Slowly fading away

My Gwennie is slowly fading away. She has two issues. One is a brain thing that makes her turn her head to one side. I treated for an inner ear infection with no results. The other is a skin issue. I believe it may be an advnced case of favus. Has anyone encountered skin leisions like these and found the cause?

That could be Merek's.

The symptoms do not reflect that diesease. This appears to be viral or bacterial.
Thanks for your thoughts, but that was the first thing I thought it might be, and it was ruled out because the symptoms do not match. I am hoping someone else here has seen the same leisions and can identify what the cause would be.
Thanks so much for your imput.

How do the symptoms not match? From what little I know, it is a virus, it can present in one or more of four ways, neural, cutaneous, visceral and ocular. Which include symptoms like weigh loss, skin lesions and neurological changes.

Hi coolcanoechic,

Attached are links to photos of skin lesions in marek's, and depression/anorexia. Marek's has many forms.

Depression and anorexia:
http://partnersah.vet.cornell.edu/a...las/files/avian_atlas_assets/MD-105A x750.jpg

Skin lesions:
http://partnersah.vet.cornell.edu/a...las/files/avian_atlas_assets/MD-018A x750.jpg

It might be worth looking into these or other marek's material before you rule it out. I'm sorry to say I think casportpony has a point.

cheers
Erica

Sorry -- I forgot to add links to the head twisting/turning issue, but if you google further you'll find that it can be a sign of marek's also.

If I read correctly, favus is a fungal infection.
http://www.veeru.reading.ac.uk/comp2/Poultryweb/disease/favus/favus1.htm

Hi Erica,
These skin leisions are all over her body. She has had weight loss and ocular problms. The ocular problems have her eyes clear but with one eye over dialated and one eye under dialated, such as in a brain injury. There is no grayish color there as in Mereks. Her ocular problems reflects a brain injury more than anything else, though I don't think that is the case. I have been reading and reading for hours on end about ocular Mereks and the symptoms just don't completely match. I appreciate the imput from everyone, really, but I also had a vet here twice to see her and she has ruled out Mereks, as well as Newcastle. We are trying very hard to find out exactly what is going on with Gwennie. She is checking with some avian experts to try to get a diagnosis or sense of what is happening.

Yes, It could be Mereck's, but if it is, it does not completely match the symptoms of everything we have looked up here and online. Gwennie is probably too far gone for any hope of recovery at this point. I really would like to save her if I can. After all, every creature wants to live, and I am doing my very best to help her, but her condition has deteriorated to almost the point of no return.

She wants to eat, but not anything that isn't soft. She only seems to prefer soft fruits. I am giving her electrolytes. She has been checked for lice and mites and treated for a precaution. She ocasionally wants to eat scrambled eggs. I have been making them for here every day in case she wants something other than fruit. I have been giving her every food I can think of to get her to just keep her crop filled.

I have to work full time with mandatory overtime. I wish I could be home all day to make sure she eats, but I can't.

I'm sorry casportpony if I sounded like I was being rude. I had no intention of offending anyone. I am tired and have been overwhelmed by trying to keep things sanitary for the girls, working overtime and taking care of the family, and trying to keep Gwennie alive and cared for. I'm wiped out. I have been searching and searching the internet and this site for the last few weeks with no match for what Gwennie has. Nothing fits. Nothing matches completely.

The reason I posted the picture was to see if anyone has seen anything similar that might point me towards some sort of diagnosis. Like I said, I have been searching for a diagnosis for weeks on the internet and the symptoms just don't match up with anything whatsoever. If there is more to Merek's, then I just can't find it.

Gwennie has been removed from the flock and is being cared for inside my home in my old brooder. It is very large and roomy. The coop and run have been totally disinfected and the hens have been treated for critters. I can't think of anything else I could do. I will soon be taking her to be narcropsied. I don't want to, but I have other birds that need my protection. If there is something contageous with Gwennie, then I need to make sure my other birds get any protection I can give them.

No worries, I was not offended. I know all to well the type of stress you're dealing with, seems like I have spent the last 18 months trying to keep turkeys and peafowl alive. And I just found out that I have a very bad outbreak of Merek's here, and I've seen it present in more ways than I can remember. As for the ocular problems you just described, I have at least ten here that have the exact same thing and I'll try to get some pictures of them tonight. You asked if anyone had ever seen that type of skin lesion... I have, but that was five years ago, before I knew about the free necropsy services here in CA. That hen started off with just a few, but they got worse, she lost all of her feathers and eventually died, but I guess I'll never know why.

This link has some good pictures, but not of the eyes like ours have.
http://partnersah.vet.cornell.edu/avian-atlas/search/disease/502

This is another good link:
http://extension.unh.edu/resources/files/Resource000791_Rep813.pdf

Have you considered tube feeding her? I'd be more than happy to share info on doing it...