Fowl Pox and Bug zappers

Anyone out there had a fowl pox outbreak? Ours started about 6 weeks ago in one of our unnamed girls (who now is fine and has acquired a fitting name: Pox). I, being the dutiful coop captain, immediately went on a google freak-out session and prepared to order anitbiotics, vaccines and the like from all over, since the web makes it sound like you'll be sure to lose chickens during such an outbreak. Some of the info said "do not give vaccines to chickens showing symptoms" so I went back and checked and all the ladies had at least some scabbing on their combs, except our senior hen, "Oma Chicken" who still hasn't developed any. I was dismayed and ended up not ordering any vaccine and spent the next month worrying about it. They got daily checks to make sure they had no mouth leisions (you can imagine how much they liked that).

There are still a few scabbies on some of the girls (none bigger than a pin prick). To keep it from happening again, I put a bug zapper in their little coop to keep skeeters off of them.

Two questions:
1. Anyone else think fowlpox is like chicken pox, a la just let them get it, get over it and move on (I suspect Oma Chicken never got it because she's had it before and I didn't notice) - also, has anyone had it in their flock, had it go away and come back to the same chickens again?

2. Anyone know if a chicken pecking a bug zapper will do them serious harm? I remember sticking forks in it as a kid (we were weird kids) and got about the jolt from one of those gardener's electric fences. It's well away from them and hanging up, but they're creative and I have these images of a bored chicken one dark night wanting to see what that blue glowing light up top tastes like.

Ack! I didn't know about poultry pox! Some of my large-combed birds have blackish spots on their combs, but they all seem well - it doesn't exactly look like your picture, so maybe it's not the same thing. Either way, I'm looking forward to seeing what everyone else has to say about it!

Eileen

I have vaccinated for Fowl Pox before, when I had lots of young birds that year. I usually keep antibiotics around because with FP will often get a secondary infection. It usually comes in here with the Fall bird migration. If your flock already has it, do not vaccinate, it just makes it worse. I have had birds that were vaccinated still come down with it but not as severe, so it does help. The bug zapper will probably not help much because scitters are not attracted to light.

No, that's Oma chicken and her natural coloration. Fowl pox looks like little scabs. At first I thought they were just pecking each other. It's spread by Skeeters.

We have a local strain of fowl pox that is so mild that it has never been necessary to vaccinate anyone. The only symptoms are a few pox, mostly on the comb. Occasionally it moves through the susceptible birds in the flock and no harm done.

That said, there are strains that are more likely to cause the "wet form" which is really nasty. An individual bird may also have a weak immune system and get hit harder. I would save the use of systemic antibiotics for cases like those.

If the birds just seem really miserable, check that their mouths aren't full of lesions preventing them from eating and drinking. You can usually just scrape those out and provide palative care for them

One warning, several people on the forum reported that applying a topical antibiotic like "Polysporin" to the lesions just made things worse. I think, like chicken pox, you really want to dry them up.

I've had mild cases in my flock all of which resolved with benign neglect. I don't think any of my hens have ever had it more than once.

Same here, porkpal. I just consider it a "natural" vaccination.

The wet form is apparently where all the panic comes in. Hence, the daily throat check. Benign neglect? I like that. Glad to see the "chicken littles" on the web are just that.

My dad, who was a physician, used to talk about "intelligent neglect." That's when you know what the symptoms of a more serious condition would be, I guess, and have decided that it's okay just to keep half an eye on things for now.

We lost a few young birds a couple of years ago to fowl pox and one of our Blue Cochins lost an eye but the fowl pox breakouts we have had since have been more mild. This year so far none but then the mosquitoes are starting to get worse now since July was a very wet month here so who knows, we may end up with another outbreak.
My sister had a roo almost die several years ago from fowl pox. She fed him some cayanne pepper in water and he recovered. He was on deaths door, she had to literally hand feed him the water.

Do you have to throw the eggs away when they have Pox?

What about West Nile Virus, do chickens get that? What are the symptoms and do they recover? What happens if you eat the eggs before you notice the symptoms? Not trying to find ways to get out of eating their eggs, just wondering because we have lots of skeeters here.

You don't have to throw out the eggs for fowl pox...although if it makes them miserable enough they may stop laying temporarily.

Chickens do get infected with West Nile...they use them here in CA as trap animals to check for the presence of the virus, but I don't think they become sick or transmit it to their eggs or other animals.

Here is a university document about it:

http://pubs.cas.psu.edu/freepubs/pdfs/un192.pdf

Thank you, I feel somewhat better about my chickens now. Great article. I know of several horses that died from WNV.