unknown chicken disease

[Guest]

I was wondering if anyone had ever encountered this problem/disease.  it started out in just my LF buffs that were hatched this spring, but has spread to my spangle OEGB and seems to be getting worse.

the first symptom I noticed was about a month and a half ago, most of the buff youngsters (about 4 months old or thereabouts) had small scabs over their ears.  no other symptoms.  but recently, I\'ve found some of the OEGB\'s with the scabs, except they are huge, bulging out from the sides of their heads.  their eyes are also sometimes swollen, and there are some scabby spots on eyelids and combs.  now my buff roo is badly affected.  I\'ve culled the other affected birds up to now, but it breaks my heart to do my buff guy in because he\'s a pet too, so I\'ve settled for isolation for now.  but I know what I\'m going to have to do with him.

the weird part is that these are the only breeds/varities that are affected.  all our flock is free-ranging and intermingled right now, and there are D\'Anvers, a dozen varieties of OEGB, and 3 other varieties of Ameraucana, but only these 2 strains are affected, for a total of maybe a dozen birds out of 130+.  other than this years meat birds, we haven\'t shown, bought or brought in any new birds since last winter.  and the meat birds are kept separate from the others anyway.  I don\'t know know what this is or where it came from, but I think that most everyone must have already been exposed by now anyway.

does anyone recognize these symptoms or have any suggestions?

thanks

[faith valley]

Could you possibly have ear mites?

~Patty~

[bantamhill]

Sounds like fowl pox to me. It is spread by mosquitoes. I had an outbreak 3 years ago. It kept me from showing until December, but the vast majority of the birds survived. One can vaccinate for fowl pox, but it must be done in late June or early July to be effective. The dates may be a little different for your area - I am in Missouri.

I would get the infected birds away from the birds that are not infected. Keep the area of the uninfected birds clean and free from mosquitoes (do the best you can!) I tried salve with sulfer in it and it helped some. I only treated the worst cases and the most valuable birds. Again, the vast majority of the birds survived with no ill effects.

Michael

[John]

Peter Brown, aka the Chicken Dr., has a new website: http://www.featherfanciers.com.   The DOC, I need HELP! forum is a great place to get educated.
Health related questions are welcome here, but his Forum specializes in the subject.

[grisaboy]

I agree with Michael about it sounding like Fowl Pox.
It is a fairly slow moving disease, so you can vaccinate the unaffected birds and stop the infection.

As Michael said you should separate the affected birds from the others.

[Guest]

thank you all for the help and advice.  I\'ve isolated the birds showing symptoms, and have been working this weekend on getting everyone else vaccinated.