Mareks: Long-term prognosis

[seminolewind]

It sounds like it could be, but there's not enough info to get a better answer. What's your flock history. Example, a flock that was hatched together on your property with no outside contact from anything probably does not have Marek's.

A flock that's been added to in the past 8-10 weeks with a live bird, has a good chance of coming with Marek's if one of yours is now lame. And if another one of your birds comes up with lameness or unable to walk, that could mean Marek's.

My young ones presented with an "injured leg". When the second one did, I knew what it was. They both couldn't walk without their wings. But they ate and drank fine. But wasted away anyway.

Like Cenrarchid, I didn't know that my flock carried it until I hatched 10 chicks and at 8 weeks, they died one by one, paralysis, and I had to cull. I don't know how long they can live with paralysis, since most waste away too.

In the past 2 years, I had hatched chicks with no problems. But last summer, my silkies hatched pruchased eggs from me, and all the chicks died from it from 8-16 weeks.

So you have to think about the symptoms, and a flock history to get a better answer because there is no test, no cure, no way to stop the spread-, or getting it in your flock by only having
hatched eggs on your property, or gotten vaccinated hatchery day old chicks.

And vaccinated chicks can get the virus from other chickens, just most will not die from it, just carry it.

Centrarchid and Leadwolf1 have excellent info too. As well as others.

 

[centrarchid]

I hope you folks don't mind my adding a question to this thread...
I have a 24 week old Welsummer pullet with Marek like symptoms. She can't use her right leg at all. She is able to stand briefly on her left, but falls over on her face if she tries to walk.I would say I noticed she was a bit off about two weeks ago, at first I thought she had some sort of neck injury, until she became less & less mobile. I have kept her separated from the others in her own pen for about ten days now. She eats and drinks well, but the paralysis does not appear to be improving. Is this something that runs its course eventually, or should I accept the fact that I have to cull her?

I am just starting to explore dealing with birds that go deep into paralyses. Normally I cull if meat or eggs a concern since time required for recovery if happens is a very significant portion of production life. With respect to games, even when paralysis is short-term and not so deep, something is wrong and full physical ability does not appear to be restored. Birds affected previously are much more likely to be lost on walk to predator. My games must have full physical ability.

 

[themenagerie]

No new birds ...bird affected is a POL pullet, from hatchery I"ve had since Sept. The only reason I thought it might be Mareks as opposed to an injury is that another pullet from that batch had an eye issue at about the same time, swollen & goopy, crusted over, which I understood from my reading, is another way Mareks can manifest . I cleaned her eye daily with a warm rag and applied veterinary antibiotic eye ointment to it. She seems to have gotten over her problem, but her sister has not. I have 29 birds, 27 of them under a year old, none vaccinated for Mareks.
The gist of my question is this... if it is Mareks, is the paralysis permanent, or if they're going to recover from it...do they regain mobility? I can't imagine keeping a paralyzed chicken long term, but don't want to cull her if there's hope for recovery.

 

[centrarchid]

No new birds ...bird affected is a POL pullet, from hatchery I"ve had since Sept. The only reason I thought it might be Mareks as opposed to an injury is that another pullet from that batch had an eye issue at about the same time, swollen & goopy, crusted over, which I understood from my reading, is another way Mareks can manifest . I cleaned her eye daily with a warm rag and applied veterinary antibiotic eye ointment to it. She seems to have gotten over her problem, but her sister has not. I have 29 birds, 27 of them under a year old, none vaccinated for Mareks.
The gist of my question is this... if it is Mareks, is the paralysis permanent, or if they're going to recover from it...do they regain mobility? I can't imagine keeping a paralyzed chicken long term, but don't want to cull her if there's hope for recovery.

To be quite frank I do not know. Scientific literature seems be considerate only of short-term outcomes since greatest concern is is with commericial flocks where even modest health effects can not be tolerated. If individual is infected, then cull. Paralysis is not always permanent but if scaring of nervous tissue is taking place, then some long-term impacts likely. Bird of primary interest to this thread has largely recovered but even my human eye can see not all is perfect. A couple hens infected last year as pullets seem to lay just fine but flight capacity (many of my birds can and when free-range need to be able to fly at least a couple hundred feet) has been degraded even after one year.

 

[seminolewind]

Menagerie, I have not heard of a goopy eye being a symptom. But just the opaque eye or a distorted pupil.

Centrarchid, I'm glad you have some info on more than short term. There's not a whole lot written on it. Are games affected differently?

 

[centrarchid]

Menagerie, I have not heard of a goopy eye being a symptom. But just the opaque eye or a distorted pupil.

Centrarchid, I'm glad you have some info on more than short term. There's not a whole lot written on it. Are games affected differently?

I do not think games are affected differently other than possibly the frequency. I have yet to see any of the games with odd looking pupils. It may very well the slightly odd behavior of post-symptomatic birds is something that my grandfather looked for in stags when fall culling was made in yard. Grandfather was very particular about how the birds moved and Speach does not move like he should when trying to be quick.

 

[seminolewind]

Do you have anymore info on the post-symptomatic birds? I have only seen those with symptoms, who get worse, and non-symptomatic birds, who never show a symptom, and live on. I've also had a 16 week old who was totally paralized one day, only to return to normal after a day or two. Then 3 weeks later, could not aim at food and eat it, (neck nerves?).

 

[centrarchid]

I have only seen them dip into paralysis once per bird. When birds get down to point where they drag themselves about by wings, they have almost without exception not recovered for me because with exception of two birds, they were culled within a day or two of going down. It had always been a decission about whether saving such a bird is worth effort. If not clear in thread, one bird (Speach) did regain ability to walk while a second, his father (Eduardo-pure American game), passed after about 45 days. Eduardo is only pure American game of mine that I know of to have come down with condition. Since diagnosis not confirmed with lab work, other causes can not at this time be ruled out, although it is unlikely do to inadequate vitamins in diet. Could still be another pathogen or antinutritional factor of some sort acquired through free-range exposure.

 

[Lobzi]

Has anyone ever had chickens who demonstrated breathing issues and have Mareks? I read where Mareks can effect the vagus nerve and therefore cause breathing problems. Also Ive read where Mareks can cause swollen crops which can also cause breathing problems. My last two chickens died and they were both having a real difficulty breathing. Im not sure what actually caused their death though I do suspect Mareks.

 

[seminolewind]

3 of mine had this slow gasp aside from breathing. And I believe one had her gizzard stop working. It was impacted with dried up stuff. I haven't had any crop issue, but can't say its not possible because any nerve can be affected, most commonly, the sciatic nerve, for the legs.