Is this fowl pox?

[Hyun]

She does not feel good. She is sitting most of the time. I have to move her in and out of the coop most days. She will eat treats but don't know if she is eating her regular food.

If so, what can I do to help her feel better until this passes? I now have 4 other hens which I assume will get it so do I do the same for them as I do for her now or do I wait until they show symptoms before I do anything to them?

 

[Wyorp Rock]

She does not feel good. She is sitting most of the time. I have to move her in and out of the coop most days. She will eat treats but don't know if she is eating her regular food.

If so, what can I do to help her feel better until this passes? I now have 4 other hens which I assume will get it so do I do the same for them as I do for her now or do I wait until they show symptoms before I do anything to them?

Can you get some more photos of the sides of her face and ears?
Doesn't look like Fowl Pox to me. Look inside her ears for infection.
Both earlobes look to have scabs along with the side of her beak - can you take a look inside her beak for lesions or canker?

 

[MommaHen1996]

Looks like fowl pox she’s already started to heal from….

 

[Hyun]

Can you get some more photos of the sides of her face and ears?
Doesn't look like Fowl Pox to me. Look inside her ears for infection.
Both earlobes look to have scabs along with the side of her beak - can you take a look inside her beak for lesions or canker?

View attachment 2719463

I don't know if this is close enough. I might need another set of hands and my husband won't be home until later. The part that is black on her ears started out as white last week. It turned into black scabs a few days ago. How do you look into her ears? I looked into her mouth and there are no lesions or sores. Her crop is empty though she is taking treats (mealworms). I gave her some water via syringe bc I don't know if she is drinking.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

The part that is black on her ears started out as white last week. It turned into black scabs a few days ago. How do you look into her ears?

Where are you located in the world?

The earlobes both look to be infected from something. Hard to know what from. Have you noticed any other scabs on other parts of her body besides the head? Any lice or mites?

I would clean the scabs and apply triple antibiotic ointment. Her lethargy/not feeling well is concerning. Do what you can to get her drinking, then offer some wet mash.
An antibiotic may help, but it's hard to know which one since we don't really know the cause of the infection. With no lesions inside the beak...Amoxicillin may do the trick, you can order fish mox online. If you notice any other symptoms, then let me know, I might change my mind LOL

To look inside the ears - lift that little tuft of feathers that I have circled - you should see inside the ear canal. It should be clean and free of debris, mites and/or infection/pus.

 

[Hyun]

Where are you located in the world?

The earlobes both look to be infected from something. Hard to know what from. Have you noticed any other scabs on other parts of her body besides the head? Any lice or mites?

I would clean the scabs and apply triple antibiotic ointment. Her lethargy/not feeling well is concerning. Do what you can to get her drinking, then offer some wet mash.
An antibiotic may help, but it's hard to know which one since we don't really know the cause of the infection. With no lesions inside the beak...Amoxicillin may do the trick, you can order fish mox online. If you notice any other symptoms, then let me know, I might change my mind LOL

To look inside the ears - lift that little tuft of feathers that I have circled - you should see inside the ear canal. It should be clean and free of debris, mites and/or infection/pus.

View attachment 2719939

I am really grateful for your help. I am in NC, just outside Charlotte. It's been hot and humid. I will check the rest of her body for scabs and her ears when my husband gets home. I did check her for mites/lice yesterday and I did not see anything on her feathers or underneath on her skin. I can check more thoroughly when I have a second pair of hands so I can do later tonight for sure. The white flecks you see in the pic are from dirt and plant debris. Thank you so much..I really don't want to lose another chicken but really also want to be sure she isn't suffering.

 

[Hyun]

I am really grateful for your help. I am in NC, just outside Charlotte. It's been hot and humid. I will check the rest of her body for scabs and her ears when my husband gets home. I did check her for mites/lice yesterday and I did not see anything on her feathers or underneath on her skin. I can check more thoroughly when I have a second pair of hands so I can do later tonight for sure. The white flecks you see in the pic are from dirt and plant debris. Thank you so much..I really don't want to lose another chicken but really also want to be sure she isn't suffering.

