Experiencing Mareks

[whinniebee]

This will be long winded and rambly, apologies. I just got this news in past 30 mins.

We've recently, over the course of 4 months, had a string of back luck with loosing birds to illness that I think I now finally understand. I just got a call from my vet. Mongoose, one of my legbar girls who I posted about possibly having an eye infection, had to be euthanized a few weeks ago. She'd gone septic, and was passed the point of saving. The necropsy found the cause to be a bacteria infection, but also issues with her sciatic nerve, so they sent further testing for mareks. My vet informed me, for whatever reason, that test never actually went through, but they found lymphoma all throughout her body, so they are 99%sure that the cause was mareks. This makes 4 out our original 7 dead. The first we lost to coccida, but the past 3 I'm now wondering if it all might have been from mareks. My other legbar dropped one day, the literal first day I had been back to see them after breaking my foot, and her results were kidney diseasd from a bacterial infection, but now I'm wondering if it might have been somehow caused by mareks. A week after her, my americaunna Mink started acting similarly off, but was killed in quarantine by a predator the same night we separated her, so we'll never know. Then Mongoose 2weeks after that, now confirmed to be mareks. We have 3 left from our original flock, all bought from tractor supply/bomgaars, that are almost guaranteed to have it as well. Its been 9 weeks since mongoose first started acting sick, no one else has shown any symptoms, or are acting off.
Around the time Mongoose got sick, our other americaunna developed fowl pox and was kept in quarantine until 2.5 weeks ago. 2 weeks ago she had surgery on her crop because it was severely impacted, and now shes right back into quarantine.
Currently, our main flock consists of the 3 ogs, and 2 newer girls aroujd the same age from a hatchery that vaccinated for mareks. In our other quarantine we have 3 new gals from the same hatchery. We should have waited until we knew the results for certain, but at the time my vet said they were 99% sure mongoose had a bacterial infection. I know that because theyre vaccinated, it is more likely they won't have issues, but for our OG 3 I'm struggling to not feel like we now have to wait for them to die. I feel like we somehow failed, we didn't know these stores don't vaccinate, and paid the price. Now the whole property is contaminated, so any we bring on will be exposed. Was all this hard work, love, and heart ache for nothing? Do we just continue on with the shadow of this disease over the rest of our flock forever, or until they all eventually die off? Even then, the property is contaminated so every chicken in the future is at risk as well. I don't know if I'm looking for advice, just rambling, or others who have been through similar and can offer me hope. I adore my girls, and I'm going to continue to do so, even if my stomach feels like lead right now.

 

[azygous]

Your feelings are very normal when facing an avian virus in your flock, and I can say this because I had to face an avian virus in my flock many years ago. It seemed like the end of the world at the time. But learning about these viruses will help you adjust and cope.

First thing I suggest is to get another chicken tested to confirm what you're dealing with. Select the sickest chicken that you don't have expectations for survival. Locate your animal testing lab and let them know that you are bringing a live specimen to them. You will want them to test for Marek's and avian leucosis, a similar virus. Bringing in a live chicken they will euthanize and test, you will get more accurate test results.

This will let you know for sure what virus you are dealing with, and that will inform how you manage your flock going forward. And yes, I'm saying that your flock can survive with an avian virus.

If it's Marek's, you will be able to order baby chicks that have been vaccinated against Marek's. While it won't keep them from getting the disease, it does prevent the tumors which are the worst aspect of the virus. If it's avian leucosis, while there's no vaccine, baby chicks will develop resistance to it, more often than not, will live symptom-free full lives.

 

[whinniebee]

Your feelings are very normal when facing an avian virus in your flock, and I can say this because I had to face an avian virus in my flock many years ago. It seemed like the end of the world at the time. But learning about these viruses will help you adjust and cope.

First thing I suggest is to get another chicken tested to confirm what you're dealing with. Select the sickest chicken that you don't have expectations for survival. Locate your animal testing lab and let them know that you are bringing a live specimen to them. You will want them to test for Marek's and avian leucosis, a similar virus. Bringing in a live chicken they will euthanize and test, you will get more accurate test results.

