Wet Pox???? - need help to be sure that's what it is - before we vaccinate!

TinyBirds

Songster
10 Years
Jul 9, 2009
779
84
181
Texas
Two of our birds have developed these yellow growths in their mouths. There are no other symptoms other than this hen making a little bit of sound when breathing due to the obstructions in her mouth and attached at the back of her tongue - she can still run super fast though since I could barely catch her - she doesn't act sick at all, no runny nose, eating/drinking fine. I was able to remove w/ iodine-swab the pieces on the sides of her mouth in the photo, but the large part at the back of her tongue will not come loose. The rooster in the photo below that just had it near the tip of the beak and none behind the tongue so he's showing no signs of illness at all and everyone is still eating/drinking fine.
So, is it wet pox? I just need to find out somehow for sure before we vaccinate the rest of the flock (never have done that before but would do it to save the rest of the flock - we have 50 free-range layers and 50 bantams in breeding pens). I don't see any birds with dry pox this time, though we have had that before (2 yrs ago). We do have mosquitos and flies already due to the wet and mild winter.

 
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We spent an hour checking all our other birds and didn't find any others besides these 2 with a problem. We culled the hen just now in case it could be contagious since she's in the free range flock of 50, whereas the rooster is in a small pen with only 3 other birds. Does anyone have any experience with this type of thing? I don't know if we should vaccinate for pox just in case?
 
That appears to be canker, not wet fowl pox. It is contageous. Treatment is metronidazole 250mg tablets orally once a day for 5 days. It can be purchased online as "Fish Zole."
 
Hi!
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I was hoping you'd see my post! You're always SOOOO helpful and I couldn't find your PM from before when you helped me with our roundworm problem. I haven't even heard of canker before. I'll go try to learn about it now.
 

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