My entire flock came down with it early last week: The first to be affected are already clearing up and the rest are in various stages. Since it is a virus, traditionally transmitted my mosquitoes, it has to run its course and can spread rather slowly at times: So if you have a large flock it could take a while to get through them all. The good news is that once infected they should be immune to the strain they caught in the future.
The only caveat I have is watch their eyes closely as well as their eating/drinking. If they are off food and water open their beak and check their tongue to make sure they didn't develop wet pox, which is a problem. Also, if they get the lesions heavily around their eyes they can get a secondary eye infection which can blind them: I have two hens with this issue.
I check all my birds as I let them out in the morning and then again at lunchtime when I check their water. Two days ago I found an Ameraucana hen with one eye swollen completely shut. Then I found a Maran hen that had one cloudy watery eye and one swollen completely shut. I brought them to my hospital cages, which are on my back porch. I flushed their eyes with saline solution (used for contact lenses) and then had a bottle of Ciprodex on hand (antibiotic used for swimmers ear, but listed for optic use) and put one small drop of the Ciprodex in each of their affected eyes. Then I used a q-tip to apply neosporin on the skin around the eye. That was two days ago and their eyes remain clear. I am keeping them under observation until the lesions clear up...just to be cautious.
Otherwise, you will see a drop in egg production and a few of them may act mopey, but they'll be okay....nobody likes being sick.
The only caveat I have is watch their eyes closely as well as their eating/drinking. If they are off food and water open their beak and check their tongue to make sure they didn't develop wet pox, which is a problem. Also, if they get the lesions heavily around their eyes they can get a secondary eye infection which can blind them: I have two hens with this issue.
I check all my birds as I let them out in the morning and then again at lunchtime when I check their water. Two days ago I found an Ameraucana hen with one eye swollen completely shut. Then I found a Maran hen that had one cloudy watery eye and one swollen completely shut. I brought them to my hospital cages, which are on my back porch. I flushed their eyes with saline solution (used for contact lenses) and then had a bottle of Ciprodex on hand (antibiotic used for swimmers ear, but listed for optic use) and put one small drop of the Ciprodex in each of their affected eyes. Then I used a q-tip to apply neosporin on the skin around the eye. That was two days ago and their eyes remain clear. I am keeping them under observation until the lesions clear up...just to be cautious.
Otherwise, you will see a drop in egg production and a few of them may act mopey, but they'll be okay....nobody likes being sick.
