Human anti-viral meds for Mareks -- has anyone else tried this?

Sort of related, perhaps... Just some interesting information that might be worth checking out. Not sure what use it is but sharing just in case it's useful to someone, sooner or later.
Quote:

rebrascora said:

She was doing a nervous twitch with her head and neck that I have not seen before.

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Yeah the Favorelle that just recently died had the same thing. She had a clubbed foot so she always limped, when I got two new laying pullets they were aggressive and she started to get stressed. I suspected she might be showing symptoms but because of her lifelong limp I wasn't sure and didn't start valtrex soon enough.

She ended up with a neurological "twitch" thing that had her walking/running in tight circles if she was picked on which made it that much worse (instead of running AWAY she would keep circling and get picked on more as she was not actually fleeing the bully).

I do think it is significant that while she showed symptoms for about 3 weeks it never progressed to paralysis.

Well, it's of course only a small sample, but it does sound significant that symptoms were arrested and didn't progress, I do agree. Some of the symptoms anyway, since they still died. Still, progress is progress! As more people try, hopefully we'll learn more about it.

Best wishes.

Thought I would post an update to this Valtrex thread. I have not had a bird become ill from Marek's in about 3 years now (knock on wood).

Every spring I add 2-4 feed store chicks and have them raised by a broody in the flock to prevent integration stress (which seems to be the leading trigger for Marek's deaths). And if a bird becomes injured/ill I do treat with Valtrex for a couple of days right away to prevent Marek's from rearing it's ugly head. Since it is an antiviral it is a preventative not a cure, antivirals only stop the spread of the infection to new cells.

I can't prove that it works, and it will may never be proven since that would require cruel clinical trials and there is no market to justify the expense. But from my experience it seems to work well. I have had a couple of young pullets get attacked by dogs (my dogs, the netting over the coop was torn and the birds got out). Even despite their injuries and high stress level they recovered just fine.

Cost wise it is very inexpensive (10 pills for $10, and a bird only uses a tiny part of each pill).

Sonya9 said:

Thought I would post an update to this Valtrex thread. I have not had a bird become ill from Marek's in about 3 years now (knock on wood).

Every spring I add 2-4 feed store chicks and have them raised by a broody in the flock to prevent integration stress (which seems to be the leading trigger for Marek's deaths). And if a bird becomes injured/ill I do treat with Valtrex for a couple of days right away to prevent Marek's from rearing it's ugly head. Since it is an antiviral it is a preventative not a cure, antivirals only stop the spread of the infection to new cells.

I can't prove that it works, and it will may never be proven since that would require cruel clinical trials and there is no market to justify the expense. But from my experience it seems to work well. I have had a couple of young pullets get attacked by dogs (my dogs, the netting over the coop was torn and the birds got out). Even despite their injuries and high stress level they recovered just fine.

Cost wise it is very inexpensive (10 pills for $10, and a bird only uses a tiny part of each pill).

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Thank you for the update.
I'm glad that you have found something that works for you.
I'm sure others that find your thread will have more questions for you - a few comes to mind:
I'm assuming Valtrex is prescription only - so are you getting that from your vet, if not, how do you obtain your medication.
What is the dose and for how long - you mention that a bird only uses a tiny part of each pill - how many doses in a pill - is that for large fowl or bantam?

I'm not grilling you I just know these types of questions will come up when someone finds your thread - the more details you can provide the better.

Thanks again.

Wyorp Rock said:

I'm assuming Valtrex is prescription only - so are you getting that from your vet, if not, how do you obtain your medication.

What is the dose and for how long - you mention that a bird only uses a tiny part of each pill - how many doses in a pill - is that for large fowl or bantam?

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My vet does not treat birds, but he does treat my 6 dogs so he is happy to write out an extra script when asked. Plus he has a large flock of his own so these topics interest him.

I asked him for a script and he just called it in at a local pharmacy in town. He doesn't keep Valtrex on hand, not sure it is used in veterinary medicine.

As far as dosing, I have treated full sized birds and bantams and I have no "official dose". I just grind up half a pill and add a little of the powder (maybe 1/8th pill?) to the birds food. If the bird doesn't want to eat it then it can be added to some water and dropper fed. It does taste a bit bitter so often hiding it in food is required.

If there is an "incident" I try to give the bird a dose once a day for a couple of days, at that point most injured birds are back with the flock and less stressed (and I am basing the dosing regime on their stress level).

Now if I actually saw signs of Marek's starting in a bird (a Marek's limp developing) then I would probably dose them every day for several days, and I would start asap. In humans it cannot "cure" infected cells, it can only stop the infection from progressing to new cells which is how it prevents outbreaks, or shortens the duration of outbreaks.

The other big change has been a concerted effort to prevent high stress in the birds, especially the young birds. Now I only add new chicks using a broody (so the chicks are with the flock from the start and there is no "hazing" period to stress them out).

Of course I can't prove this works, but I can prove the drug seems to have a fairly decent safety margin in chickens since I have dosed quite a few birds of various sizes and ages with it. Course I am sure high doses could cause problems so people need to use common sense.

Wonder if acyclovir or zorvirex would work? That is interesting about the valtrex; good to know that it possibly helps.