5 dead 6 month pullets and Roos in a month (Mareks?)

[bebesdeivanka]

Hello,

I just wanted to ask for your insight.

I have a flock of aprox 150 birds, and my last batch of chicks are now 6 months old and 5/30 have died with similar symptoms: stopped eating or eating very poorly even when isolated and being very thin for the past month.

They have been dewormed and are eating quality balanced commercial feed. As much as I put them into the separated coop they do not want to eat and just keep on loosing weight and fading away. Some show improvement but then suddenly die when I think that they are feeling better and eating back regularly.

No parasites, no lice, no other symptoms..and they have many feed bowls available (also they roam around 1000m2). Just getting weaker by the day, light as a feather. I have two more who are doing OK now with hand feeding but dont seem to eat enough by themselves and one more who is showing neeurological signs (pecking near the plate, sometimes in the air). all my older birds are fine.

They are not vaccinated because its imposible to get a vet that would come to vaccinate just 150 birds (I live in Argentina). It's winter here now, around 0 degrees C at night but they sleep in a coop with good isolation.

I'm almost certain I have Mareks disease. It's the first time something like this happens in 5 years since I've had them and I love them so much. I'm scared of losing all of them.

Another thing: all the weak birds were auracanas mix from the same guy. He gave me eggs, I never had contact with his chickens. But it's not very likely that it would be a breeding issue? Like genetics or something?

any insight would be much aprecciated

 

[igorsMistress]

Hello. I’m sorry you’re going through this. Have you done a fecal float test for worms? Not all deworming drugs work on all worms. Otherwise, the only way to know is to send a dead bird for necropsy.

The vet I take my dogs to doesn’t treat chickens, but they will send poop for analysis for me. I know you can send birds to another state for necropsy, it doesn’t have to be in yours so if your state lab is too expensive you can find one in another state. I think TX is pretty cheap. @Kiki might know of a place there that won’t break the bank?

 

[bebesdeivanka]

Hello, I sent one to hava a full necropsy and the results came back: it's fungi. Mycotoxins.
we had some rain and some of the chickens are picky and pick the food out of the feeding tube.. so I guess the little ones were pecking around and got infected.
I had one left (of three that were complicated) and he has been making good progress in the last two days. I moved them all to a separated coop and I disinfected the area around the feeders. Also I will worm everyone again (i've done it 2 weeks ago and ii do it every 8 weeks more or less). I never had problems like that but i will make sure it never happen again. It makes me feel so bad i lost 5 birds because of it.