Hi, I've had 5 or 6 backyard hens for years and done great with them. They have a nice medium-sized coop and run for night-time, and free-range in my grassy back yard with lots of tree and bush cover so I've only lost one to a hawk over the years.. Because they're all now 6 years old, and laying very little, I decided to get some 'started pullets' (18-20 weeks old) from a well known US hatchery that delivers by mail. The pullets are guaranteed healthy and vaccinated for Mareks. I got my 6 nice pullets about three weeks ago, three Buff O's, two Barred Rock, and an Astralorp. I kept them all in a nice small coop separate from my old hens, but in the same yard. After two days one little Buff was just laying on her side, tilting her head weirdly to the left, and couldn't stand up or walk. I brought her inside and hand fed and hand-watered her for a couple of days and she got a little stronger, then I moved her into my heated tack room in a larger horse watering tank and sort of propped her between food and water and supplemented with hand-watering, etc. She finally started walking quite well after about a week, and was eating and drinking well on her own so I carefully re-introduced her to her 5 other buddies at night in their little nest box. She has done well since (for about 4 days). Then I went out this morning and one of the nice hearty-looking Barred Rocks was laying on her side and couldn't get up!!! I'm just devastated, and doing the same for her as I did for the little BO hoping I can revive her as well. The symptoms look exactly the same though, and I'm terrified it might be Mareks!! These little pullets were all supposedly vaccinated for Mareks when they were a day old. I realize there's a 5% failure rate for the vaccine, but that wouldn't explain two out of six of my new babies having it. Could it be something else? Now I'm so worried that they'll all get sick, or worse yet, that my sweet older hens might catch something. I was just about to put them all together this coming week so they could share my bigger coop. Now I don't know what to do. Please, any advice or suggestions? I contacted the hatchery and they assured me it couldn't be Mareks because they were all vaccinated. Help!!
