Is this Fowl Pox?

[endermom]

I posted this picture a few days back, but no replies. Things have gotten worse since it was taken, with the bumps continuing to grow, and I believe that very soon her vision will be compromised. Does anyone know what this is and what I can do about it??

Her name is Anita. She was given to me by a friend at approximately 4-8 weeks of age. She must be in the range of 12 weeks now, but I might be way off on that. She is free-range on 1 1/2 acres by day and stays in a dry, well-ventilated coop by night with her brother and 7 young chickens of similar age. She gets standard poultry feed and fresh water daily. Coop has dirt floor with wood shavings (beginning of Deep Litter Method). The coop also contains an enclosed area with some straw "nests" for the chicken's eventual egg-laying, but she never really goes in that part.

None of the other birds have anything like this, though her brother does have some bigger bumps on his neck where it is all bumpy anyway, so I'm not sure if those are out of the norm.

Please advise.

Thank You!

Stacy (and Anita and Edward, the turkeys)

 

[boogiedog]

It looks like it could be- the dry pox version. A vet would know for sure. If you assume it is, you can use a cotton swab with iodine to get the bumps to dry up and go away; you may also want to try some antibiotic and vitamins in the water to help her condition while she fights it. It is contagious and spread through parasites like mosquitos and lice; try to minimize those vectors. It is "slow moving" so if your remaining flock is showing no symptoms you can innoculate them against it. Hopefully the bumps will scab up and fall off. Good luck!

 

[MotherJean]

I suppose it could be Fowl Pox, but I would expect to see scabs on those nodules. It also could be Mareks Disease. There is a form of that that attacks the skin causing raised feather follicles and tumorous growths. In both cases, there is no treatment. More importantly, in both cases, the disease is highly infectious and your other birds are at risk. I suggest you call your State Veterinarian through the Dept. of Agriculture without delay for expert diagnosis and advice. I hope, too, that you will come back and update this thread when you do find out what this is. This is how we all learn and it may help someone else in the future make a quicker diagnosis.

 

[endermom]

Update on Anita. Sorry this is so late, but I thought that those who answered would like to know how it all turned out.

With no one able to identify what the problem was, the growths got bigger and bigger, obscuring her eye completely. She looked absolutely horrendous, but still seemed to feel well and was eating and getting by on her own. Finally a lady at the local feed store told me that she had heard of this problem a few times recently, and that it was a disease passed on by mosquitoes. She said that she'd try antibiotic cream.

However, after looking at her for a while, another friend thought of the method that they used to use to castrate dogs "down on the farm"...a rubber band. Feeling that things were about as bad as they could get anyway, we decided to try it. We caught her, held her, and banded each growth, which now were hanging, the size of a ping pong ball and appeared to be filled with puss. Amazingly enough, after a few days, the growths diminished and began to turn black. Within 2 weeks, they had both fallen off. We used antibiotic cream on any sore spots that were left, and as of today, she is back to normal. You can't even see that anything was wrong with her. I am amazed that we got this cleared up, considering how bad it got.

Today, about a week after the 2nd one fell off, she looks like a normal turkey. I'm so relieved that she is all right!

None of the rest of the flock of turkeys, chickens, ducks and peacocks got it, whatever "it" was.

Thank you to those who advised.

Stacy