Wet pox gone afowl

[MarilynHukill]

This will be my third bird I've lost to wet pox. I can see some of the others have a form of dry pox. When reading on treatment I've tried the oxine in water, scraping the pox and applying iodine solution. Hasn't worked. The symptoms are showing up too late I guess. I check their mouths first thing now, when i see one that seems off.
Is there a chance I can get rid of it? Cleaning up their debris and removing several inches of the floor of the coop has been my thoughts.
I am incubating some eggs now. Most from a farm sale, but put a few of my own in. I read now that the hen can pass the pox to the chick, should I be concerned? I'd like to get the vaccine and vaccinate them and all the others, but if the chicks can have it as they are born wil it work? Vaccine protocol says to wait until 8wks.
I've raised chickens for many years in a northern climate and NEVER had these issues. It seemed it was all predator related problems then. That was 25 years ago though.
Sorry for the long post. Very frustrated and disappointed right now.

 

[dawg53]

Fowl pox is normally spread by mosquitos but can be spread by contact via infective dry pox scabs. Scraping scabs will also cause the virus to enter the bloodstream, thus causing wet pox. Why in the world would you scrape infective scabs, and unknowingly spread the virus?

Applying iodine to the scabs alone is enough to shrink the scabs, prevent infection, and scabs will eventually disappear. Black shoe polish will do the same and birds wont pick or peck at the scabs. If scabs are left untreated, in time they eventually fall off onto the soil. However they are still very infective and if picked up and eaten by a chicken, the chicken will get wet pox.

You can remove wet pox lesions inside the mouth with tweezers. There will be blood, swab the mouth using q-tips or cotton dipped in iodine to kill the virus.
If you see lesions back toward the esophagus or trachea, it would be best to cull the bird because they will either starve to death or die from suffocation. Lesions will be down in the esophagus and trachea, and possibly further down.

You can order the fowl pox vaccine from Jefferspet.com and follow the instructions.
I've dealt with fowl pox, but never vaccinated for it.

 

[Eggcessive]

Good advice from @dawg53 . Pox is not passed through the egg to chicks, but being with an infected broody can exposes them. Young chicks get a lot worse infection from pox, and it can be common to have large swollen scabs around the eyes and face, making it hard to see to eat and drink. Disturbing the scabs can spread the pox from bird to bird, and you don’t even need to treat them at all. They will usually get better in 2-3 weeks.

You live in an area that is one of the worst for pox because of the mosquitoes. If possible it would be good to separate the birds with it from the ones who don’t have it. The ones who have not yet gotten pox can be vaccinated. Sorry that you are losing birds, but wet pox is very deadly.

 

[MarilynHukill]

I didn't scrape the dry pox scabs. The ones in the mouth were removed and swabbed with iodine.

 

[Eggcessive]

I didn't scrape the dry pox scabs. The ones in the mouth were removed and swabbed with iodine.

Good to know that you just meant that you were scraping the wet pox inside the beak. I hope that you stop losing chickens.

 

[dawg53]

I didn't scrape the dry pox scabs. The ones in the mouth were removed and swabbed with iodine.

That's good to know, thanks!
There must be unseen lesions in the trachea and/or esophagus and I'm sorry you're going through this. Wet pox is a tough disease for birds to have and not much else you can do.

 

[elmo]

We had a young rooster survive wet pox. I thought he was a goner for sure, he was so weak he was sitting down. We left him at the vet thinking we'd have to pick up his body in the morning.

Turns out simple antibiotic treatment (Clavomox) did the trick. He was crowing again the next morning! We brought him home, kept him isolated, and continued antibiotic treatment for seven days. He recovered fully.

Now, he was young and strong. The pox in his throat didn't interfere with his breathing or eating once the swelling from the infection went down.

If I had a bird with wet pox again, I'd try antibiotics first.

 

[dawg53]

We had a young rooster survive wet pox. I thought he was a goner for sure, he was so weak he was sitting down. We left him at the vet thinking we'd have to pick up his body in the morning.

Turns out simple antibiotic treatment (Clavomox) did the trick. He was crowing again the next morning! We brought him home, kept him isolated, and continued antibiotic treatment for seven days. He recovered fully.

Now, he was young and strong. The pox in his throat didn't interfere with his breathing or eating once the swelling from the infection went down.

If I had a bird with wet pox again, I'd try antibiotics first.

Fowl pox is a virus, and antibiotics are ineffective against virus. However, your rooster may have had a secondary bacterial infection going on and the clavamox took care of it as evidenced by the swelling going down. That's good news.

 

[elmo]

Fowl pox is a virus, and antibiotics are ineffective against virus. However, your rooster may have had a secondary bacterial infection going on and the clavamox took care of it as evidenced by the swelling going down. That's good news.

Yes, of course. Sorry I didn't make that clear. The antibiotic treatment took care of a secondary bacterial infection.