BREEDING FOR PRODUCTION...EGGS AND OR MEAT.

[angry rooster]

Well, my very first chicken, Paula, died today. She was obviously feeling badly yesterday, and when I picked her up and was alarmed at how very thin she had gotten (it hadn't been that long since I had held her, so it must have happened fast). Thought it was worms at first - she had diarrhea - and gave her a dose of Safeguard. Kept her in a crate here in the den all day yesterday. She ate ok and lived through the night, but was very warm to the touch, holding her wings away from her body and panting very hard. Wouldn't eat this morning, and I came home to her dead.

I took care of the chicken chores while working up the nerve to do the necropsy. I'm glad I had processed before, so that I knew what a healthy chicken looked like on the inside. It was Mareks - her liver was ENORMOUS (filled entire front of abdomen, couldn't see anything else until moving it out of the way), and there were very small (and some slightly larger) tumors in it. Abdomen filled with huge tumors (lymph nodes). (GI tract normal, no worms). 

She was my first, was a solo chick for a while so she was a little like a pet - I was attached to her. She was vaccinated for Mareks. 

:::sigh:::

- Ant Farm 

I'm sorry to hear that it is never easy to loos a pet my thoughts are with you and I hope your flock is going to be ok

 

[ronott1]

Well, my very first chicken, Paula, died today. She was obviously feeling badly yesterday, and when I picked her up and was alarmed at how very thin she had gotten (it hadn't been that long since I had held her, so it must have happened fast). Thought it was worms at first - she had diarrhea - and gave her a dose of Safeguard. Kept her in a crate here in the den all day yesterday. She ate ok and lived through the night, but was very warm to the touch, holding her wings away from her body and panting very hard. Wouldn't eat this morning, and I came home to her dead.

I took care of the chicken chores while working up the nerve to do the necropsy. I'm glad I had processed before, so that I knew what a healthy chicken looked like on the inside. It was Mareks - her liver was ENORMOUS (filled entire front of abdomen, couldn't see anything else until moving it out of the way), and there were very small (and some slightly larger) tumors in it. Abdomen filled with huge tumors (lymph nodes). (GI tract normal, no worms).

She was my first, was a solo chick for a while so she was a little like a pet - I was attached to her. She was vaccinated for Mareks.

:::sigh:::

- Ant Farm

Mareks kills older chickens at about two years of age as a cancer. there would be tumors not an enlarged liver.

Fatty liver is common in some breeds and very good laying hens.

 

[Fire Ant Farm]

I'm sorry to hear that it is never easy to loos a pet my thoughts are with you and I hope your flock is going to be ok

Thanks. I have another Cream Legbar with ocular Mareks (but otherwise ok for the moment), so I am not surprised. I will have to breed for resistance. It may get ugly on the way there...

- Ant Farm

 

[Fire Ant Farm]

Mareks kills older chickens at about two years of age as a cancer. there would be tumors not an enlarged liver.

Fatty liver is common in some breeds and very good laying hens.

Perhaps she had fatty liver, but there were most definitely tumors... (I am a pathologist).

Her sister has ocular Mareks.

 

[ronott1]

Thanks. I have another Cream Legbar with ocular Mareks (but otherwise ok for the moment), so I am not surprised. I will have to breed for resistance. It may get ugly on the way there...

- Ant Farm

Yes breed for resistance.

 

[ronott1]

Perhaps she had fatty liver, but there were most definitely tumors... (I am a pathologist).

Her sister has ocular Mareks.

mareks tumors are unique--as a pathologis, you should be able to identify it. The Lab at UCD can tell them from other tumors.

 

[lpatelski]

Well, my very first chicken, Paula, died today. She was obviously feeling badly yesterday, and when I picked her up and was alarmed at how very thin she had gotten (it hadn't been that long since I had held her, so it must have happened fast). Thought it was worms at first - she had diarrhea - and gave her a dose of Safeguard. Kept her in a crate here in the den all day yesterday. She ate ok and lived through the night, but was very warm to the touch, holding her wings away from her body and panting very hard. Wouldn't eat this morning, and I came home to her dead.

I took care of the chicken chores while working up the nerve to do the necropsy. I'm glad I had processed before, so that I knew what a healthy chicken looked like on the inside. It was Mareks - her liver was ENORMOUS (filled entire front of abdomen, couldn't see anything else until moving it out of the way), and there were very small (and some slightly larger) tumors in it. Abdomen filled with huge tumors (lymph nodes). (GI tract normal, no worms).