This will let you know for sure what virus you are dealing with, and that will inform how you manage your flock going forward. And yes, I'm saying that your flock can survive with an avian virus.

If it's Marek's, you will be able to order baby chicks that have been vaccinated against Marek's. While it won't keep them from getting the disease, it does prevent the tumors which are the worst aspect of the virus. If it's avian leucosis, while there's no vaccine, baby chicks will develop resistance to it, more often than not, will live symptom-free full lives.

Thank you for this. I know they can survive, but it is a lot to deal with. Currently, no one else is sick, or at least no one is showing any symptoms. But if one of them does start showing and degrading, I will definitely want to do this. We have 2 hens just under a year that are vaccinated, as well as 3 2mos who are also vaccinated, its just the original 3 that we hand raised who aren't. I have not heard if leucosis, I wish the test had actually been sent so I would know for sure that is was mareks or this.

 

[go-qoli-gwej]

In a similar situation
We lost six of our eleven hens. Went through a whole slew of health issues one after the next (seriously, dealt with almost every kind of health concern over the course of the first year). Before learning that Marek's, lymphoma, and the subsequent immunity suppression was the root cause of a lot of the issues we were seeing, it was so frustrating and disheartening trying to save our hens by treating for symptoms of what ended up being a larger and ultimately untreatable problem.
Weighing the risk that comes with repopulating the flock is such a sensitive thing and even without bringing new hens in, it feels like waiting for the other foot to drop with the five hens we have...
I don't have advice, just sympathy/solidarity. It really sucks.

 

[whinniebee]

In a similar situation
We lost six of our eleven hens. Went through a whole slew of health issues one after the next (seriously, dealt with almost every kind of health concern over the course of the first year). Before learning that Marek's, lymphoma, and the subsequent immunity suppression was the root cause of a lot of the issues we were seeing, it was so frustrating and disheartening trying to save our hens by treating for symptoms of what ended up being a larger and ultimately untreatable problem.
Weighing the risk that comes with repopulating the flock is such a sensitive thing and even without bringing new hens in, it feels like waiting for the other foot to drop with the five hens we have...
I don't have advice, just sympathy/solidarity. It really sucks.

I completely understand the feeling. Its honesty been very relieving in a way to know what the root cause is, I don't have to stress about whatever the next nebulous illness is that will take one of my girls. Currently we only have 2 unvaccinated left, and they are perfectly healthy atm, so we're hoping they're some of the lucky ones that develop resistance since it's been several months of no symptoms for them. The hatchery we use vaccinates for everything, so all new gals we get will vacc'd agasint it.
It's easy to feel like I'm drowning in the reality we have a viral disease, but there's still so much joy to be found with our girls and so much life they have to live.

 

[Kimberlylj]

This will be long winded and rambly, apologies. I just got this news in past 30 mins.

We've recently, over the course of 4 months, had a string of back luck with loosing birds to illness that I think I now finally understand. I just got a call from my vet. Mongoose, one of my legbar girls who I posted about possibly having an eye infection, had to be euthanized a few weeks ago. She'd gone septic, and was passed the point of saving. The necropsy found the cause to be a bacteria infection, but also issues with her sciatic nerve, so they sent further testing for mareks. My vet informed me, for whatever reason, that test never actually went through, but they found lymphoma all throughout her body, so they are 99%sure that the cause was mareks. This makes 4 out our original 7 dead. The first we lost to coccida, but the past 3 I'm now wondering if it all might have been from mareks. My other legbar dropped one day, the literal first day I had been back to see them after breaking my foot, and her results were kidney diseasd from a bacterial infection, but now I'm wondering if it might have been somehow caused by mareks. A week after her, my americaunna Mink started acting similarly off, but was killed in quarantine by a predator the same night we separated her, so we'll never know. Then Mongoose 2weeks after that, now confirmed to be mareks. We have 3 left from our original flock, all bought from tractor supply/bomgaars, that are almost guaranteed to have it as well. Its been 9 weeks since mongoose first started acting sick, no one else has shown any symptoms, or are acting off.
Around the time Mongoose got sick, our other americaunna developed fowl pox and was kept in quarantine until 2.5 weeks ago. 2 weeks ago she had surgery on her crop because it was severely impacted, and now shes right back into quarantine.
Currently, our main flock consists of the 3 ogs, and 2 newer girls aroujd the same age from a hatchery that vaccinated for mareks. In our other quarantine we have 3 new gals from the same hatchery. We should have waited until we knew the results for certain, but at the time my vet said they were 99% sure mongoose had a bacterial infection. I know that because theyre vaccinated, it is more likely they won't have issues, but for our OG 3 I'm struggling to not feel like we now have to wait for them to die. I feel like we somehow failed, we didn't know these stores don't vaccinate, and paid the price. Now the whole property is contaminated, so any we bring on will be exposed. Was all this hard work, love, and heart ache for nothing? Do we just continue on with the shadow of this disease over the rest of our flock forever, or until they all eventually die off? Even then, the property is contaminated so every chicken in the future is at risk as well. I don't know if I'm looking for advice, just rambling, or others who have been through similar and can offer me hope. I adore my girls, and I'm going to continue to do so, even if my stomach feels like lead right now.

