Heat Stress/Heat stroke - How long do symptoms last?

[MROO]

Glad to hear things are getting back to normal, and that no one else is sick. Your banties sound really sweet. And to hear crows again after silence is wonderful. I would just use either of the poultry vitamins, since multi B’s are the ones needed, not just B12.

Mareks testing is not very accurate on live birds, so I am not really sure that you would want to do any since you may get false negative.
It is best diagnosed after death when the state vet can test tumor tissue or feather shafts.
Most of the Mareks-experienced people here on BYC will tesll you that.

Will do on the multivitamins. That's actually a relief, because that one was only $7.00, while the other was over $20! At this point, I'm grateful for any and all good luck!

I'm still hoping and praying that it's all been a nasty combination of coccidiosis and heat stroke. I sure don't want to go around yanking blood feathers on everybody just to do a Marek's test! I know it probably wouldn't work, but it sure gave me an interesting visual ... and a bit of an involuntary quiver, just considering it. Jheesh - even the remote thought of irritating my Miss Piggy brings on hives ... she's such a stinker!

The rest of my banties are, indeed very sweet. Even the roos are gentle, both to people and their ladies. The most aggression we've seen from any of them is Simpleton's consistent war on, of all things, shoelaces! He pretty much leaves anything else alone, but we've learned very quickly that sneakers do NOT make good coop shoes, at least not at our house!

 

[micstrachan]

Thanks for the wonderful update!

 

[Trux]

What’s a cooler pad holder panel? Sounds like you are doing everything possible.

You live in CA you should know what a cooler is AKA Swamp Cooler. They usually have 4 panels, one on each side of the box that sits on the roof of the house. I used one of those. Took the pad and holder out of it and made a hole to fit it in the coop wall. A box fan fits in it perfectly.

 

[MROO]

DOING THE HAPPY DANCE HERE IN MARYLAND!!!!!

Just got off the phone with New Bolton's poultry specialist. They did not have to do a necropsy, but after a looooooooong interview, the "diagnosis" is ...
Coccidiosis, aggravated and made confusing by the heat stroke!
No matter what else may have been involved (and the results of the fecal tests should show them) ...

IT'S NOT MAREK'S!!!!!

The only symptom that indicated Marek's was the one forward/one back leg stretch, which the specialist stated is an effect of Marek's paralysis. Peanut was not paralyzed, he was in his death throes and not fully extended. Fella was fully extended, but just weak. When I stood him up, he was able, and after Chick Saver, he was walking and eating within minutes. She said that, if it was Marek's, that would most definitely not have been the case.

So, I am to continue the poultry multivitamin for as long as I can afford it (How does forever sound?) And make some adjustments to the runs to raise elevation and reroute potential run-off and air-flow, but other than that, we should be good to go.





Well, dancing in place is more like it, the stress of all this sent me to the hospital for testing - but that was a relatively quick visit and I seem to be on the mend .... as do Fella and Featherfoot, who should be moving to an outdoor crate this afternoon. Happy, Happy, Joy, Joy!

I DO hate the BRAT diet! (for those of you who are unfamiliar, that's Bananas, Rice, Applesauce and Toast. Blah!)

 

[dawg53]

Congrats. I'm glad it's not Marek's!

 

[Eggcessive]

Glad you are out of the hospital, and glad they think it’s not Mareks. Do you know what test they did, such as PCR test on feather shafts. Usually, I’m told that it is done on feather shafts and tumor tissue, tumors which may be found internally. We always like to know how things are dealt with around the country, to let other folks know. So happy for you after losing your chicken, that it is coccidiosis.

 

[Kiki]

I am sorry for your loss..but I am confused.
You sent a bird for a necropsy but they didn't do one and gave you a diagnosis of coccidiosis from not doing a necropsy?

Am I reading this wrong?

 

[Eggcessive]

They could get a fecal test on a body with a stool swab without opening a body most likely.

 

[MROO]

They could get a fecal test on a body with a stool swab without opening a body most likely.

That is what was recommended. Since I am exactly 4.9 miles out-of-state, New Bolton wanted an uncapped $300 to do a necropsy and advised me that it would be difficult to do one at all because the body (although refrigerated) was older than 48 hours. My son is going to drop Peanut off at a friends vet practice tomorrow so they can do the fecal on it via swab. They may try a necropsy, as well, just to see what they can find, this late.

So, no, New Bolton did not do anything but a very indepth phone interview. We talked for nearly an hour, with her asking detailed questions about symptoms, progressions, treatment, deaths and recoveries. The only one that showed any indication that it may have been Marek's was Fella, and his nearly immediate recovery with the Chick Saver was the key point for the call. She felt confident in stating that Marek's was "Not Indicated." She also gave me some coop and run specific advice on how to minimize the chances of any such nastiness again.

That may not be enough for some, but it is enough for me at the moment. My birds will be confined to home, with no contact with any others, until Late Spring. By then, I will be well enough to pursue this further. It will also give me time to decide if we will EVER go to a show again. Even though this was not picked up there, the time frame was right and it could have been. Even with a Best-in-Show rooster in the flock, I'm not ready to risk my birds for a ribbon - and I'm REALLY not sure I could go through this again!

 

[MROO]

Just a quick update - The first pic is from the day I brought Fella and FeatherFoot inside for treatment. Until FeatherFoot joined him, Fella was hunched in a dull pile of feathers on the kennel floor. This was an improvement, but it didn't last for long.

Shortly after this picture was taken, they went downhill pretty hard, pretty fast. I didn't take pictures. I couldn't. It was awful. They looked dead!







After 5 days of Corid and three days, so far, of B-heavy mutivitamns, here's what we have now:

They are both upright, alert, eating everything I put in front of them ... and back to being their "don't touch me" skittish selves! In a few days, they move outside into their own, over-sized rabbit hutch. In a few weeks, they move to my mother's home, where they will live out their lives as spoiled, "only chicken-child" ornaments.
THANK YOU, EVERYONE!!