out all the time- hard to keep tabs on symptoms, etc. I read that the Pox is highly contagious, if this is what this is.

Please respond if any of this sounds familiar.
 
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