Fowl Pox eye discharge

Fowl Pox, Pox, Avian Pox

Pox is a viral disease recognized by skin lesions on the inside of the throat and nasal cavities of chickens, turkeys, pigeons and canaries.  It is highly contagious and the mortality rate will be zero to fifty percent.  It is relatively slow moving as it is spread by skin abrasions, bites, respiratory methods, or bits from mosquitoes, mites, and wild birds.  The virus is persistent, lasting for months without a host.   Male birds get it quicker due to fighting that causes abrasions.  The disease will run for about 14 days per bird.

The signs are a warty looking eruptions or scabs on combs and wattles, deposits or sores in the mouth, throat, and trachea, lethargic birds, low appetite, slow growth, and poor egg production.   In severe cases gasping for breath, green, yellow, or clear discharge from eyes and mouth, eyes swollen shut, large wet or dry scabs on beaks and mouth, losing weight, bad odor from head and mouths, constantly sleeping, even being unable to walk.

Flocks or individual birds that have not contacted the virus can be vaccinated.  You can’t really “treat” pox as it is a virus but you can manage the symptoms.  Some birds will get secondary infection inside their eyes and nostrils.  Be sure and vaccinate the unaffected birds as soon as the first case appears.  Use the vaccine within one to two hours of opening the vial, you can’t save the remainder, throw it away.  Any birds showing symptoms no matter how mild should not be vaccinated and once birds are vaccinated quarantine them for at least a month

To vaccinate you inject the vaccine using a small forked applicator into the win web after the age of four weeks.   Pullets should be vaccinated one to two months prior to egg production then given a booster each year thereafter..  Chicks have a special pox vaccination and a booster at eight weeks is a good idea.

Fowl pox

Turkeys are vaccinated at  two to three months of age but the thigh is chosen as the vaccination point. Give a booster shot one to two months before egg laying begins and every year after that.

Wet pox gets its name from having more lesions inside the throat and nasal cavities, enough that it can suffocate the bird.  Dry pox refers to the strain or severity of the pox leaving mostly scabs and lesions on the face, wattles, and combs of the birds.  It is best to vaccinate annually in the spring before mosquitoes and midges come out.

Quail get a special quail pox vaccine.  However the various pox vaccines don’t offer cross protection against the various strains of wild pox.  Laying hens stricken with pox will stop laying and recover in two to three weeks. 

The fowl pox strains are not capable of crossing over to humans through contact or eating the meat and eggs.  Human chickenpox is a different virus unrelated to fowl pox viruses.

Since you can’t “treat” the disease directly all you can do is treat the symptoms if you want to try to save a bird that has a severe case of wet pox.    Plan on spending six weeks and a lot of time per day nursing the birds and cleaning them constantly. Useful supplies include penicillin and Duramycin Tetracycline Hydrochloride Soluble Powder (DTHSP ) to treat any secondary infections (useless against the virus itself) , anti bacterial soap for general cleaning, saline solution for cleaning infected eyes and nostrils, crumbles for making hot mash meals, Gatorade to replenish lost electrolytes, yogurt for feeding, latex gloves, bleach for general sanitation, and a syringe without the needle for irrigating infected eyes and nostrils.   In the worst cases the birds will be blinded at the onset so have wide, shallow pans to feed them in and use the moistened crumbles, scrambled eggs, and yogurt to encourage them to eat.  Once they regain their appetite they will eat regular pellets and crumbles if they can find them.

Vaccines and inoculation fork

Water dishes also need to be large and shallow so the blind birds can drink.  You will of course quarantine the birds in a small pen so they are able to find the food and water pans.

Always wear fresh latex gloves, mask, and eye protection.    Clean the bird’s facial area using anti bacterial soap a few times a day.  If the scabs don’t start flaking off in a few weeks you might try pulling the scabs and using the saline solution to rinse off the wounds.  If their eyes are swollen shut try to gently squeeze some of the puss out of the eyes and rinse with the sterile saline solution

Mix the DTHSP into the water according to the directions every day, replacing any old water. 

 

Use the syringe to squirt a bit of water down their throats as they won’t be drinking as much water as they should.  You can also give fresh water and the Gatorade a few times a day, around 3 cc’s at a time.  Oral Penicillin three times a day for the birds with secondary infections, every day till the end of the treatment cycle recommended on the packaging.Bathe the birds at the beginning and once a week during treatment, drying them off well and providing a heat lamp that they can move away from if the quarantine area is cool.  Remove the heat lamp once the birds are all dried off.  Scrub the entire area with bleach water every few days to keep the secondary infections to a minimum as the birds are in a weakened state and susceptible.  
 

 

Water dishes also need to be large and shallow so the blind birds can drink.  You will of course quarantine the birds in a small pen so they are able to find the food and water pans.

 

Always wear fresh latex gloves, mask, and eye protection.    Clean the bird’s facial area using anti bacterial soap a few times a day.  If the scabs don’t start flaking off in a few weeks you might try pulling the scabs and using the saline solution to rinse off the wounds.  If their eyes are swollen shut try to gently squeeze some of the puss out of the eyes and rinse with the sterile saline solution

 

Mix the DTHSP into the water according to the directions every day, replacing any old water.  Use the syringe to squirt a bit of water down their throats as they won’t be drinking as much water as they should.  You can also give fresh water and the Gatorade a few times a day, around 3 cc’s at a time.  Oral Penicillin three times a day for the birds with secondary infections, every day till the end of the treatment cycle recommended on the packaging.

 

Since you can’t “treat” the disease directly all you can do is treat the symptoms if you want to try to save a bird that has a severe case of wet pox.    Plan on spending six weeks and a lot of time per day nursing the birds and cleaning them constantly. Useful supplies include penicillin and Duramycin Tetracycline Hydrochloride Soluble Powder (DTHSP ) to treat any secondary infections (useless against the virus itself) , anti bacterial soap for general cleaning, saline solution for cleaning infected eyes and nostrils, crumbles for making hot mash meals, Gatorade to replenish lost electrolytes, yogurt for feeding, latex gloves, bleach for general sanitation, and a syringe without the needle for irrigating infected eyes and nostrils.
In addition, certain elements will be centered on mobile devices and tablets and aligned to the left or right on a desktop display. You can adjust the layout for each GridBlock at three different device widths – desktop, tablet, and mobile.   As Fowl Pox can be spread by wild birds the necessity of a

good treadle feeder is once again underscored

.

 

 

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