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

[casportpony]

Quote: Please post eye pictures before you do the deed.

-Kathy

 

[PeepersMama]

Will do

 

[PeepersMama]

What do you think?
She is quite the figit-er; it was hard to get decent pics

 

[Beekissed]

This seems like a likely place to post a pic and ask you guys if it looks a little familiar. This is a bird given to me by my sister(along with 16 others), who has had many birds die over the years from a range of symptoms, the most recent had a large tumor in her throat...that bird was 12 yrs old.

This bird had massive ascites, yellow liquid diarrhea and dark brown fluid coming out of her mouth when she arrived. She died the next day. Does this look like lymphoid leukosis to you? These tumors covered all surfaces in her abdominal cavity, her liver was pale and yellow, the heart appeared normal, the lungs were dark red, there were larger dark red tumors in her oviduct and her ovary looked like the black tumors you see here.

 

[casportpony]

What do you think?
She is quite the figit-er; it was hard to get decent pics

They look pretty normal to me.

-Kathy

 

[PeepersMama]

They look pretty normal to me.

-Kathy

Ok, good

I think we are still going to send them all to heaven. If dad could tell them apart, then maybe not, but it is a BIG flock

 

[PeepersMama]

Although, we could just put all the sickies in the sick coop and have dad just do those... again,

 

[PeepersMama]

So, we leave for AZ at 4 a.m. tommorow. We separated all the chickens that seemed even slightly sick, and since tommorow is Dad's day off, he will do the deeds then

We'll be down 19 chickens when I get back - 43 to 24.

Thank you all for your advice

And please pray that no body else gets sick and dies will I'm gone.

 

[casportpony]

This seems like a likely place to post a pic and ask you guys if it looks a little familiar. This is a bird given to me by my sister(along with 16 others), who has had many birds die over the years from a range of symptoms, the most recent had a large tumor in her throat...that bird was 12 yrs old. This bird had massive ascites, yellow liquid diarrhea and dark brown fluid coming out of her mouth when she arrived. She died the next day. Does this look like lymphoid leukosis to you? These tumors covered all surfaces in her abdominal cavity, her liver was pale and yellow, the heart appeared normal, the lungs were dark red, there were larger dark red tumors in her oviduct and her ovary looked like the black tumors you see here.

Interesting color... I've seen that before, but not black like that. Hard to say what type of cancer it is without testing. -Kathy

 

[ochochicas]

I thought I'd post an update on my Marek's flock. I've been dealing with the disease for over 2 years now, and I'm about 20 months into my vaccine experiment.

My flock had a very very virulent strain of Marek's that killed all my chicks and a couple of adult birds. Since vaccinating, I have lost three birds, one cockerel for sure had Marek's and the other two developed crop issues which may or may not be related to Marek's. I've been hatching many batches of chicks and vaccinating them all at hatch. Some have been raised in a brooder, while others have been raised outside by a hen. Since the broody raised chicks are potentially exposed to the virus before the vaccine has a chance create immunity, I was excited to see what would happen with the broody raised chicks.

The result was that more than 90% of the chicks never developed any signs of illness. Unfortunately, I have had one pullet and two cockerels develop leg weakness and droopy wings. I probably should of culled the pullet, but in the name of science I let her live. After about 4 weeks she started to improve and made a full recovery. She is one of my best layers now. The first cockerel to get sick only had a slight limp for about 2 weeks. He was raised to 6 months old and then processed. The last bird developed moderate leg and wing paralysis. He had extreme difficulty getting around, but never lost his appetite. I think that is one of the key things with Marek's. Once they don't want to eat any more they don't have much of a chance. One day I went to the coop and he was laying on his back and couldn't roll himself over. I thought the other birds would kill him. Again, in the name of science I let him live just one more day. He made a full recovery and started to grow again after he regained full mobility.

Now he is a full grown beautiful rooster.

I think I will always have Marek's on my property, but at least my birds can survive if they are vaccinated. Maybe this will provide some hope for others.