If you live in a hot climate and have chickens and maybe even raise them, chances are you will see avian pox or fowl pox sooner or later.

The incubation period for the disease is four days to two weeks, and the disease can last at least three to five weeks in affected chickens. It can be passed to other chickens through broken skin, insect bites, feathers, and scabs, although the most common method of spread is through mosquitoes passing it from bird to bird.

If a bird is infected, it usually becomes a bit slow or quiet. You may have a cold, lose your appetite, and be a little off for a few days. A couple of days later, you may notice some white blisters forming which then darken and dry up into the typical scabs you know as pox lesions. The sores start to look like a blister or maybe a pimple that later fills with fluid and then pus. These then break open and a scab or scab forms over it. These sores occur primarily on non-feathered areas of skin, such as the comb, wattles, face, and possibly the legs. In extreme cases, chickens can have these lesions all over their bodies under the feathers.

Not much can be done to treat fowlpox except support the chicken while its own immune system fights the disease. You can house the bird in ideal conditions and ensure that it is well fed and stress-free. It can remove crusts around the mouth and eyes that inhibit the bird’s ability to see or eat and drink. Putting an antiseptic like Betadine or a topical treatment like aloe vera on the lesions can help a bit. You need to make sure the birds can find their food and water bowls and that they can eat and drink while they recover.

A complication that can occur in some cases is secondary bacterial respiratory infections. This may require a course of antibiotics, as birds can succumb to this quite quickly when the initial illness gets them down.

Chickens should naturally recover from smallpox within a few weeks and be immune from then on. In some cases they may have a second incidence of the disease but it will be milder. Reducing the mosquito population can help control the spread of disease.

It is possible in some cases to vaccinate against avian pox. You should consult your avian veterinarian for information on how to acquire the vaccine. It can be done at any age. Two injections are usually required and it is administered with a double-ended needle in the wing web. Vaccines are often sold in large doses suitable for a commercial situation and also have unique transportation requirements that make them expensive to obtain. If you are interested in trying the vaccines, it may be worth contacting your local hatcheries, as some will include chicks from backyard breeders with their own vaccination batches for a small fee. Vaccination is a hotly debated topic and it is worth noting that there are breeders who choose not to continue vaccinations for a variety of reasons.