Does this look like mareks disease*pics*

[Bella D]

yes mixed flock enthusiast I have silkies,sizzles,polish and a few silkie polish x's. My daughter tells people we like our chickens with crazy top knots
Your show girl was very beautiful I'm very sorry for your loss your other silkies are adorable too.

The babies I ordered are all polish : my cute little silkies are killing me with the brooding this year so I decided to get polish, I rarely have one go broody.

Thank you you everybody for the responses to let me know how long it takes before they get their antibodies. I'm thinking two weeks of really keeping all dander away from them I'm thinking I will wear one of my husband's big hoodies and sweatpants and just take them off before I come in the house from my coop so that I'm sure not to bring any dander with me. My neighbors will probably think I'm crazy trudging out there in sweat pants in the middle of summer but that's okay. Good to know I had to be the most strict for the first 8 days. Then after the two weeks I probably don't have to be as careful I'm going to have to keep them in the house until they are fully feathered at 6 weeks though because I don't really have anywhere to brood them in the coop where I can plug in the heat source. I do have a coupe with runs that I can close off so I can keep them away from the other ones for a while and they will still have half the coop and a run until they're used to each other.
I would love to be able to hatch with a Broody one day again but I don't think I'll be able to get ahold of that vaccine I was thinking in a couple of years I would try a incubator so my littlest one can actually see some chicks hatch, I will try to just vaccinate them and then brood them in the house.
I will have to see what happens with my three surprise chicks I don't think it's going to be good. I am not sure if one of my polish roosters is not doing well tonight at roosting he was on the floor but they still do that sometimes because they're young and they hang with the silkies. I tried to get him to get up and walk and see if he had problems walking, it didn't look like it but it seemed like he was breathing really hard so I don't know.....
Mixed flock enthusiasts did you lose a lot of roosters? if I was going to lose a roo this is not the one I would choose I have a couple that are a little cranky.
Thank you mellinda for your kind words

 

[Mixed flock enthusiast]

yes mixed flock enthusiast I have silkies,sizzles,polish and a few silkie polish x's. My daughter tells people we like our chickens with crazy top knots
Your show girl was very beautiful I'm very sorry for your loss your other silkies are adorable too.

The babies I ordered are all polish : my cute little silkies are killing me with the brooding this year so I decided to get polish, I rarely have one go broody.

Thank you you everybody for the responses to let me know how long it takes before they get their antibodies. I'm thinking two weeks of really keeping all dander away from them I'm thinking I will wear one of my husband's big hoodies and sweatpants and just take them off before I come in the house from my coop so that I'm sure not to bring any dander with me. My neighbors will probably think I'm crazy trudging out there in sweat pants in the middle of summer but that's okay. Good to know I had to be the most strict for the first 8 days. Then after the two weeks I probably don't have to be as careful I'm going to have to keep them in the house until they are fully feathered at 6 weeks though because I don't really have anywhere to brood them in the coop where I can plug in the heat source. I do have a coupe with runs that I can close off so I can keep them away from the other ones for a while and they will still have half the coop and a run until they're used to each other.
I would love to be able to hatch with a Broody one day again but I don't think I'll be able to get ahold of that vaccine I was thinking in a couple of years I would try a incubator so my littlest one can actually see some chicks hatch, I will try to just vaccinate them and then brood them in the house.
I will have to see what happens with my three surprise chicks I don't think it's going to be good. I am not sure if one of my polish roosters is not doing well tonight at roosting he was on the floor but they still do that sometimes because they're young and they hang with the silkies. I tried to get him to get up and walk and see if he had problems walking, it didn't look like it but it seemed like he was breathing really hard so I don't know.....
Mixed flock enthusiasts did you lose a lot of roosters? if I was going to lose a roo this is not the one I would choose I have a couple that are a little cranky.
Thank you mellinda for your kind words

We lost some roosters, at 2 or 6 months, but they did better than the pullets... Best of luck with your new chicks!!!

 

[Bella D]

here we go again I had to cull two hens and a rooster the other day. And tonight I went out and my blue Polish I think was a rooster but was so quiet I don't know for sure was dead in the Run. The two roosters I got in march so they were about 6 months old. The hens one hatched in February and the other one I think was only about 4 months old.
The first two I kind of kept to see if they were really going to lose leg function and of course they were. I saw the four month old was starting to be off balance and was putting a foot out so I just grabbed her while we were doing the other two.
I never gets easier to have to do it
It's always shocking to come up to the run and see a chicken who is perfectly fine in the morning dead but I prefer that.
I have three Roo's and three hens left that are all young from my hatch this spring so hopefully those will be the only ones I'll lose .Hopefully I won't lose them all.
I started a new thread asking about how successful people were with their vaccinated chicks after the diagnosis.
Surprisingly I haven't got any responses
I ordered 17 new chicks and I'm putting them in a bathroom far away from where I come in with the chickens and really trying to keep as much dander as possible away from them. I lost 7 to shipping stress and of course even though I had them vaccinated for coccidiosis they had it. So that meant more time for me to to be in there even though I was trying to limit it but they had pasty butt and I had to make sure they were drinking.
I plan on keeping them inside for 6 weeks giving them lots of probiotics and healthy food which I'm thinking is Green's,some fruit and the occasional egg. Anybody have thoughts on this?
I'm hoping by next spring of the all of the losses will slow down or hopefully stop and I will see how many I have left.
I'm actually debating building a rooster Coop and pen so that I can keep them completely separate from the hens to reduce stress but it might be stress on me to have to build a new Coop and pen This is awful and I definitely wish this had never happened to my flock but there's nothing I can do about it now.
I still wonder where it came from did it come from a bird, it come from a rodent, someone who bought a chicken ,did I pick it up at the feed store, the pumpkin patch? I really have no idea and I will never know but I always wonder and I wish that I had learned more about this disease before I had to

