St. John's Wort

[MyPetPeeps]

You need to get the tablets at a health food store. Please keep us posted as to the results. I do not want to discourage you, but both myself and a friend dutifully followed the directions with the hipericum tablets, using distilled water and being careful to not touch the tablets to contaminate them, threw away the remaining and used fresh for each treatment, administered the drops AM & PM. We lost every one of our 16 babies that showed the slightest signs. We developed slings and "hover crafts" for them when they became too paralyzed to stand and kept them inside with food and water at their disposal 24/7, along with treats from the kitchen and their drops. They could not have had better conditions. Here is the beginning of the post to read the directions. I hope it works for you. https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=135247

 

[gmendoza]

Well the only diseases we have gone thru in the past three years of having chickens were:

Mareks
blackhead

and we had one hen die of an egg explosion.

Blackshead: we have taken preventave measures by not buying auction chickens anynore, by making a new coop away from the old one, not using any old coop wood for the new,making sure their pine bedding is clean with de or with ash.We are getting turkey poults by this friday and thats a concern.We had my wifes turkey die from blackhead.I didnt catch it in time and she had maggots on both sides of her wings at the collar bone.so i put her down so she wouldnt suffer no more.

mareks: if it can be prevented/stopped by st johns work,then Illl give it a try.Anything to stop unneeded suffering.

 

[MyPetPeeps]

I brought all sick or suspected of coming down with it, acting logy, etc, inside as soon as I noted them acting a bit "off". I had at one time 3 birds inside, all in separate boxes with feed and water, but usually only 1 at a time. 5 I treated with Hypericum but all died, eight total that had typical Mareks symptoms with leg paralysis, 9 if you count my lovely Grey necked Japanese I just lost 2 months ago. He was 2 and a half years old (most were 4-12 months) and he never went paralyzed, but went logy and eventually succumbed to drowning in lung fluids while on antibiotics 3 weeks after bringing him inside. The majority of my birds had the paralysis and eventually had gurgled breathing when coming to the end of their life, some in a month's time, 2 lasted at least 2 months happily eating, one was treated with hypericum and one I did not. Both had identical symptoms and were my longest patients. All the birds would perk up and eat very well initially and I would think they were on the mend. A few of my younger birds seemed to get symptoms a bit more rapidly and were treated with the Hypericum, and were violently spastic with neck driven downward and could no longer eat, so at this point I did humanely lay them down. Others seemed very content for up to 2 months in slings, eating well but loosing weight anyway. They would slow down their interest in food only a day before they died. I also had one mystery pullet who started to get lame, started limping and then her leg swelled and swelled and swelled until it was almost the size of 4 legs after a month. She ate very well and lost weight anyway. I humanely laid her down as the leg just kept swelling. ALL of my chickens are bantams. One was a Sebright who was inoculated and still had classic Marek's symptoms. Oddly, I have an old flock of mixed barnyard (mixed) larger banties that appears to be resistant chickens. Not one in that group has been effected, but lost several from each of 3 other groups.

 

[Lady Badlands]

This is a re-post of mine from November of 2009. I got many responses from people who tried this after reading my post and their chickens became well again. Therefore, I think it's worth repeating.

My saga with Mareks:

One of my RIR's began to be unable to walk. Her legs were splayed out, one in front and one in back. I felt terrible for her, so I made sure to pick her up and take her to the feed twice a day. After that I'd take her to the water. I'd leave a little feeder right in front of her so she could eat whenever she wanted. Except for her leg condition and inability to walk, she seemed fine. She ate ravenously. I used to sit in the coop and lay her belly up in the crook of my arm while watching the other chickens. She'd close her eyes and I'd sit there and cry. I figured I'd take care of her until I could see that she no longer wanted to live.

She had feces stuck to her tail feathers because she couldn't move when she pooped. I took her to my bathroom, turned her belly up and with a warm washcloth, I carefully blotted and rinsed, blotted and rinsed. The stuff was stuck so strong that it took a good hour to remove most of it. She just closed her eyes and didn't struggle. Sweet, sweet girl.

Someone told me about colloidal silver and how it killed viruses. People used to use real silverware in the old days for it's sterilizing effect on food. I heard that Marek's was a virus so I gave her a dropper full. She started to get better and in a couple of days, I gave her another dropper full. Her legs started to heal and when I could see that she would be walking again, I assisted her walking. In addition to the colloidal silver, my husband and I did visualizations akin to the ones you may have read about having little pac men eating up whatever of the virus remained.

My dream was that I wouldn't be able to tell the difference between her and the other RIR's I have because she'd be walking normally again. Well, my wish has come true. She is totally healthy and the only way I can tell it's her is because she's a bit smaller than the others having gone through what she did.

Last week I noticed one of my New Hampshire Reds starting to limp. I waited a couple of days to see if she had injured it and perhaps it might go away. The limp was still there and getting worse. I captured her and gave her a dropper full of colloidal silver and within two days, she is no longer limping.

I'm not saying that this is some kind of miracle cure, but with Marek's, everyone is so darned sure that it's fatal, saying there is no cure, but that is simply not true in our case. Oh, by the way, all our chicks were vaccinated at 1 day old for Marek's.

I couldn't be happier, which is why I wanted to pass this on to anyone who is faced with this issue.

 

[MyPetPeeps]

Thank you so much for the repost on colloidal silver. I will try it with my next peep that gets Mareks. I hate to even say this because it is heart wrenching to think of another case.
FWIW 2of my little hens were in need of baths due to poop plastered on their butts before I developed slings made of cotton socks and "hover crafts" made of milk jugs that kept them up off the ground, I gave my peeps hot baths in the kitchen sink in a bowl and they really seemed to like them! Not so much the blow dry, but enjoyed the wings being stretched and "flying". (I would love to post pictures of these to share but do not know how) The image button just does this

 

[ParadisePoultry]

Quote:
Peeps, did you try this? https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=504
i would love to see your slings and hovercraft

 

[rockinpaints]

Quote:
I have to agree with HinkJC, it is known as chicken cancer. Mareks is a member of the herpesvirus family of viruses that causes cancerous tumors. Usually by the time chicks reach 5 months old they are immune to Marek's . (The Mareks vaccine is the first cancer vaccine for any species.) Just a tiny bit of FYI on Marek's

 

[MyPetPeeps]

OK. 4 pics of slings and hovercraftI made for my sweet bantam hens that were paralyzed by Mareks.

Hovercraft from gallon milk jug and padding added inside for keel and leg holes

Sling from cotton anklet sock. The heel is her chest rest, toe is cut out for her butt and slots cut for wings and legs

 

[ItsAZOO32]

Hey guys.. I have a thread I started for my chicken.. can someone please tell me if you think it's Mareks?

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=6318058#p6318058

Thanks!

 

[Amanda4TCU]

Quote:
~Thank you for posting these pictures......Now I will make my bantam cochin a sling tonight to make her more comfortable. I think it's Marek's....even tho she is 8 months old and was vaccinated. She is doing the legs spread everywhere...hasn't walked or stood in 5 days and really isn't too interested in food or water....