Monday 2 December 2013

Chicken Pox On Chickens

So our hen who was injured by the rooster is doing fine.  She has showed no sign of there being anything wrong and today when I checked under her coat the would looks like it is healing well.

However we were not off doctoring duties just yet but this time it was to one of our new girls.


She had been a bit lethargic since arriving and we thought it was due to the change in home.  Then she started looking really sleepy and sitting with her eyes closed.

I decided that it would be wise to catch her and have a closer look.

On closer inspection she seemed to have an eye infection on one side and I suspected conjunctivitis so I gave her eye a rinse with a salt water solution and we isolated her in a separate pen in case she was contagious.

Today when rinsing out her eye I noticed that her comb was quite swollen and lumpy, almost wart like.
But after doing a bit of a search on the internet it looks like she actually has fowl pox (chicken pox).
From everything I have read there is nothing we can do except that wait for time to pass and hope that she only suffers from the dry form (external only) and not the wet form which can cause internal issues such as breathing difficulties.  I looks pretty unsightly but at this stage she is still eating and drinking and will apparently be immune once it all clears up.  It is not able to be passed on to humans so no worries there but it could get worse for the chicken before it gets better.




We sure are being exposed to some interesting animal situations at the moment but that is part of life on a hobby farm.

Have you had to deal with fowl pox?
What was the outcome?

1 comment:

  1. Gosh you've been having a bad run with medical issues of your farm animals....you seem to be coping quite well with it all...I'd be hopeless. Regards Kathy A, Brisbane, Australia

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