- Jul 18, 2009
- 18
- 1
- 24
Hi,
So my flock has the pox. Thursday one of my chickens died, and I didn't know what from. Then a couple of days later another hen was acting very strangely, so I brought her inside to check it out. She is wheezing a little, though not always, and I noticed these scabs on her comb. After spending a lot of time reading about chicken respiratory diseases and deciding she must have one of those, I then decided to look into what the scabs might be, found out about pox, then went out to the coop and now see that most if not all of my chickens have the same thing going on. It isn't very severe on anyone, that's why I didn't notice I guess-- they all just have a few small scabs at this point. I will have to go hang out there awhile to see if anyone else has the wet form as well, but haven't been able to do so yet, they are all still acting very normal, so I want to focus on the one who isn't first.
One thing though, they may have pox on the feet, the one thing I noticed on my little dead hen was how horrible her feet were, scaly leg mites out of control. Now I realize that may have been more then just scaly mites I was looking at. I worked on the mites this summer and dipped all the hens 3 times, but apparently I didn't get rid of them and they are back in full force. I should have just used the ivermectin and been done with it. I didn't realize at the time that ivermectin would have taken care of the worms and the mites.
I've read alot about wet and dry pox here, and I have some more specific questions about some of the things people have done to help their birds with this problem. I am new to self veterinary practice. I've read that the mucous can be scraped or suctioned out of the mouth throat-- but I am wondering what tools would be appropriate for this. A baby snot sucker perhaps? A q-tip for scraping? Also, many have put iodine/betadine on the lesions once they have been pulled out of the mouth/throat with tweezers. I though iodine was for external use only, so I don't know what to think about his. But clearly if I am going in there to remove these things, I'll need to put something on the tissue afterwards. Is there something safe to put inside the mouth? Is iodine truly safe for this?
Also wondering if I should take such extreme measures yet, since her breathing is only wheezy sometimes. Perhaps she is recovering on her own, or perhaps she is only beginning this thing and will get worse before she gets better.
I started to give her an antibiotic (because I thought she had an upper resp. disease) that I bought at the pet store for emergencies, the one I have is tetracycline (Duramycin 10). Now after all I've read here and elsewhere on the net, no one ever seems to use this one for anything. do I need to go out and try to find the one others use-- terramycin or fishzole-- or is this one OK too? this is the only antibiotic the feed store had, but I suppose I could try a bunch more feed stores for other types.
Thanks for any advice those of you who've been through this might have for me,
Angela
Also, I'm assuming that this is not a good time to give my flock ivermectin...
So my flock has the pox. Thursday one of my chickens died, and I didn't know what from. Then a couple of days later another hen was acting very strangely, so I brought her inside to check it out. She is wheezing a little, though not always, and I noticed these scabs on her comb. After spending a lot of time reading about chicken respiratory diseases and deciding she must have one of those, I then decided to look into what the scabs might be, found out about pox, then went out to the coop and now see that most if not all of my chickens have the same thing going on. It isn't very severe on anyone, that's why I didn't notice I guess-- they all just have a few small scabs at this point. I will have to go hang out there awhile to see if anyone else has the wet form as well, but haven't been able to do so yet, they are all still acting very normal, so I want to focus on the one who isn't first.
One thing though, they may have pox on the feet, the one thing I noticed on my little dead hen was how horrible her feet were, scaly leg mites out of control. Now I realize that may have been more then just scaly mites I was looking at. I worked on the mites this summer and dipped all the hens 3 times, but apparently I didn't get rid of them and they are back in full force. I should have just used the ivermectin and been done with it. I didn't realize at the time that ivermectin would have taken care of the worms and the mites.
I've read alot about wet and dry pox here, and I have some more specific questions about some of the things people have done to help their birds with this problem. I am new to self veterinary practice. I've read that the mucous can be scraped or suctioned out of the mouth throat-- but I am wondering what tools would be appropriate for this. A baby snot sucker perhaps? A q-tip for scraping? Also, many have put iodine/betadine on the lesions once they have been pulled out of the mouth/throat with tweezers. I though iodine was for external use only, so I don't know what to think about his. But clearly if I am going in there to remove these things, I'll need to put something on the tissue afterwards. Is there something safe to put inside the mouth? Is iodine truly safe for this?
Also wondering if I should take such extreme measures yet, since her breathing is only wheezy sometimes. Perhaps she is recovering on her own, or perhaps she is only beginning this thing and will get worse before she gets better.
I started to give her an antibiotic (because I thought she had an upper resp. disease) that I bought at the pet store for emergencies, the one I have is tetracycline (Duramycin 10). Now after all I've read here and elsewhere on the net, no one ever seems to use this one for anything. do I need to go out and try to find the one others use-- terramycin or fishzole-- or is this one OK too? this is the only antibiotic the feed store had, but I suppose I could try a bunch more feed stores for other types.
Thanks for any advice those of you who've been through this might have for me,
Angela
Also, I'm assuming that this is not a good time to give my flock ivermectin...