chickens dieing

[leadwolf1]

I'm sorry you are experiencing this. If the description of Marek's fits, you need to have a necropsy performed to find out what you are dealing with. You have now had 3 deaths in a small flock. Your vet friend is incorrect in saying that it couldn't be Mareks' because of them being vaccinated. Firstly, not all commercial chickens are vaccinated, you would have to call where you got them in order to know this. Secondly, the vaccine does not prevent chickens from getting Marek's, it only prevents the formation of the tumors associated with the disease.

I am thinking that the most likely case is that you may have brought Marek's in when you brought in the roosters. The time frame fits.

Just in case you were wondering...I have been battling Marek's for a year now and have lost 40+ chickens. There isn't much that I don't know about Marek's at this point...much more than is written in the literature.

Well when we got home from church I took the rooster out of the crate to see if he needed his butt cleaned up gain. Since I had done it by myself yesterday I was going to get my husbands help so that I could use both hands this time. I had been trying to hold him up with one hand so that he didn't lie right in the tuba and get his entire body wet. Thankfully I got help this time because when I started we immediately saw tiny maggots. The poor guy was sure in distress. I did an extra good job this time but he definitely got wet all over. I use many towels and then I actually used my hair drier on him on low to get him dried because i didn't want him to be cold. He looks beautiful again but it took a lot out of him. He is resting now.

I spoke to a friend at church today that used to be a vet. He said he didn't do much with chickens but didn't think that there was a high chance that Mareks was what the first two chicken died from. Since that group had come from a commercial grower he said they would have been vaccinated and therefor that was not likely the cause. The Barred Rock rooster came from an individual breeder.

He said there could be a vitamin deficiency that is the actual problem with not wanting to walk/ being able to walk. He said he would try to look somethings up in his old books because he hadn't much experience with chickens. I will see him again tonight so I'll see if he found anything that might help us to understand if there is anything we can do.

I think our real frustration is not knowing what this is so we know if we can help the chickens or not. I do want to know what it is so we can help prevent the others form getting it as well. At this point we don't know if we can help and are doing the wrong thing or if there is nothing that could be done anyway. We feel so hopeless.