Vaccine Failure

I had a porcelaine roo who had a runny eye last friday so i cleaned it with some iodine. I had because of the pox wiped out my meds useing it on that and all i had was iodine. I assumed i had added hay to their cage and he must have got it in his eye. Well for 3 days it seemed to get better then it started getting gooey i said infection okay got some antibiotic ointnent. By wednesday it was swollen so i got out my Qtips and clean the corner and out popped a cheesy thing it wasn't big. I thought that looks like pox and thought your crazy it can't be pox these birds are vaccinated. I asummed it was infection and put some peroxide and ointment next day same thing.

Today i checked on him eye swollen and a closer looked there was stuff in his nose wasn't there yesterday.I smelled of it looked and thought respitory and hated the thought of that! So i was cleaning his eye and nose thinking maybe some terramycin would help.
Then he began to gasp and i thought what is up old boy and then i saw it a growth the size of a whole peanut shell and all. POX! oh dear lord it was POX! my mind was racing with how could this be when every chicken i own has been vaccinated and i had personally seen all the takes.

So here i'am almost 3 1/2 months later after vaccinateing my entire flock i have Pox.

I understand that vaccines fail that was something i learned long ago when i had some vaccinated chicks get mereks.
But i guess once you do what you do and breath a sigh of relief you never exspect to deal with it again.
I really can't understand this at all he is in a new pen never had another chicken in it. Him and his hens have their own water jug which i fill at the faucet. SO????

For all out there Don't let this discourage you from vaccinateing your birds if you get pox. Please if you get Pox in your flock please do vaccinate them. I'm sure my roo is and isolated incident and in no way should this be assumed as the vaccine doesn't work.

I have 50 others who are happy and healthy because i vaccinated them.

Oh Harmony, not again, not after all you went through. I'm so sorry to hear this. I hope he will come out OK. All I can think of is, at least the rest of your flock should be fine. Thank goodness you decided to vaccinate. But oh how my heart sank when I saw this post. Hoping for the best.

Can you explain what pox is exactly? I have heard of it but I don't think I have ever seen it. What causes it?

I would of never thought it was pox and thats why i was just treating his eye.

I'm not depressed over it i know how to treat him and he will get well. I just feel sorry for him that i had no idea i was treating his eye and not knowing he had pox.
This is so weird to me i passed the 1 month mark on the vaccination back in Nov. and Oh well this pox can suprise you.

I thought this might be useful info for others that might vaccinate that if one turns up with pox i had it happen to me.
He's in a pen with 2 hens and they show no signs of pox so i guess he just didn't take.

So sorry to hear about your roo. I hope he gets better soon and this is an isolated incident.

I know to well about pox so heres what i know and others can add theres too.

Pox is a viral disease that comes in 2 forms Dry and Wet and is spread by mostly mosquitos and in some case's by artificial means from infected birds. Feathers, Dander,Scabs and can be transfered thru drinking water and feed from infected birds. You can also spread it on your clothing and hands from handleing infected birds.
Dry Pox appears as Wart like bumps on a chickens comb they are slightly yellow in color. There may be 1 or more and can completely cover their combs in severe cases. They will start to dry and turn a brown color then turn black and drop off. Dry Pox in or on the eye can cause blindness it is important to remove the scabs with rubber gloves and treat with Qtips dipped in iodine. this will stop it from penetrating the eye and causeing blindness. It is also important to remove the scabs from their mouths and treat those so they can eat.
Wet Pox is a very different from dry as it is internal and cause's Cheesy Growths to form in thier mouths,wind pipe and nostrils causeing suffocation of the chicken if not treated.
This has to be treated to prevent death of the chicken with iodine swabbing.
The symptoms of Wet Pox is the Chicken will stand with their mouth open in an attempt to breath and you will see the growth sometimes sticking out of their mouth. Wet Pox grows rapidly and can suffocate a bird in 24 hours if left untreated.
Treatment is removeing the growths from their mouths and swabbing with a Qtip soaked in iodine always use rubber gloves when treating wet or dry pox. You will do this twice a day and you will start to see some improvement in a few days as the growths will stop growing.
Caution treating them for wet pox is a tramatic experience for both you and the chicken. Their throat may bleed a little and they will be in pain this is not and easy task. I cried many times while i was treating a chicken to see them have to go through the pain.
But i knew i was keeping them alive and doing what was best but that still didn't take away the remorse i had for them. I lost about 6 chickens to Wet Pox and those were mostly put down to relieve their suffering.

