Does this look like mareks disease*pics*

[Eggcessive]

There are a lot of threads here on BYC where people have shared their experiences with Mareks in their flocks. You can try to search for some on the Search Forums heading at the top of this page. It is not that easy to use though.

 

[Mixed flock enthusiast]

Thank you so much that is a perfect way to individually worm all of them. I had visions of trying to chase them all around the Run
I have only used wormer that you feed. I think they need more than that this time. I have been shopping around and i'm finding a big bottle for $45. Do you know where I can get a smaller one?
So I lost my special little miracle chicken tonight everybody was fine an hour ago when I was out there. I went to lock everybody in she was just dead in the Run still warm. I'm glad it happened like this and I didn't have to cull her ,that would have been even more heartbreaking
This disease is nasty,the last two haven't had the paralyzed legs they just died. it's just shocking to me that they look fine one minute and they're dead the next.
I'm starting to feel like I need to find a Merek 's support group

Wow, it sounds like you are having a terrible time of it with you losses! I am so sorry! Are the chickens that are passing away quickly of a similar age? If it helps, we’ve been doing well this year with our vaccinated replacement pullets. They aren’t old enough yet to know if they will make through point of lay, which is when a lot of our most heartbreaking losses have occurred. We had a period last fall and spring where it felt like all of our best chickens were dying, so it has been really nice to have these happier days with our flock. I don’t think that there is much you can do with your flock right now besides the great care that you are already giving them. Anything you can do to decrease stress, both mental and physical is helpful, and it sounds like you are on top of that. I’m so sorry again and hoping for happier days of chicken keeping ahead of you!!!!

 

[Eggcessive]

Here are some threads and articles to read through when you get the time:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/the-great-big-giant-mareks-disease-faq.66077/

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/marek’s-disease.1301797/#post-21204738

https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...ding-for-resistance-to-mareks-disease.894589/

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/breeding-for-mareks-resistance.1274506/

https://extension.umd.edu/sites/extension.umd.edu/files/_docs/programs/poultry/FS-1007 Recognizing and Preventing Mareks Disease in Small Flocks.pdf

https://www.shagbarkbantams.com/mareks-disease/

https://www.merckvetmanual.com/poultry/neoplasms/marek’s-disease-in-poultry

 

[Kathy Golla]

So sorry @Bella D .
Hang in there...it will get better.

 

[Bella D]

Thank you everybody for all of your replies
Thank you for the links eggcessive I have read the great big giant mareks disease faq.lots of great info and answered a lot of questions.
I will go through and read the rest of the links too.
Thanks for the positive words mixed flock enthusiast. Since you shared your experience with me I was not surprised when some of them just died . I may have thought it was something else since they didn't show any of the Marek's signs. So far I have lost three hens that were all between 3 and 5 months .My Silkie was 9 months and the only roo I have lost was a hatch mate of the silkie and he died of fly strike. All of them were hatched here except for the first one I lost she came from the feed store. I still have 5 hens left at around the same ages I will have to see what happens. I am expecting to lose them so far I have lost one older hen who had a yeast infection in her crop.I treated her but she didn't make it. Im sure it was secondary to the Marek's now and her immune system was compromised.l also have six roo's that are five months so this should be interesting.
last night I decided to go ahead and order some vaccinated female chicks. I decided to make a positive out of a negative. I needed something to look forward to instead of who would go next.I got them vaccinated for Coccidiosis too. Is that a good idea?
I'm going to brood them in a spare bathroom we have it's right next to the garage that nobody likes to go in. I'm worried about bringing dander in but they are going to be on the other side of the house from where I come in from the chickens. After my first batch I swore I would never brood chickens in the house again..well things change my daughter loves her chickens so i'm hoping she can have a positive experience with these new babies.
So I cleaned the coop really well today I tried to get all the dander out, that is never going to happen but I got as much as I could. I ordered virkon but I didn't get it in time so I will do another deep clean and spray.
So when I went in to clean I got a surprise. I have five silkies trying to sit on eggs and I keep taking the eggs and putting them in a broody breaker.Obviously I missed three eggs because there were three baby chicks in the coop. This is the first time I have not been happy about surprise chicks.All I can think of is if they will make it. They are here now so I will do the best I can for them and cross my fingers.
Thank you for your kind words and advice

 

[Mixed flock enthusiast]