We found about about 3 months in to our journey our birds have mareks. We were devastated. So much money and hard work went into our birds. We didn't have it in us to cull them so we are living out our mareks diagnosis. We have lost about 8 birds so far. We cull them when they are suffering from the disease. We have a first flock of 5 that started with the disease. We added 15 baby chicks before we knew were what we were dealing with so we have 5 vaccinated and 15 whom are not. We have lost about 5 in the unvaxxed flock and 2 in the vaxxed flock. We love and care for our chickens completely, but I will say it really changed our chicken journey and I keep my distance from bonding with them because I don't want to get attached to them and then have to cull them cause they are sick. Mareks is awful on them. However some will get sick and some will not. Some will live long healthy lives. I hope that helps cause it was such devastating news for us and even tho it sucks there is some hope and happiness that come from the healthy ones.

 

[Eggcessive]

We found about about 3 months in to our journey our birds have mareks. We were devastated. So much money and hard work went into our birds. We didn't have it in us to cull them so we are living out our mareks diagnosis. We have lost about 8 birds so far. We cull them when they are suffering from the disease. We have a first flock of 5 that started with the disease. We added 15 baby chicks before we knew were what we were dealing with so we have 5 vaccinated and 15 whom are not. We have lost about 5 in the unvaxxed flock and 2 in the vaxxed flock. We love and care for our chickens completely, but I will say it really changed our chicken journey and I keep my distance from bonding with them because I don't want to get attached to them and then have to cull them cause they are sick. Mareks is awful on them. However some will get sick and some will not. Some will live long healthy lives. I hope that helps cause it was such devastating news for us and even tho it sucks there is some hope and happiness that come from the healthy ones.

Sorry about your flock having Mareks. There are others here on BYC who have shared their experiences with a Mareks positive flock. They still have birds and some raise chicks within their flock from the ones who have no symptoms. You may want to read some posts 4-7 from this recent thread for some good links and advice from other people:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/dealing-with-meriks.1650424/

 

[whinniebee]

We found about about 3 months in to our journey our birds have mareks. We were devastated. So much money and hard work went into our birds. We didn't have it in us to cull them so we are living out our mareks diagnosis. We have lost about 8 birds so far. We cull them when they are suffering from the disease. We have a first flock of 5 that started with the disease. We added 15 baby chicks before we knew were what we were dealing with so we have 5 vaccinated and 15 whom are not. We have lost about 5 in the unvaxxed flock and 2 in the vaxxed flock. We love and care for our chickens completely, but I will say it really changed our chicken journey and I keep my distance from bonding with them because I don't want to get attached to them and then have to cull them cause they are sick. Mareks is awful on them. However some will get sick and some will not. Some will live long healthy lives. I hope that helps cause it was such devastating news for us and even tho it sucks there is some hope and happiness that come from the healthy ones.

Thank you, it does help. Our last 2 unvaxxed were so happy and healthy, we had 4 left of our older flock with 4 younger ones almost ready to integrate. Unfortunately, 2 days ago 2 dogs broke a hole through our hardwire and took out all 4 of our adult flock. It's been devastating, but not as painful as it was to watch our previously healthy birds succumb to the illness.