Failing Cochin Rooster - need help

[cochinfan]

Wow, I thought Marek's disease affected younger chickens. My rooster is a year old. Could it still be possible that he has Marek's? If he does, it is probably a given that I will lose additional birds. I am very bummed about this. Is there any sure way of determining it? I couldn't find any definite answers upon doing research but sometimes there is anecdotal help that you don't find except by asking...

 

[cochinfan]

After reading all I could find on Marek's other than my rooster's age, it seems like a likely diagnosis. why aren't all chicks vaccinated? I'm so in love with my chickens and now it seems I might be facing losing a bunch or all of them. How do you deal with this? Does everyone vaccinate their chickens when they get them? I am so bummed by this.

So far Paco is holding his own. There is no way at this point I am culling him. He eats very well and is also drinking on his own. he stands up when I arrive to feed him but he is very stiff legged when trying to move around. That is the symptom that makes me think the Marek's diagnosis is probably correct. He seems to not be in any pain and has eaten a huge amount of yogurt and canned dog food. I have not separated him from his wife, Penny because I have no where to put her and she has been with him since I got them both. She is fine so far.

Any thoughts to help me?

 

[babsbag]

Did you see pictures of the common Marek's stance? One leg forward, and one back? You are correct in thinking that it is usually found in younger birds. Your roo could have it, but he is not the classic case. I had a hen die from what the lab said was presumed Marek's. This was in January. She was about 7 months old. None of my other birds have gotten sick. I have a closed flock and no other chickens have been on the property and no close neighbors with chickens. If my hen had Marek's my other birds should be sick by now, and I have brought in 5 chicks that are now almost 5 months old and they are not sick either. I have decided that until I see another case I will assume that it was not Marek's and try to breed for resistant birds. I was told that there are other reasons that chickens get the internal tumors, like my hen died from.

BTW, she could not walk at all, held her head crooked, like wry neck, would not eat or drink and had to be force fed. I kept her alive for 3 weeks. I gave her every vitamin and supplement possible, but nothing helped.

I hope yours gets well.

 

[cochinfan]

Diagnosing animals is difficult I know but this is so frustrating. My roo does not show any balance issues. His legs are even and I've actually seen him stand on one foot to groom the other. He is just stiff legged. He can get up to walk to food and water and does. I'm also feeding him extra as I have said. He is bright eyed and seems interested in his surroundings.

If this is Marek's is there some kind of time frame I can expect him either to get better or worsen? Will it take months, days, weeks?

What else could it be? If I had some other ideas, I could potentially do research to try and figure this out.

Could someone send a rooster fairy god mother to my farm and make him all better? (That's probably what I am looking for :-( )

 

[cochinbantam-lover]

Quote:
That's for sure!!!!