Rupert and the boys have been avoiding me lately. I thought it was because of their molts but since they’ve been molting for a couple months and this is a recent behavior it clued me in that something was wrong.
I fed Rupert separately and grabbed him for inspection. Usually he allows this but he wants none of my attention now. I looked him over quickly and discovered my poor babies have the telltale signs of dry Fowl Pox. It’s very similar to chicken pox in humans and manifests similar symptoms with sores that scab over on their exposed (mostly unfeathered) areas.
One of the first indications there’s a problem is when you see light dots on their heads and necks. It almost looks like someone took a pencil eraser, dipped it in chalk dust and dotted their heads with it (see the arrow in the photo below). Another sign is they may not want attention or may be visibly depressed, like Rupert. Since it’s molting season the chickens haven’t been laying well anyway but this can also be a sign they aren’t feeling well. As they progress through the virus large sores form, burst and scab over (see the circles below).
This is my first bout with fowl pox but I knew it would probably happen at some point. While it’s not transferrable to humans it does spread rapidly through turkeys and chickens via mosquitos or contact so there’s little one can do to stop it. There’s a vaccine but once the symptoms are evident there’s not much you can do but wait it out and address potential secondary bacterial infections with non painkiller ointments dabbed directly on the sores.
Like with people, each individual bird is affected to varying degrees. A couple of mine barely had it and recovered quickly. Others have it badly. Some scratch at their sores and others leave them alone. I have two who had sores so large they lost eyesight in one eye. This poor baby is completely covered and barely recognizable:
There’s also a wet version of fowl pox. Fortunately, mine don’t seem to have this. It can cause respiratory distress and take longer to heal from what I can tell from my research.
Young babies can get this too. I took newly hatched babies from their mother hours after hatching (the mother contracted it on one side of her face and I had no idea she had it until the chicks were hatching) and even that didn’t help save one chick from showing symptoms at only four days old:
The good news is, once they get Fowl Pox they tend to have immunity to it. Since Fowl Pox can stay viable for a while after it falls off a bird I will not take chances in the future and will vaccinate young birds for this.
For now, they get plenty of sunshine, fresh water with added vitamins and immunity boosters. Hopefully with time and love all my babies will feel better soon.
xo