Hi Ladies (and Gentlemen),
Can you please refresh my memory on what pox symptoms are?
Talula & Anya both have a couple of scab-like black spots on their waddles as of recently. I'm concerned it might be pox. If it is, what is the treatment regime?
Pox Symptoms?
http://www.msstate.edu/dept/poultry/diagext.htm
Check under pox. There are also some threads in the reference thread towards the bottom that talk about it. And Harmony may appear. Sorry I'm not more help. A very light weight strain goes through my flock every time we get new kids and since it's so mild I just leave it be -sort of a natural inoculation. But my chickens run completely loose. Good Luck!
Yeah.. I got the light strain too.. Catscan said it's like a childhood disease and they will get through it.. We were gonna vaccinate, but decided I'd just let them get through it and then they will not get it again. I agree with her.. it's not that bad.
I have a pair of Millies that got it pretty bad a few months ago. The roo lost part of his comb. I put some neosporin on his head where there was a scab, and it spread to the entire spot that I put the ointment on... it got much, much worse. I will not mess with them again. The pullet got it in her mouth and couldn't close her mouth for a week or so... She is fine now too.
I'm not an expert.. but that's what happened here.
Mine have never gotten it in their mouths. I think it has a bit to do with ...chicken population density...if you have to keep them confined for some reason you may have a stronger strain and may have to deal as Harmony does. Did you find those reference threads?
That is what I suspected before! Those Millies were raised in wire...
Yeah, I kinda think nature is better at absorbing grunge...including pox...we'll get nabbed for being unscientific though if we don't start gathering data...;-p....
Pox Can be Light or Deadly mine was the deadly and i treated the dry pox with tincture of iodine. It's iodine with alcohol in it and it treats not only the pox itself but the alcohol dries the pox.
The reason it spread on ZZs is she used oinment instead of tincture of iodine the ointment actually helped in the spread. Instead of drying the moist pustuals it kept them moist and weeping allowing them to move to other spots on the comb.
Yes i used this on the combs and yes it stop them from spreading and dried them up in a few days.
Wet pox is a whole nother ball game it can suffocate a chicken in as little as 12 hours if left untreated. I don't recommend letting wet pox run it's course as you have no way of knowing which one will survive.
I treated mine as soon as i saw the symptoms on the combs or in their throats. I had a roo get the pox and within 12 hours it had grown threw his nostrils and was suffocateing him i put him down.
Lazy Lady pox is rare in winter as it is spread by mosquitoes and by contact with infected birds.
I don't believe you have either of those do you?
Pics would help if you could show us some.
Har -doesn't dry grant relative immunity against wet though?! So if we let the dry go it'd protect 'em from the wet?
Grow i absoulutly have no idea if it's 2 different diseases or not i had both and it started out as dry.
Yet their were some who had no outside pox yet had the wet internal pox so your guess is good as mine.
They will go thru both without assitance but you have to be ready for the ones that may not make it.
The dry can sometimes get in thier eyes and blind them if you don't treat and remove the scabs.
I chose to treat because when they have it in their throat they can't eat or drink normally. I was also afraid it would grow and i would find them dead in the morning.
I't was more than worth it to me to treat them and vaccinate the others than to have to see them suffer and die.
This was my experience and is no way meant to say others treatments and the way they deal with their flock was wrong.
I was just stateing my experience with pox and how i handled it.
I'm probably more relaxed because I've never seen any discomfort...I'll look it up though, when I have a mo.
Wow - I take my kiddos to a school function and you ladies have been busy. Thank you for all the information. I'll try to get pics of the girls posted tomorrow. DH and I are both going to have to be in on this because neither of them are going to be thrilled with close up shots. ;-)
Harmony,
I had wondered the same thing about lack of mosquitoes this time of year and why I'd be seeing it now. I miss spoke up there and its actually on their combs. I'd wondered if it started with a scratch or a bit of frost bite?
Thank you, thank you for all the information!
That was my first thought, LL -of course my fingers ran amok...typetypetypetype...
That's exactly what I did. State my experience with Pox and how I handled it.
I know the horror you went through Harmony! I felt so bad for you. I hope I never have to deal with what you did. I feel fortunate to only have to deal with a few scabs here and there.. with the exception of the two lil Millies
I learned my lesson at the expense of my poor lil roo. The skin was so terrible, I thought it would relieve some of the cracking.. :( I can't count the times an animal pays for a human's ignorance.. I try my best not to contribute to that.
Kristen when you post the pics i will let you know what i think.
I just can't imagine them haveing pox and it's winter and no mosquitos and your girls are never in contact with other chickens SO??
There are mosquitoes in our zone year round, not many... but I've seen them when I was clearing out the old garden stuff..
Pics would help us. Pox are a lot easier to spot once you've seen it.
Here's some pics...
The first is Talula, sorry for the background, but she would NOT hold still.
Here's Anya:
Its pretty dark, but the flash was worse. The black spot is quite big on her's and its at the top of the her comb.
Kristen it really doesn't look like pox to me.
Heres a picture of the pox i had here on my roos comb it doesn't look like whats on your hens combs.
Any thoughts on what it might be?
Side bar question: how in the world do you get such good photos of your chickens? Talula is constantly twitching her head with the camera in her face... hence me having her in a head lock.
Heres a hen that had it real bad but it didn't spread all over her comb because i used the tincture of iodine and it dried up in about 2 weeks.
Doesn't look like Pox to me. Looks like an injury.. very slight... but common... I've had them run into the fencing wire and get a tiny cut and when it heals, that's what it looks like. Maby reaching through? Just a guess, but definitely not pox.
Looks just like little injuries to me i would put some antibiotic oinment on them or just leave them alone they should heal just fine.
My chickens aren't real flighty they don't mind being still i can clip toe nails, trim beaks and dust them for mites and they don't seem to mind.
Now my pigeons are different heres a pic i like to call "Help! i'm being attacked by a pigeon"
(it was all i could do to hold on to it and if you could see me i'm LMAO)
This message was edited Jan 24, 2009 11:03 PM
You are just trying to hide your face.
DH says it looks like you're eating the pigeon. ha!
OK, so you gals think it looks like an injury. Do you think it need antibiotic ointment? I'd hate to assume its an injury, apply ointment, and then have it spread like poor ZZ and her babiez
You can just leave it and see what happens i don't think it really needs anything.
The pigeon was trying to get away from me if you will notice the poor Owl Pigeon is being squished in my hand because i'm trying to control the fantail.
I was holding it for pics and it just started flapping and i thought oh lord what am i going to do with one hand so unfortunatly the owl pigeon turned into my second hand.
LOL. Pigeon mush.
Lazy -It looks like something safely and best left alone to me too. I wouldn't try to touch unless the spots started growing...