what on earth is it?

[spish]

my peking frizzle has been a little quiet the last 3 days..i checked her over for injuries but found nothing. she's not been sneezing, wheezing or showing signs of sickness, just very quiet and calm (shes usually first out the house in the mornings) Until today. She was last out of the house this morning...and her head is puffy and full of yellow scabby crusts? ive seperated her immediatly...what on earth is that? ive looked up fowl pox online but it doesnt look the same to me...any ideas ? ive included photos from different angles and with/without flash....the scabbyness is only on her head no where else...

 

[couuntrygirl13]

http://www.hobbyfarms.com/livestock-and-pets/vitamin-a-deficiency-in-chickens.aspx
Does this help?

 

[Eggcessive]

I think you are dealing with the wet form or diphtheric form of avian or fowl pox. Since it is a virus from mosquitos, there is no real treatment other than symptomatic treatment. Chickens with this may have yellow patches or lesions in their airway and throat that can extend down into the GI tract. Tube feeding or crop feeding may become necessary to save your chicken. You should separate your chicken because mosquitoes can spread it to the others from her. If you can consult a vet for treatment or antibiotics for secondary infections it may be wise. Here are a few links for you to read:
http://partnersah.vet.cornell.edu/avian-atlas/node/597
http://partnersah.vet.cornell.edu/avian-atlas/search/disease/510
http://www.beautyofbirds.com/fowlpox.html
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/805728/go-team-tube-feeding
https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/avian-pox-how-to-treat-your-chickens-for-avian-pox

 

[spish]

thanks for the links. its bank holiday here so no vets are open now until saturday....can i give her anything to make her comfy until then?

 

[Eggcessive]

Is she eating and drinking okay? Getting nutrition into her may be the biggest problem since they hurt when they eat, and that's why some don't live. Aquarium tubing and a 35 to 60 ml syringe can be used as a makeshift tool for tube feeding until you can get proper supplies from the vet. For pain 80 mg of aspirin can be given twice daily--they can swallow a small tablet placed in the back of the throat. Iodine can be daubed on the lesions to help dry them up. This will last several weeks.

 

[spish]

another 7 chickens started showing symptoms, the vet came out and yup its fowl pox. i have to seperate all infected chickens, these are on antibiotics (baytril) for secondary infections, terramycin eye zalf for their eyes and a whole lot of hoping they pull through. the white frizzle plus another bantam have so far died.
trying to check every piece of poultry here is almost impossible (we have around 100 chickens, 7 turkeys, countless ducks and geese plus so many gesse and ducks from the local river that come and go all the time. i hope they dont all get it...we're trying our best!

 

[subhanalah]

Is there any sort of thing that can Help protect one's flock from this?

 

[spish]

you can get a vacination against pox bu theres so many strains i dont think one vaccination covers them all, plus you need to repeat the vacine every 12 months. the pox is carried/transfered by mosquitos and red blood mites so almost impossible to keep the chickens away from those it can also go from chicken to chicken via their drinkwater (if an infected chickens drinks out of the water source then a healthy chickens drinks it can catch it.....also via close contact or a chicken sneeze.
we're trying everything possible to keep it from spreading at the moment but we live on the edge of a river and with the unusual warm weather at the moment we have millions of mosquitoes

 

[subhanalah]

you can get a vacination against pox bu theres so many strains i dont think one vaccination covers them all, plus you need to repeat the vacine every 12 months. its carried by mosquitos and red blood mites so almost impossible to keep the chickens away from those

that kind of makes me want to keep my chickens inside. I wonder if a monthly topical like for dogs would work? Permethrim repels mosquitos and kills mites. Wouldn't be able to eat the eggs though, unless you didn't care about ingesting whatever may be passed into the eggs.

 

[Eggcessive]

I'm glad you have a diagnosis, and try to get scrambled eggs and good nutrition into them. Here is a thread with really graphic pictures, but it details one person's attempt to treat a bunch of chickens with wet fowl pox: https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...x-xxx-rated-graphic-pictures-of-pus-and-scabs