Now dealing with WET POX!!Thank You BYC!!

[kinardmommy]

Can someone please help me! I just noticed these lesions/sores on my cockrel Spot. From everything that I have been able to find researching, I think it may be fowl pox. Can anyone help or give me any useful info? Thank you

 

[Pine Grove]

Yep, Thats fowl Pox(Dry Form)..Iodine, Black Shoe polish or the big felt tipped Magic markers will help dry the sores, but will do nothing for the virus, it runs it's course in individual birds in about two weeks, But can take months to go through the whole flock Vitamin therapy is helpful..things go fairly smoothly unless complicated by the wet form(inside mouth and throat) in this case it's hard to control, as scrapping the sores only spreads it,,Separating infected birds from the non infected does no good unless you have mosquito proof inclosures to put them in..Vaccination will stop further outbreaks in healthy birds.......You may want to think about vaccinating in the future

 

[kinardmommy]

So I get up this morning and go out to the coop and one of my cockrels has blisters around his mouth and I open it and there were blisters all on the inside. One of my small pullets had them inside her mouth too and her eyes were filled with fluid to the point that she could not see. It is like this just happened overnight. The cockrel in the pic above is still doing fine and shows no signs of wet pox. Does this virus just mutate in some birds or what? I am so upset, I feel like everything is contaminated and I have three small children. This whole thing freaks me out and I am at a total loss on what to do. I have chopped the heads off the ones with wet pox and disinfected feeders and water containers. I am just sooo mad and disappointed!!!un

 

[dlhunicorn]

There is no way to know beforehand if drypox will turn into wet pox except vigilence (and that is something you must do yourself)...
...since you decided to cull ("chopped their heads off") the ones with wet pox (no blame there... many do not have the time nor the reason to treat it when their flocks are livestock) then this is probably the reason noone has offered any further suggestions to you for treatment.
Identify and control of mosquitoe breeding areas is all you can do outside of yearly vaccinations if you live in an endemic area (call and ask the advice of your local extension office)
There is nothing to fault BYC for .

 

[DuckLady]

I am sorry that you are dealing with this.

I do have to ask....by your title of

Now dealing with WET POX!!Thanks for nothing BYC!!

it seems you were expecting the membership here to do something to solve your illness?

Please read here
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=3569

particularly
Remember that we are not veterinarians. We help based on our own research and experiences.
We cannot monitor the board 24/7, and therefore do not guarantee we can always help, much as we would wish to.
We should never be a replacement if real medical attention is required.
If your situation seems to require a trip to the vet, please do so. It is always a good idea to know of an avian vet in your area in case your situation is bad enough that we cannot help. We encourage you to visit the Reference Forum and read up there before you need the information.

I understand youa re upset, but please don't chastise the members here for not knowing what to do to help you.

 

[pips&peeps]

Quote:
This is usually spread my misquitos. Someone around you has an infected flock. When buying poultry it is best to buy chicks, not started birds and to find out from your local vet or from your Dept of Agriculture what kind of bugs are floating around so you can vaccinate.

I have heard of many cases of fowl pox in Texas.

 

[arlee453]

I thought PineGrove's post pretty much summed it up...

There's just not much you can do except treat the symptoms and hope for the best since it is a mosquito borne illness. Sorry you are going through this.

 

[Blisschick]

In my experience, there's not much you can do beyond mosquito control, and for many, that's just impossible. There's also no way of telling when dry pox will become wet pox. Some individuals seem to be more predisposed than others, probably due to a slightly weaker immune system. The majority of my birds that ended up with wet pox survived it, with a few who I had to cull after it became apparent that they were not going to recover. Sometimes they lose an eye due to secondary infection from a pox on the eyelid, but it doesn't affect their quality of life. This is where you should go ahead and put some antibiotic in their water to help them out until the infection has run it's course.

Don't worry about your kids catching it -- it's not transferable to humans, just strictly poultry. Ironically, it's the same kind of thing as kids catching chickenpox...once your birds have it, they won't catch it again.

 

[Psittizen Shikkin]

now maybe you can change the title :|

 

[kinardmommy]

Thank you everyone for your input. I was not expecting anyone to solve the illness, I just wanted some encouragement I guess. This stuff is really terrible and I just feel so sorry for my chickens. Every morning and evening I cover the sores with betadine. I started an antidiotic yesterday and I am also giving them boiled chopped egg everyday. We have two industrial size bug zappers so I have both of them by the coop. I guess there isn't much else that can be done. I will never assume that my chicks have been vaccinated anymore. I bought some of them from a local feed store that orders their chicks from Ideal. I do not know who that is but they do not vaccinate for Pox. I have ordered the Pox vaccine but I don't know if that will do any good for the ones who are not infected yet. Anyone know anything about that?

Thanks to everyone again and I apologize if my title was offensive. I just had a horrible day and there was no need to show my aggression here. Sorry.