She was my first, was a solo chick for a while so she was a little like a pet - I was attached to her. She was vaccinated for Mareks.

:::sigh:::

- Ant Farm

@Fire Ant Farm I am so sorry to hear of Paula's passing.

I am sure she had a marvelous life under your care. There are poultry diagnostic laboratories that will do a free autopsy for the backyard producer. This way you have an affirmation of your necrospy findings. This just reminds me that vaccines only last so long then need to be boosted. It is just so hard for the little farmer to afford or justify purchasing 500 doses for 5 chickens. Again may Paula rest in peace.

Texas Veterinary Medical -Gonzales
Poultry Diagnostic Laboratory P.O. Box 84
Gonzales, TX 78629 Phone: (830) 672-2834
Fax: (830) 672-2835
Texas Veterinary Medical Diagnostic Laboratory
College Station P.O. Drawer 3040
College Station, TX 77841-3040 Phone: (979) 845-4186
Fax: (979) 845-1794
Texas Veterinary Medical Center
Poultry Diagnostic Laboratory 635 Malone Drive
Center, TX 75935 Phone: (936) 598-4451
Fax: (936) 598-2741​

https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/the-great-big-giant-mareks-disease-faq

 

[ronott1]

@Fire Ant Farm I am so sorry to hear of Paula's passing.

I am sure she had a marvelous life under your care. There are poultry diagnostic laboratories that will do a free autopsy for the backyard producer. This way you have an affirmation of your necrospy findings. This just reminds me that vaccines only last so long then need to be boosted. It is just so hard for the little farmer to afford or justify purchasing 500 doses for 5 chickens. Again may Paula rest in peace.

Texas Veterinary Medical -Gonzales
Poultry Diagnostic Laboratory P.O. Box 84
Gonzales, TX 78629 Phone: (830) 672-2834
Fax: (830) 672-2835
Texas Veterinary Medical Diagnostic Laboratory
College Station P.O. Drawer 3040
College Station, TX 77841-3040 Phone: (979) 845-4186
Fax: (979) 845-1794
Texas Veterinary Medical Center
Poultry Diagnostic Laboratory 635 Malone Drive
Center, TX 75935 Phone: (936) 598-4451
Fax: (936) 598-2741​

https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/the-great-big-giant-mareks-disease-faq

This is important because there is another poultry cancer that is out there--It is good to identify it for sure.

 

[Fire Ant Farm]

mareks tumors are unique--as a pathologis, you should be able to identify it. The Lab at UCD can tell them from other tumors.

Yep - classic lymphoma: hepatomegaly, splenomegaly, and massive enlargement of abdominal lymph nodes. Cut section (color/consistency) sufficiently like lymphoma that I didn't bother taking a sample for microscopy (esp. since I already have a chicken with classic ocular changes.) Some lines of Cream Legbars that were imported had increased susceptibility to Mareks. That may be going on here. I have several of her chicks just hatched out last week. I'm going to keep them and see how they do - from what I have read, disease if not passed to the egg and the babies actually have protective maternal antibody (for a while).

What a drag...

- Ant Farm

 

[Fire Ant Farm]

@Fire Ant Farm I am so sorry to hear of Paula's passing.

I am sure she had a marvelous life under your care. There are poultry diagnostic laboratories that will do a free autopsy for the backyard producer. This way you have an affirmation of your necrospy findings. This just reminds me that vaccines only last so long then need to be boosted. It is just so hard for the little farmer to afford or justify purchasing 500 doses for 5 chickens. Again may Paula rest in peace.

Texas Veterinary Medical -Gonzales
Poultry Diagnostic Laboratory P.O. Box 84
Gonzales, TX 78629 Phone: (830) 672-2834
Fax: (830) 672-2835
Texas Veterinary Medical Diagnostic Laboratory
College Station P.O. Drawer 3040
College Station, TX 77841-3040 Phone: (979) 845-4186
Fax: (979) 845-1794
Texas Veterinary Medical Center
Poultry Diagnostic Laboratory 635 Malone Drive
Center, TX 75935 Phone: (936) 598-4451
Fax: (936) 598-2741​

https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/the-great-big-giant-mareks-disease-faq

This is important because there is another poultry cancer that is out there--It is good to identify it for sure.

Thank you so much for pointing this out. I managed to retrieve some liver and some lymphomatous tumors. Put some in alcohol, some frozen. I will contact these folks tomorrow. Upon reading, there is a big difference for her chicks (if avian lymphoid leukosis, I will need to put them down, and I am not certain which are hers - which would mean putting down all of the chicks from that hatch).

- Ant Farm