The Legbar Thread!

[chichichickapea]

I like to go in my coop when they are all settling in on their roosts....it is the only time my Legbar Roos let me get close to them and pet them. I noticed tonight that they have lots of black and tan spots on their combs that were not there 2 days ago....kind of wart like....wondered if it was mites....examined their legs well....not a mark on them. Came in and got on BYC.....I think they have avian pox...the dry kind. But, I am now starting to put 2 & 2 together....noticed the other day that another pullet had several black dots...but I just thought someone pecked her. I have had 3 birds with a closed eye...one had a black dot on top of the lid....again I thought someone pecked her....I put an opthalmic ointment on their eyes one got better, 2 got better...then worse...then better...gave her away....got worse and he put her down. 3 I just started doctoring on ....today is day 3 eye still closed...would this be from avian pox too? It has been very wet here and we have a great supply of mosquitoes....I saw where people suggested seperating infected birds...but what good will that do if mosquitoes can get to them everywhere in my coop???? We have our yard sprayed once a month for mosquitoes..... They say it can stunt their growth!!!! I am so upset...I know one Legbar and one Isbar has it...

 

[blackbirds13]

I like to go in my coop when they are all settling in on their roosts....it is the only time my Legbar Roos let me get close to them and pet them. I noticed tonight that they have lots of black and tan spots on their combs that were not there 2 days ago....kind of wart like....wondered if it was mites....examined their legs well....not a mark on them. Came in and got on BYC.....I think they have avian pox...the dry kind. But, I am now starting to put 2 & 2 together....noticed the other day that another pullet had several black dots...but I just thought someone pecked her. I have had 3 birds with a closed eye...one had a black dot on top of the lid....again I thought someone pecked her....I put an opthalmic ointment on their eyes one got better, 2 got better...then worse...then better...gave her away....got worse and he put her down. 3 I just started doctoring on ....today is day 3 eye still closed...would this be from avian pox too? It has been very wet here and we have a great supply of mosquitoes....I saw where people suggested seperating infected birds...but what good will that do if mosquitoes can get to them everywhere in my coop???? We have our yard sprayed once a month for mosquitoes..... They say it can stunt their growth!!!! I am so upset...I know one Legbar and one Isbar has it...

Oh that is awful!
I know there is a vaccine you can use and that some suggest giving them yogurt. I agree with you that separating them may not be a solution due to the mosquito issue. I've not had to deal with this so I cannot imagine your distress. Hopefully it will work out with little harm to your flock in general and there must be threads on here with more solutions that you can try.

 

[GaryDean26]

agreed. I want to see that difference. All my cockerels looked virtually identical when they were chicks and still look virtually identical at about 16 weeks. gonna band them and photograph tomorrow.

A lot of you have already seen the down color differences from my cockerels. They were so different when I started that I too want to see how they grew out. I need to get some more side-by-side photos of the grown cockerels, but will put something together in the next couple of days to post.

 

[Dirt Farmer]

I like to go in my coop when they are all settling in on their roosts....it is the only time my Legbar Roos let me get close to them and pet them. I noticed tonight that they have lots of black and tan spots on their combs that were not there 2 days ago....kind of wart like....wondered if it was mites....examined their legs well....not a mark on them. Came in and got on BYC.....I think they have avian pox...the dry kind. But, I am now starting to put 2 & 2 together....noticed the other day that another pullet had several black dots...but I just thought someone pecked her. I have had 3 birds with a closed eye...one had a black dot on top of the lid....again I thought someone pecked her....I put an opthalmic ointment on their eyes one got better, 2 got better...then worse...then better...gave her away....got worse and he put her down. 3 I just started doctoring on ....today is day 3 eye still closed...would this be from avian pox too? It has been very wet here and we have a great supply of mosquitoes....I saw where people suggested seperating infected birds...but what good will that do if mosquitoes can get to them everywhere in my coop???? We have our yard sprayed once a month for mosquitoes..... They say it can stunt their growth!!!! I am so upset...I know one Legbar and one Isbar has it...

