My poor chicken has fowl pox...is there ANY way to help at all?

[HeiHei123]

My little 9 m old chicken, Minnie, has fowl pox. She has a wart on the corner of one eye that is red and swollen and is very uncomfortable. She can hardly open her eye, and when she does open it(she tries to open it a lot) she shakes her head and wipes her eye on her feathers. Her feathers are now all crusty from eye goop and I feel so bad for her I've researched fowl pox and supposedly there's no way to cure it or help the poor chicken but I am a believer in natural remedies. Does anyone have any ideas on something that could help her body fight the virus? Or make it less painful? Any suggestions would be nice

 

[Eggcessive]

Do you have any pictures of her scab? It might help to clean her eye and apply some Terramycin eye ointment or or plain Neosporin into her eye twice a day. Make sure that she is eating and drinking, and probiotics wouls not hurt. Fowl pox is a virus that will run it’s course over a month or so.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Palliative care. Treat the symptoms, provide her nutritional support and ensure she's getting her liquids. That's it.

 

[HeiHei123]

Do you have any pictures of her scab? It might help to clean her eye and apply some Terramycin eye ointment or or plain Neosporin into her eye twice a day. Make sure that she is eating and drinking, and probiotics wouls not hurt. Fowl pox is a virus that will run it’s course over a month or so.

It is dark now so I will have to get a picture tomorrow. How do I clean her eye?

 

[U_Stormcrow]

and I don't know how many other birds are in your flock, but now that fowl pox is in the environment, it will remain there for a long long time. Expect it to slowly make its way through the rest of your birds. If you have mosquitos, and flocks closely nearby, there's some chance they may get it from your bird - assuming your bird didn't get it from them.

Even after your current bird recovers, it will remain in the environment, the fowl pox virus has been found in the scabs that fall off of healing birds, and from there, to infect others who might be digging around in the bedding or run.

The good news is that the "dry" version of fowl pox is only very rarely fatal, so prognosis is good, even if discomfort is certain in the short term.

 

[HeiHei123]

Is it possible for any of the other chickens to get immunity without catching the virus the longer it's around?

 

[U_Stormcrow]

The only way to develop immunity is to be immunized or catch and suffer the virus. Immunization is by way of dosing with freeze dried virus. Dosage for 1000 birds is under $20. That's the typical size the vaccine is sold in, I don't recall seeing it any cheaper.

Personally, I'd just accept that the flock has been exposed, and watch the virus progress, provide immunity in time, rather than rushing out to vaccinate a bunch of birds with freeze dried copy of a virus already in their environment.

Others may differ with me on that. I tend towards pragmatic.

 

[Eggcessive]

You can drip some saline or water on the eye, or apply a wet warm compress to the eye to soften the drainage. Wipe it out with tissues. Apply the ointment into the eye.

 

[Fallenone05]

We had no-see-ums really, really bad this year and my birds caught fowl pox as well. It was the dry version and they mostly had scabs on their legs and some on their combs. I made sure they ate and had plenty of water but otherwise just let it run its course. They'll be carriers for the rest of their lives and stress can bring it back out once it's healed. As long as your bird has the dry version of it, definitely just make sure they're eating and drinking. Clean out their poop board/roosting area a lot more often to make sure the scabs aren't as abundant to help stop the spread! Cleaning their waterers is also really important as the scabs will slough off their faces.

 

[HeiHei123]

Do you have any pictures of her scab? It might help to clean her eye and apply some Terramycin eye ointment or or plain Neosporin into her eye twice a day. Make sure that she is eating and drinking, and probiotics wouls not hurt. Fowl pox is a virus that will run it’s course over a month or so.