Wet and Dry Fowl Pox - Graphic Pictures of Pus and Scabs

[bjosie2150]

These pictures are exactly what I got out of my hens mouth today and yesterday....thank you so much for posting this thread. I am fighting this right now with a few of my girls....what types of medication and how much did you give them in order for them to get well....my girls drink from a nipple watering system, do I need to do anything with that to prevent contamination and also are the other girls eggs ok to still eat?? Once all the rain stops here I am going to clean out all the deep litter in the coop and run (all dirt underneath) but I don't know what to do with the litter afterwards and I'm going to try to put in sand in both.....I also need to know what to do with their wooden nest boxes and A frame roost they have...do I spray it with something (how to disinfect)??? If anyone can help with those questions I would greatly appreciate it!! Putting a pic in here to show my first girl I noticed being sick....I hope that's ok.

 

[newchickincoop]

If you took stuff from mouth then I'm assuming she has wet pox ? I only felt with dry pox .. I'm sorry .... And bad timing with holidays hard to get some advice ... Hopefully some will start poring in .... Good luck

 

[casportpony]

These pictures are exactly what I got out of my hens mouth today and yesterday....thank you so much for posting this thread. I am fighting this right now with a few of my girls....what types of medication and how much did you give them in order for them to get well....my girls drink from a nipple watering system, do I need to do anything with that to prevent contamination and also are the other girls eggs ok to still eat?? Once all the rain stops here I am going to clean out all the deep litter in the coop and run (all dirt underneath) but I don't know what to do with the litter afterwards and I'm going to try to put in sand in both.....I also need to know what to do with their wooden nest boxes and A frame roost they have...do I spray it with something (how to disinfect)??? If anyone can help with those questions I would greatly appreciate it!! Putting a pic in here to show my first girl I noticed being sick....I hope that's ok.

The pus/plaque needs to be removed and have iodine q-tipped on the sores. If the birds aren't drinking they must be tubed fluids, then fluids and baby bird food or they will die.

Tubing info:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/805728/go-team-tube-feeding


-Kathy

 

[estamets]

Hey everyone, one of my girls has had dry pox for 6 weeks, and today I noticed that it's "gone wet." She had two small bits of pus inside the corners of her beak. She's been integrated with everyone up until now, and everyone has been getting extra vitamins and immune boosting treats.

I've got her isolated, and plan to check her mouth and clean with a saline-soaked qtip at least twice a day. Her dry pox are not severe: no extreme pustules, just scabs.

Is there anything else I should be doing for her?

 

[estamets]

ugh... 2 more birds with wet pox. I cleaned as much of the pus as I could (one on my Olive Egger is very deep and painful, so I did the best I could), using saline-soaked qtips. I've got those three isolated together. Advice and well wishes are appreciated.

 

[estamets]

So... How do you know when they're better?

 

[MrsBachbach]

ugh... 2 more birds with wet pox.  I cleaned as much of the pus as I could (one on my Olive Egger is very deep and painful, so I did the best I could), using saline-soaked qtips.  I've got those three isolated together.  Advice and well wishes are appreciated.

I don't have much experience with Pox, Kathy is the one with that experience, but I have read that it is possible to stop the spread of it throughout your flock if you can get the others vaccinated right away. So, isolating the affected ones is good and advised I would think. You have to make sure you change shoes when going pen to pen to stop the spread. Shoes(through poop), clothing and mosquitoes spread pox.

So, I would look online for the pox vaccine and get the rest of your flock vaccinated asap. Directions always come with the vaccine and I believe the pox vaccine is like a needle stick to the wing web. Shouldn't be hard to do. You might try a water sanitizer also to help stop the spread, but I'm not sure if it is spread through the oral route. As far as the afflicted birds, I have read that if the pustales block the openings in the mouth, they may have to be removed. If the bird stops eating you have to tube feed and water them to keep them alive until they get over this. Wet pox is bad, dry, not so much. So, i would prepare by getting something to crop tube feed them, then getting some food to feed them that will easily pass through the tube. There are instructions on crop tube feeding on this site if you do a search. That's about all I know.

 

[casportpony]

Can you post pictures?

-Kathy

 

[estamets]

I don't have much experience with Pox, Kathy is the one with that experience, but I have read that it is possible to stop the spread of it throughout your flock if you can get the others vaccinated right away. So, isolating the affected ones is good and advised I would think. You have to make sure you change shoes when going pen to pen to stop the spread. Shoes(through poop), clothing and mosquitoes spread pox.

So, I would look online for the pox vaccine and get the rest of your flock vaccinated asap. Directions always come with the vaccine and I believe the pox vaccine is like a needle stick to the wing web. Shouldn't be hard to do. You might try a water sanitizer also to help stop the spread, but I'm not sure if it is spread through the oral route. As far as the afflicted birds, I have read that if the pustales block the openings in the mouth, they may have to be removed. If the bird stops eating you have to tube feed and water them to keep them alive until they get over this. Wet pox is bad, dry, not so much. So, i would prepare by getting something to crop tube feed them, then getting some food to feed them that will easily pass through the tube. There are instructions on crop tube feeding on this site if you do a search. That's about all I know.

Can you post pictures?

-Kathy

I'll get pictures when I do the mid-day cleaning. I just poked at their mouths for a while and I'm sure they're tired of me for the moment.
None of them are bad enough to need tube feeding, just a few lesions (one at the corners of her beak, one on her tongue, and one has a deep one on the roof of her mouth that I can't dig out). They are all eating and drinking fine, and mad as hell to be stuck in the mini coop.

Here's what I'm doing:
1. change gloves and lay down fresh paper towels on work surface.
2. grab bird, wrap in chicken burrito towel
3. use saline-moistened q-tips to remove build up
4. swab all lesions with iodine

I'm not too worried about any of them; they have plenty of energy, are eating well, and I caught this problem before it built up or spread too far. It's just a bit more work to do 3 times/day. I'm considering vaccinating my 7 healthy ones.

 

[estamets]

Pics! Kathy, I commend you for your amazing pictures - it was REALLY difficult to get anything useful. These pics were taken at noon, about 4.5 hours after the morning cleaning. Thankfully, nothing was overly colluded, and I pulled out very few chunks this time around.

This is the one I'm most worried about. Chuck has what seems to be a very deep lesion on the roof of her beak. She has a crooked beak, and this is on the side that is not protected by her bottom beak. It's about 1/8" in diameter, and it causes her a lot of pain when I futz with it. I tried digging it out with the blunt end of a needle, and I couldn't make any headway. I'm rubbing it with warm saline and treating with iodine until something changes. Considering taking her to a vet, who will likely have the tools necessary to remove it.
(crooked beak, cute face!)



Waffles has a lesion along the side and bottom of her tongue, and inside the bottom beak on that side (though I cleaned that this morning and it's looking much better this afternoon). The tongue is difficult to scrape clean because she wiggles it a lot.


Coconut is the only one with dry pox. I'm simply treating those with iodine, and Vetricyn for the ones near her eye (other side, not pictured)


Coconut was impossible to photograph, I apologize for the bleariness of the photo. If you squint, you can see the lesion right at the corner of her beak. This is on both sides, equally sized. Yesterday, I removed 1/8"x1/4" chunks from the sides of her beak in those areas. This morning, a little more, and this afternoon almost nothing.


With each of these girls, the areas where plaque is built up has diminished since yesterday (fewer places to scrape clean), and the build up is not returning very quickly.
My check of the 7 others this morning showed no symptoms; I'll check them all again in the morning. I ordered vaccine, and will vaccinate them all when it arrives.

Advice and feedback is appreciated.