flakes on my girl

[cherylcohen]

I had my Wheaton ameraucana 23 weeks out snuggling and petting her and I had the same flakiness come off of her, I figured it was dander...but maybe not

I just read something about Marek's Disease

"Infection occurs early in life, and once a bird is infected, it can shed the virus in skin flakes throughout its life, if it survives"

She's had one sibling die of meraks and another that has some twisted neck disease, I don't want to lose her, she's an amazing girl

 

[ethingtonart]

Did you check her over for lice?

 

[cherylcohen]

I didn't see any but maybe I don't know what I'm looking for??

 

[ethingtonart]

Look for very small beige colored bugs around her vent. My chickens shed a lot of dander when they had lice, (but sadly they also have Marek's disease). The lice would be the easy fix, so I hope that's what you discover!!

 

[cherylcohen]

Are yours that have mareks still alive? how old are they

 

[ethingtonart]

The oldest I have are about 25 weeks old, and they seem to be doing well, but I know the youngest are not out of the woods yet. They are around 16 to 17 weeks old. I have only lost one out of 22 so far, but it looks like my little roo, Avocado, will go within a day or so. They have the tumor form, so one day they look fine, and the next they are barley moving, and then they just pass.
The first one to die showed symptoms (stayed in the coop sleeping all day) just about 48 hours before she died. I took her body to Purdue and had an autopsy done to figure out what happened.
Avacado is coming out of the coop during the day, but he is falling asleep in the middle of the yard and has green diarrhea (which I think is caused by liver failure).
I really hope yours are okay!! It's so heartbreaking to know that I'm going to lose 30%-50% of my birds.