20 week pullet suddenly can't lift head? What could it be?

Hi again

Sorry to hear you had to put her out of her misery when you had tried so hard to save her. I know how hard that is!
I did the post mortem myself and the tumours were very obvious. Together with the other youngsters that are lame I'm pretty certain it's Marek's with mine. Most of my flock are home bred youngsters. I have 37 unvaccinated chickens under 24 weeks. The vast majority are showing no sighs and appear healthy at the moment. It seems like I had a number of cases present symptoms all at once, but then things have settled down at the moment and so far only one death, so I'm hoping it is not as desperate a situation as it appears when you first read about it.

Of course it may not be Mareks in your case and I hope it's not, but just wanted to say that if it is, once the initial shock and worry is over and you get your head round it, I don't think it is so bad. I'm hoping that once they get into adulthood and have been exposed as juveniles, then they should be OK after that. I'm going to see if I can get some vaccine for my future chicks, but the biggest impact I can see is that I can't sell any of my young pullets.... if they mostly survive the Mareks I'm going to be overrun with eggs next year!!

Keep us posted with how the rooster gets on and what the result of the necropsy is.

Good luck

Barbara
 
The roo is still hopping around on one leg? Crazy.
Now, I'm scared to hatch!! I was about to hatch for Christmas/new years!!

Good that your 37 are good. Are they still ok now??

Hi again

Sorry to hear you had to put her out of her misery when you had tried so hard to save her. I know how hard that is!
I did the post mortem myself and the tumours were very obvious. Together with the other youngsters that are lame I'm pretty certain it's Marek's with mine. Most of my flock are home bred youngsters. I have 37 unvaccinated chickens under 24 weeks. The vast majority are showing no sighs and appear healthy at the moment. It seems like I had a number of cases present symptoms all at once, but then things have settled down at the moment and so far only one death, so I'm hoping it is not as desperate a situation as it appears when you first read about it.

Of course it may not be Mareks in your case and I hope it's not, but just wanted to say that if it is, once the initial shock and worry is over and you get your head round it, I don't think it is so bad. I'm hoping that once they get into adulthood and have been exposed as juveniles, then they should be OK after that. I'm going to see if I can get some vaccine for my future chicks, but the biggest impact I can see is that I can't sell any of my young pullets.... if they mostly survive the Mareks I'm going to be overrun with eggs next year!!

Keep us posted with how the rooster gets on and what the result of the necropsy is.

Good luck

Barbara
 
I have a chicken doing this same thing. May I ask what ended up being wrong with the hen? Thank you in advance, I’m so worried!
 
This thread is 8 years old. I don’t think the posters have been active for some time. Could you start a new thread of your own here (click on the green box,) and post all details that you can think of, including age:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forums/emergencies-diseases-injuries-and-cures.10/
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/sick-teenage-chickens.1553750/

I have, no responses yet. My vet never returned my call today and I would say the chicken is getting worse by the hour 😭
 

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