 

[Mixed flock enthusiast]

here we go again I had to cull two hens and a rooster the other day. And tonight I went out and my blue Polish I think was a rooster but was so quiet I don't know for sure was dead in the Run. The two roosters I got in march so they were about 6 months old. The hens one hatched in February and the other one I think was only about 4 months old.
The first two I kind of kept to see if they were really going to lose leg function and of course they were. I saw the four month old was starting to be off balance and was putting a foot out so I just grabbed her while we were doing the other two.
I never gets easier to have to do it
It's always shocking to come up to the run and see a chicken who is perfectly fine in the morning dead but I prefer that.
I have three Roo's and three hens left that are all young from my hatch this spring so hopefully those will be the only ones I'll lose .Hopefully I won't lose them all.
I started a new thread asking about how successful people were with their vaccinated chicks after the diagnosis.
Surprisingly I haven't got any responses
I ordered 17 new chicks and I'm putting them in a bathroom far away from where I come in with the chickens and really trying to keep as much dander as possible away from them. I lost 7 to shipping stress and of course even though I had them vaccinated for coccidiosis they had it. So that meant more time for me to to be in there even though I was trying to limit it but they had pasty butt and I had to make sure they were drinking.
I plan on keeping them inside for 6 weeks giving them lots of probiotics and healthy food which I'm thinking is Green's,some fruit and the occasional egg. Anybody have thoughts on this?
I'm hoping by next spring of the all of the losses will slow down or hopefully stop and I will see how many I have left.
I'm actually debating building a rooster Coop and pen so that I can keep them completely separate from the hens to reduce stress but it might be stress on me to have to build a new Coop and pen This is awful and I definitely wish this had never happened to my flock but there's nothing I can do about it now.
I still wonder where it came from did it come from a bird, it come from a rodent, someone who bought a chicken ,did I pick it up at the feed store, the pumpkin patch? I really have no idea and I will never know but I always wonder and I wish that I had learned more about this disease before I had to

I’m so sorry that you’re still dealing with losses! The vaccinated chicks that we added this year are still doing well, but they are still young. I don’t think I’ll really know how susceptible they are until they have been laying for a few months. I really hope that your new chicks do well. Do you know which vaccine they received?

 

[Eggcessive]

Sorry for your continued losses Bella D.

 

[Bella D]

I'm glad your new chicks are doing good since you vaccinated in the egg did you have to make sure to keep dander away from them for a few days after they hatched?
I called the Hatchery and my chicks were vaccinated with inovax. I went on their website and it said it takes 9 days to be effective. I'm still going to take off my layer of clothes before I come in the house that I wear to feed the flock for a little while and try to give them a little bit more resistance.
The chicken I lost last night was actually a rooster , it was dark and I have two that look very similar, the rooster was so strong and healthy looking I didn't think it was him
Thank you both, I'm hoping the losses stop pretty soon. I don't think there is anything more I can do to prevent them.

 

[Mixed flock enthusiast]

I'm glad your new chicks are doing good since you vaccinated in the egg did you have to make sure to keep dander away from them for a few days after they hatched?
I called the Hatchery and my chicks were vaccinated with inovax. I went on their website and it said it takes 9 days to be effective. I'm still going to take off my layer of clothes before I come in the house that I wear to feed the flock for a little while and try to give them a little bit more resistance.
The chicken I lost last night was actually a rooster , it was dark and I have two that look very similar, the rooster was so strong and healthy looking I didn't think it was him
Thank you both, I'm hoping the losses stop pretty soon. I don't think there is anything more I can do to prevent them.

We have a pretty mean flock that makes integration difficult, so I was looking for a way to let the broody hens raise the chicks and naturally integrate them. I figured that a 50% vaccine failure rate would be acceptable to get that, since integration of brooder chicks was very stressful, and stress also activates Marek’s. I vaccinated eggs at day 18 them gave them back to the broody, so they only got 2-3 days in the egg to develop immunity. I also ordered vaccinated chicks and put them with the broody at 2 days of age, so they also only had two days after vaccination. This was kind of an experiment to see if this would work; if we have >50% losses within 2 months of beginning to lay, then it will be back to the drawing board... Our next step if this method fails is probably what you are doing...

 

[Bella D]

oh wow so you're able to put them back with a Broody hen that's great it's the best way to raise chicks. I kind of feel like my chicks are a experiment too. I keep writing down things I would have done differently the next time I guess we'll see how many make it .I kind of don't want to get attached them but it's hard because they are soooooo adorable.
you'll have to keep me updated on how that goes ordering chicks and putting them with a broody at 2 days is way less stress then trying to keep all dander out of your house.
I'm lucky my flock is pretty accepting of babies hopefully they will be accepting of six week olds. They will be on their own side of the coop for quite a while anyway.

 

[Mixed flock enthusiast]

oh wow so you're able to put them back with a Broody hen that's great it's the best way to raise chicks. I kind of feel like my chicks are a experiment too. I keep writing down things I would have done differently the next time I guess we'll see how many make it .I kind of don't want to get attached them but it's hard because they are soooooo adorable.
you'll have to keep me updated on how that goes ordering chicks and putting them with a broody at 2 days is way less stress then trying to keep all dander out of your house.
I'm lucky my flock is pretty accepting of babies hopefully they will be accepting of six week olds. They will be on their own side of the coop for quite a while anyway.

Sure, I’ll let you know what happens! Our oldest chicks are now about 3.5 months old and were vaccinated in the egg. We will see how they do when they start laying!!!