I hate to bother you again but she does have scabs on her body. Is this a sign that she has mites and I just can't see them? I did look again tonight and didn't see anything but honestly, I don't know what I am looking for. I assume they would be little bugs moving around on the base and follicles of her feathers..I saw none of that. I saw patches of scabs on 3 different areas. I assume there are more. They were pinkish/reddish/brownish hard scabs. What does this mean?

 

[Wyorp Rock]

I hate to bother you again but she does have scabs on her body. Is this a sign that she has mites and I just can't see them? I did look again tonight and didn't see anything but honestly, I don't know what I am looking for. I assume they would be little bugs moving around on the base and follicles of her feathers..I saw none of that. I saw patches of scabs on 3 different areas. I assume there are more. They were pinkish/reddish/brownish hard scabs. What does this mean?

It's no bother.

You should see bugs crawling if there's lice. Mites for the most part live in housing and come out to feed at night, so checking at night is a good idea. Take a white paper towel and rub it along the roosting bars at night (top and bottom), you should see tiny bugs and/or red streaks from them being mashed.

I'm going to take a guess the scabs are not from mites/lice. To me, it does look like skin lesions. Whether it's fungal, bacterial or something like cancer/Marek's disease, it would be really hard to know.
You don't happen to have photos of what the ears/face looked like before she developed the scabs she has now. You mentioned them being white.

Anyway. Still hard to know which direction to go. I think to treat the scabs, I would use Blu Kote which has anti-fungal and anti-bacterial properties, but that's just to try to heal the scabs/lesions. We still don't know the cause. With her not feeling well, then she may be suffering from infection. Amoxicillin is fairly broad spectrum, you can try that. Baytril (enrofloxacin) is a much stronger antibiotic but it is banned for use in poultry, just so you know. Sometimes a vet will prescribe it and of course some folks on BYC do too.

I so wish I had better answers for you.

 

[Hyun]

It's no bother.

You should see bugs crawling if there's lice. Mites for the most part live in housing and come out to feed at night, so checking at night is a good idea. Take a white paper towel and rub it along the roosting bars at night (top and bottom), you should see tiny bugs and/or red streaks from them being mashed.

I'm going to take a guess the scabs are not from mites/lice. To me, it does look like skin lesions. Whether it's fungal, bacterial or something like cancer/Marek's disease, it would be really hard to know.
You don't happen to have photos of what the ears/face looked like before she developed the scabs she has now. You mentioned them being white.

Anyway. Still hard to know which direction to go. I think to treat the scabs, I would use Blu Kote which has anti-fungal and anti-bacterial properties, but that's just to try to heal the scabs/lesions. We still don't know the cause. With her not feeling well, then she may be suffering from infection. Amoxicillin is fairly broad spectrum, you can try that. Baytril (enrofloxacin) is a much stronger antibiotic but it is banned for use in poultry, just so you know. Sometimes a vet will prescribe it and of course some folks on BYC do too.

I so wish I had better answers for you.

I don't know if this is her but she looked like this until her ears started to turn white. I'm sorry I should have just googled the mite situation and it would have told me what to do. I went out 2 times last night..both times the girls were not settled and awake. I don't know if they need to be sleeping for the mites to be active. I didn't bring a paper towel but I did check their legs and nothing. I'll do the paper towel thing tonight.

If it was mites, wouldn't they all have scabs or some symptoms of mites? My other girls have no scabs or injuries, have bright red combs. I have another one that I'm starting to get worried about. I thought she was broody bc she keeps sitting in a laying box. If I move her, she gets puffy and mad but it's been a while. I remove the eggs from her, hoping she gets up but she hasn't yet. She's in the coop so she has access to food and water all the time. Now I'm typing this and wondering if I should be more worried about her.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Lovely hens.

Mites could cause some scabbing if the birds are picking at themselves.

It does sound like your girl may be broody if she's puffing up when you move her. A hen that is broody will brood air, so removing eggs won't break her.
You may need to move her frequently or place her in a cage raised up on blocks for air flow. No bedding in the cage - sounds mean, but if she's got something to nestle in/make a nest out of, if she's a committed broody, then she'll just nest in the cage. The idea is to get air flow and reduce her temperature/break the "spell". I'm home most of the time, so I've had good luck locking them out of boxes/moving them out of boxes and making them get up and move around during the day and at night, making them roost - still might take several days to break them. I have had to resort to caging one and turning a fan on her too - stubborn girl she was!