Thank you everybody for all of your replies
Thank you for the links eggcessive I have read the great big giant mareks disease faq.lots of great info and answered a lot of questions.
I will go through and read the rest of the links too.
Thanks for the positive words mixed flock enthusiast. Since you shared your experience with me I was not surprised when some of them just died . I may have thought it was something else since they didn't show any of the Marek's signs. So far I have lost three hens that were all between 3 and 5 months .My Silkie was 9 months and the only roo I have lost was a hatch mate of the silkie and he died of fly strike. All of them were hatched here except for the first one I lost she came from the feed store. I still have 5 hens left at around the same ages I will have to see what happens. I am expecting to lose them so far I have lost one older hen who had a yeast infection in her crop.I treated her but she didn't make it. Im sure it was secondary to the Marek's now and her immune system was compromised.l also have six roo's that are five months so this should be interesting.
last night I decided to go ahead and order some vaccinated female chicks. I decided to make a positive out of a negative. I needed something to look forward to instead of who would go next.I got them vaccinated for Coccidiosis too. Is that a good idea?
I'm going to brood them in a spare bathroom we have it's right next to the garage that nobody likes to go in. I'm worried about bringing dander in but they are going to be on the other side of the house from where I come in from the chickens. After my first batch I swore I would never brood chickens in the house again..well things change my daughter loves her chickens so i'm hoping she can have a positive experience with these new babies.
So I cleaned the coop really well today I tried to get all the dander out, that is never going to happen but I got as much as I could. I ordered virkon but I didn't get it in time so I will do another deep clean and spray.
So when I went in to clean I got a surprise. I have five silkies trying to sit on eggs and I keep taking the eggs and putting them in a broody breaker.Obviously I missed three eggs because there were three baby chicks in the coop. This is the first time I have not been happy about surprise chicks.All I can think of is if they will make it. They are here now so I will do the best I can for them and cross my fingers.
Thank you for your kind words and advice

Wow, surprise chicks! You have lots of silkies then? I have been told that silkies and Polish are particularly susceptible to Marek’s, but our regular silkie hen and roo have proven incredibly hardy to it. Both regular silkies were best friends with multiple flockmates that died of Marek’s, so were exposed to very high levels of virus, and both have survived to a year. The roo is a total jerk but I hate to cull him when he’s been such an incredible survivor... We did have a showgirl silkie that succumbed to the disease. She survived point of lay, stopped laying in winter, then when she started laying again in spring came down with the disease. She was our favorite so that was our worst loss (pic attaches). Your chicks will likely hatch with Marek’s antibodies from their exposed mom. That will help them in the short term but maybe not as much long term? I’ve kind of been running my own experiment and vaccinating in the egg with chicks then raised by broody. I also switched from the less effective cell-free vaccine to the ridiculously hard to obtain and administer Rispens vaccine (I could only do that because I’m part of a vet school). As you noted with your new, ordered chicks, they should be kept separate for several weeks for maximum resistance. Therefore, I expected to lose half to Marek’s so we will see what happens as they get older.

 

[Kathy Golla]

I think I read the vaccinated chicks need to not be exposed for 4-6 weeks.

 

[Mixed flock enthusiast]

I think I read the vaccinated chicks need to not be exposed for 4-6 weeks.

I’m sure that you are right that a longer separation will give the chick’s immune system more time to develop. I’m pasting one recommendation to wait at least 7 days, with suggestions about how to keep from infecting these chicks in your household. The second link is to one of the studies that the 7 days is probably based on. From Table 6, see the HVT vaccination column. That’s the most commonly used, cell free vaccine in backyard chickens. They vaccinated at day 1 of age, then “challenge” chicks (inject them with virus) at different times after vaccination. For how well the vaccine protected the chicks, you can look to the right at the “protection index” column. Group B came from hens with antibodies to Marek’s, Group C hens did not have the antibodies. In both cases, you can see that the maximum protective index was reached when challenge occurred at 5 or 8 days... So that means that in this one study, there wasn’t a benefit to the chick to delay exposure past that. The main focus of this study though was on the way that the presence of maternal antibodies interferes with the different vaccines...

https://extension.psu.edu/mareks-disease-in-chickens

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/03079458408418510

 

[Eggcessive]

The Diseases of Poultry textbook states that day old chicks will develop vaccine effects by 2 weeks.

 

[mellinda]

Sorry for your loss