This is something that you as a chickeneer have to decide for your flock, to vaccinate or not for various chicken diseases. I live in swampy Southeast Florida and do not vaccinate my birds for fowl pox. It only affects the young chickens because the older birds have already been exposed and have built their own immunity to it. The affected ones look pitiful for a while, but usually get over it all by themselves with little to no assistance from me. A long-time chickeeneer in my town says to put black liquid shoe polish on the lesions, which I've also done sometimes.
The dry form usually doesn't harm the birds and once they've had it they don't get it again. BUT if I had show birds I would vaccinate, I do have a little bantam rooster who lost a few points off his comb because he got fowl pox lesions there. My birds aren't shown, so it doesn't matter as much to me. And Lester doesn't seem to miss those points, his wives still think he's a handsome little hunk.
There is also a wet form to the pox, don't know if it's the same virus or if the vaccine protects against this. This form affects the mouth & nostrils and can be fatal. I've only seen it happen during one year, and did lose a few growing chicks to it.
The vaccine is easily obtained & seems easy to administer. There's a double needle you dip in the vaccine and poke through the web of the wing. I don't think you can store the vaccine once it's been mixed. If I had a larger chicken budget I might consider vaccinating for fowl pox. But so far it hasn't done much harm to my flock.
My $.02, the decision is up to YOU. And of course,
