aussie1chook
Hatching
- May 16, 2016
- 4
- 0
- 9
Hello, this is my first post. I have 5 chickens that I purchased 6 weeks ago. 2 brahmas and 3 golden barnevelders. About 3 weeks ago I noticed my golden barnevelder rooster was walking clumsily at times. As they are all pullets I assumed my rooster was at the teenage stage (bad mistake). Now I have the rooster and a golden barnevelder hen in quarantine. The rooster has now no capacity to stand in fact he almost tips over backwards. The hen started to get the balance problem later than the rooster. She manages to eat and drink on wobbly legs. It could be Marek's but it also could be something else. I rang up the breeder who sold me the chickens and they say they're Marek free. However they advised me to move all my healthy hens away and quarantine the 2 sick ones before killing them and burning the bodies. They said to burn all the perches and bedding. I've burnt the bedding etc and will kill and burn the rooster and hen tomorrow. I'll disinfect the hen house as well. Do I continue on with this plan or wait and see if they recover? Do viruses such as Marek's take weeks for symptoms to show? My theory is my chickens may have had an illness before I purchased them. My property hasn't had chickens for several years and the breeder recently had to kill 200 of their chickens due to sickness. From my post you may have gathered that I care about my chickens and I'm struggling with the thought that my chickens most likely have Marek's.