Most Chickens will be a little droopy just sitting around looking like they don't feel well. Most of mine never stopped eating or drinking and some had the wet pox very bad. I saw improvement in a week sometimes sooner and most were almost completely well in 2 weeks.

There is NO cure for Pox and the only way to stop the spread is to vaccinate all Chickens in your flock that have not come down with it.

I hope i explained it well enough if you still have questions feel free to ask.

11isac Heres a pic of a Hen with a Dry Pox on her eye.

Heres a roo with the Wet Pox growing on his Tongue

Wow, Thank you for the pictures. I had a 4-H chicken YEARS ago that had that but my leader treated it and I had no idea what it was called or how she treated it. One of my veterinary books said it was spread by arthropods (bugs). Does it ever go away on its own?

That might have been gape-worm, 1lisac. It is vectored by pill/sow bugs. The the worms work their way into the birds throats and they "gape" trying to breath.

Do you know if the vaccine you used was modified live or killed?

Sorry Jayryunen been gone shopping.

The vaccine was a Live Virus and when i ordered it i had to take 10,000.00 doses as it is packaged for vet use. You can have a vet get it and vaccinate your chickens for you i did mine myself with my husbands help.
You can get single dose bottles of 1,000 doses i was in a hurry to get mine vaccinated and just went with the feed store ordering it for me.
It was very easy and quick and the chickens didn't really react to the prick.

So the vaccine came out of a multidose bottle?

I'm just curious about the cause of the vaccine failure... live being more susceptible to improper handling. If all the shots came out of a multidose vial, then either the one the rooster got became non-viable in the syringe (too hot, some contaminant in the syringe) or there was something going on with the roo.

Night-night,
Jay

Because of the way it is given with the pricking the wing webs i believe that i didn't get enough vaccine on the needle. Therefore there wouldn't be enough to cause a good take leaveing him suseptible to getting the pox. I probably cross contaiminated him with my feed bucket as i feed all out of the same bucket. I wasn't expecting after the waiting period that was set for them to be fully protected that this would happen.

As for the vaccine getting heated i had it on ice packs. I can't remember off hand how long it was viable but i know at the time i did it within that time frame.

Harmony,
I'm SO sorry to read that POX has reared its ugly head at your place again! Hang in there and keep your chin up!
Kristin

I could see how that would happen with the pricking. He might also have had a little undetected fever that would neutralize the vaccine. Yeah, vaccines have to get pretty warm before they don't work...

So how's the roo doing today?
Jay

Harmony There is a very good chance that this Vacc just didn't take or maybe the roo will have a lesser case of the pox (sounds like a STD). My got the oldest son got the chicken pox vaccine and still got the chicken pox (twice). A mild form the first time and the second time a full blown case. The Dr said she had never seen this before! As much as we would like to believe they are 100% they are not. We just do the best we can. As I read all the things that chickens can get it is a wonder they survive at all!

oh harm, i'm so very sorry to hear. shake it off, just shake it off. don't let it bother u it happens and girl u have been through this war with pox, it's only one so that is increadible, keep up the great work!! u r an awesome tough momma hen and u all will fineally get over this soon so no worries the worst part is passed. ur a trooper and so r they ur pros at this now one little fluke is nothing so just keep going forward we all know u can do it!!!

. the only other thing i can add that hasn't been said already is it is possible he had a very mild case of pox or was exposed and not broke out yet when u vaccinated(he could have had an internal mild case u didn't see or couldn't see to early of stages) if so it would cause the vaccine not to take, (would show a mild false reading so to speak, look like it took but didn't) he'd have a mild breakout due to vaccine and him to get it later the real deal what u see now.

i hope he is doing better and up and about like his old self soon!!!
silkie

Harmony, I am so sorry to hear the news. That is awful. I know he will be okay, I am just sorry for the scare. I never knew they could reject a vaccine.
I want you to know we are all thinking of you. I read the treatment (having never experienced any illness as of now) and it sounds awful. Keep us updated! (hugs)

Been lookin' for an update? How's everything, Har? Know you've been battling...

Sorry everyone to run off and abandon my thread i have been sick but feeling better today.

My Roo is all better and thanks for asking about him ^_^

You and the roo sick together? What a time you have been having!
I am so thankful he is better as well as you.

I have a question. After a chicken has pox or broncitis, can they get it again? or are they immune?

I don't know about bronchitis, but they are immune after pox.