Noticed black spots on chicken’s comb

[LisaS89]

A few days ago I noticed some of our chickens were getting black spots on their combs. Almost looked like scabs. Then today one of the chickens had saggy and watery eyes. I’ll attach pictures. Can anyone help me determine what is going on/how to treat it?

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Suspect fowl pox.

Positive other, more experienced, posters will be along shortly and likely confirm.

Compare to the pictures from this owner, from Florida, in a thread posted yesterday.
You don't indicate where you are, but if you've had a lot of rain lately, so mosquito populations are up - or you've recently brought in new birds - both are vectors for disease introduction to your flock.

 

[LisaS89]

Suspect fowl pox.

Positive other, more experienced, posters will be along shortly and likely confirm.

Compare to the pictures from this owner, from Florida, in a thread posted yesterday.
You don't indicate where you are, but if you've had a lot of rain lately, so mosquito populations are up - or you've recently brought in new birds - both are vectors for disease introduction to your flock.

Thank you! It does look like that and we have had a lot of mosquitoes lately. Is there anything I can do to help them?

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Thank you! It does look like that and we have had a lot of mosquitoes lately. Is there anything I can do to help them?

Palliative Care and time.

The good news is that the dry form of fowl pox is generally not fatal - though the very old and the recently hatched tend to have the worst time of it, due to either weakened, or still developing, immune systems (respectively). The bad news is that fowl pox will remain in the environment for months after the last chicken has shown symptoms - the virus can remain in the scabs which have fallen off into the run, etc for quite some time, ready to infect another bird who comes in contact with it while scratching around.

The "participation prize", as it were, is that your birds, once infected and recovered, are likely to exhibit immunity to that particular strain and closely related strains for what is probably the rest of their natural lives. Oh, and it is *NOT* transmissible to humans. It may, or may not, be transmissible to other poultry, if you have them - and some who can carry it will show no symptoms (often the case when certain varieties move to turkeys or ducks or vice versa).