Having disease in your flock is always distressing. From what I read, if it is dry pox, there are certainly worse things to have show up. I've had two disease outbreaks in the last 6 years. My lesson from those was to keep things as clean as possible, provide an excellent diet, keep the coops lightly populated, isolate as much as possible, and breed for resistance. Also don't hesistate to get professional help. Your state may offer many low cost services. Even if you have to pay a private vet, that can be cheaper than a bunch of prolonged ineffective go-it-alone "treatments". In a few weeks I'm guessing you will have your pretty happy chickens back. Keep in mind all of those master breeders who have beautiful stock have likely been breeding the same line for 20+ years. They undoubtly have had disease outbreaks in that time but they dealt with it successfully.

 

[Phage]

chichichickapea- That sounds just like avian pox. Our birds got it 2 years ago. It seemed to be everywhere in San diego at the time. They all got it despite not all being together, and we do not have that many mosquitos.
I freaked out as I am fanatical about biosecurity. It looked bad for a short while (a week), and then got better. 2 birds got it on an eyelid and did not look great , so they were isolated and got a shot if IM Tylan and both recovered fine. Now I am quite pleased they all got it as I would not want to have that every year or so (they can only get it once). It got 4 juvenile birds but it did not seem to stunt growth in them.

 

[Phage]

Crests and combs
Crests cause a deformity in the skull of the bird. The larger the crest the larger the skull deformity.
The skull deformity prevents the comb from being straight as there is less room at the base of the comb to emerge straight. Also, the larger the crest the more likely it is that the comb will not be straight, so larger combs will appear to be more affected but the skull deformity.

There are multiple genes and factors involved in crest size, but the overall take home message is indeed that a large crest will likely lead to a deformed comb. It is tough to have both a large crest and a straight comb on a single bird.

 

[redchicken9]

Chichichicapea, I'm not sure I know what Avian pox looks like. Sorry that you're going through this. Based on Phage it sounds like you'll pull through! Do you think you could post a shot of one of your affected birds?

 

[chichichickapea]

Oh that is awful!
I know there is a vaccine you can use and that some suggest giving them yogurt. I agree with you that separating them may not be a solution due to the mosquito issue. I've not had to deal with this so I cannot imagine your distress. Hopefully it will work out with little harm to your flock in general and there must be threads on here with more solutions that you can try.

I do feed them yogurt...but haven't in about 2 weeks. The vaccine is for before not after....

 

[chichichickapea]

Having disease in your flock is always distressing. From what I read, if it is dry pox, there are certainly worse things to have show up. I've had two disease outbreaks in the last 6 years. My lesson from those was to keep things as clean as possible, provide an excellent diet, keep the coops lightly populated, isolate as much as possible, and breed for resistance. Also don't hesistate to get professional help. Your state may offer many low cost services. Even if you have to pay a private vet, that can be cheaper than a bunch of prolonged ineffective go-it-alone "treatments". In a few weeks I'm guessing you will have your pretty happy chickens back. Keep in mind all of those master breeders who have beautiful stock have likely been breeding the same line for 20+ years. They undoubtly have had disease outbreaks in that time but they dealt with it successfully.

chichichickapea- That sounds just like avian pox. Our birds got it 2 years ago. It seemed to be everywhere in San diego at the time. They all got it despite not all being together, and we do not have that many mosquitos.
I freaked out as I am fanatical about biosecurity. It looked bad for a short while (a week), and then got better. 2 birds got it on an eyelid and did not look great , so they were isolated and got a shot if IM Tylan and both recovered fine. Now I am quite pleased they all got it as I would not want to have that every year or so (they can only get it once). It got 4 juvenile birds but it did not seem to stunt growth in them.

I was/am very concerned reading about it can stunt their growth....my LBs are around 12 weeks old.

 

[chichichickapea]

Chichichicapea, I'm not sure I know what Avian pox looks like. Sorry that you're going through this. Based on Phage it sounds like you'll pull through! Do you think you could post a shot of one of your affected birds?

I will try to do that this afternoon.