When you want to start your own chicken farm or keep chickens as pets, you should be prepared in all the aspects of raising them and keeping them healthy. This includes giving them the proper chicken food and water as well as a properly designed chicken coop so that they are warm, dry and protected from predators. This also means that you will have to be aware of the various diseases that can affect your flock as well as how to manage and look after any sick birds.

Marek’s Disease

Marek’s Disease is an often fatal disease caused by a virus from the Herpes family that affects chickens in any stage of life and usually when you purchase a shipment of chicks from a hatchery they will offer vaccination from this disease at a small extra charge. Marek’s is not treatable and whilst recovery is possible, it is very rare. To prevent this disease is very important and while perhaps 1 in 1000 chicks contract the disease anyway, at least you know that the majority of your flock are protected. This ratio is about the same as a child contract the measles for which they have already been vaccinated against. When you purchase chickens from a feed store, it is also advisable to find out if they got the chickens from a hatchery and check to see if they were vaccinated before buying any.

Avian Pox

The Avian Pox is a viral disease that has been found in chickens since the earliest domestications and is characterized by small wart like nodules appearing on the comb, face, and the membranes lining the mouth and upper respiratory system. This disease is not normally fatal unless it affects the respiratory tract of the bird preventing it from being able to breathe. Avian Pox has three strains that circulate, and these are the fowl pox virus, the canary pox virus, and the pigeon pox virus. The virus can be spread easily through contact or non contact and can live for months in certain conditions under hardened scabs for instance. The disease can be spread by mosquitoes that carry the disease for up to a month after feeding on an infected chicken. This means that it can very quickly spread to the rest of your flock, or to other birds in the area. The disease lasts for about 3 to 5 weeks and can spread slowly which means that you might have an instance of infection in your flock that lasts for several months. While young birds may suffer from retarded growth due to this disease, those birds that are laying eggs might experience a decrease in production. There are two different forms of Avian Pox, namely Dry Pox and Wet Pox. The Dry Pox is the one that affects the featherless parts of the bird and consist of a white nodule that eventually falls off and forms a scab. The Wet Pox affects the membranes of the bird in its mouth and respiratory system, which can affect their breathing.