Not an Emergency...Marek's in the Flock

[schnebbles]

well, just know if you take them (I know I would vs cull them), you're taking mareks. Hard decision!

 

[seminolewind]

We are putting a offer in on a farm and of course the first Thing I want to do is get chicks and some ducks.
So do I take my current hens with us? My original hens had mareks. I have lost all but 1 to it. As they have died I replaced them with vaccinated ones. So right now I have 1 unvaccinated hen and 4 vaccinated ones.
The chicks I will get will be vaccinated. None of my current birds are showing symptoms now but I know mareks is just waiting.
Any thoughts or suggestions?
Thanks
Janelle

I think you should bring them. You've already started vaccinating. Chances are, if it's not your current birds, there will be something that comes along and exposes the new ones to Marek's. Eventually, all chickens are going to be resistant and exposed or vaccinated and exposed.

 

[seminolewind]

Quote:
That's what I mean. I used to run my incubator in my bathroom and then realized I change my clothes in there. So now my chicks go into our spare guest room because it's the least used room in the house. And we gown and glove to go in the first 3 weeks.

I'm sure the stuff is all over my house, yard, truck, etc.

 

[triton77]

Thanks for the suggestions!
There are currently 2 hens and one pea hen on the farm(coons got the rest).
We don't have to take anything from our current chickens but we do have to take our clothes.
I guess we are all carriers of this disease now so it doesn't matter if we take them or not our new chickens would probably get it from us or our things.
Thanks
Janelle

 

[seminolewind]

Janelle, yes I think we have to assume everyone has it.

 

[welasharon]

Well I have been hand feeding a hen since June. She has progressed to the point now that she can stand up again. She can turn around in a circle when she gets mad at me and can stamp her feet. She has started grooming her feathers as well. This week she has begun to actively stab at food that I hold to her beak. Before I had to part her beak and put it in. Her aim is badly off...6 to 8 inches at times. Tonight she was able to eat some ground beef mixed with oatmeal that I held in front of her. I went out to feed the others and now my last spitzhauben hen has the split leg stance. Looks like I'll have two in the house. I too think it is in the soil but the only ones I'm having contract it are the rarer birds with less genetic vitality...my tolbunts and the spitzhaubens. Frustrating.

 

[seminolewind]

Well I have been hand feeding a hen since June. She has progressed to the point now that she can stand up again. She can turn around in a circle when she gets mad at me and can stamp her feet. She has started grooming her feathers as well. This week she has begun to actively stab at food that I hold to her beak. Before I had to part her beak and put it in. Her aim is badly off...6 to 8 inches at times. Tonight she was able to eat some ground beef mixed with oatmeal that I held in front of her. I went out to feed the others and now my last spitzhauben hen has the split leg stance. Looks like I'll have two in the house. I too think it is in the soil but the only ones I'm having contract it are the rarer birds with less genetic vitality...my tolbunts and the spitzhaubens. Frustrating.

I had really poor luck with tolbunt and crele . Your right less genetic vitality. I have a group right now that is doing well. I do believe I have 29 chickens and 15 are poofy . Polish, 3 Houdans, 3 Crevecour.

I have much better luck with hatchery vaccinated birds.

I know what you mean with the aim. I had a roo that did all that, then was back on his own eating, and then just started to waste away. I think the only thing that can work in our favor when birds are symptomatic is keeping them eating.

 

[Suzie]

http://behindthemaskmd.com/2014/11/death-of-a-dog/ I know- it's written about a dog. But it really could be about any pet.

Thanks for this post...it is about our love for each and every one of our companions that have touched our lives...I still shed tears for my "Pride"..he was my first ever German Shepherd and he died in 1989..the pain is still as raw today as it was then...for all of our loved and departed...tears flow easily and it is about our love and attachment to those that touch our lives and enhance them...that hurts the most...

I would not exchange anything for the love I have received in return from any of my beloved ones..cherish the love we have...we are chosen to have the love we gain from our animals...so many people I know have no concept of true love...

Maman my love for you is undying as it is for each and every one of you that has enhanced my life..as it is for all of you who face the sad prospect of losing your loved ones..we will all be together again one day and tears will be of love and not sadness...

Thoughts are with you all...

 

[welasharon]

I had really poor luck with tolbunt and crele . Your right less genetic vitality. I have a group right now that is doing well. I do believe I have 29 chickens and 15 are poofy . Polish, 3 Houdans, 3 Crevecour.

I have much better luck with hatchery vaccinated birds.

I know what you mean with the aim. I had a roo that did all that, then was back on his own eating, and then just started to waste away. I think the only thing that can work in our favor when birds are symptomatic is keeping them eating.

The poufy ones seem more susceptible for sure. I have one pair of tolbunt from someone in central florida that have done very well but the hen is sterile....how is that for luck! She is over two years old and has never laid an egg. I have three gold laced polish and they are very healthy. Then I have one GL tolbunt split that has chronic bumblefoot......I'm getting tired.

 

[seminolewind]

Hey I have 3 BLP that will be 7 yrs old in January and have lived thru all this Marek's stuff. 2 of their daughters did fine and are 6 years old. But 3 were hatched, unvaccinated, and died of Marek's symptoms.

My Tolbunt roo passed away this year. He was 3 years old and had bouts of wasting a few times. This time he was skin and bones and had 4 bumbles that were painful and it was not humane to keep torturing him.

I've had a lot of problems with wasting away this year , a few from opportunistic bacterium. So I treated my last skinny one with sulfadimethoxine and Tylan (for possible clostridium infection that is sub clinical) I think my reasoning right now is that Marek's suppresses the immune system. So I figured I have nothing to lose by treating them for things that showed up on my 3 necropsies.

I had 3 hens that were gasping at rest. The first one died. She had done it for over 2 years. The second and third I treated with nystatin powder for 10 days. One died of EYP, and the third on stopped gasping. My reasoning was that I had one on necropsy that had aspergillosis. She did not do any gasping but I had nothing to lose by treating for it.

It just all seems like illnesses from over growth of fungus or bacteria from immunosuppression. I will continue on.