Help!! Marek's Disease??

[esther5]

latest sick one is deteriorating. i have him isolated...running our of isolation places now ....he looked simply slow first thing but has eyes open etc. now he looks like a bird with a respiratory disease. do i treat the entire flock wit duramycin? they were last treated about a fortnight ago with this antibiotic.

he has no stiffness. so far he walks normally but he has lost weight. if he goes like the others he will rapidly lose weight over the next week then die. only one other had respiratory symptoms and she seemed an isolated case (about 5 weeks ago when she died.)

a year ago i lost 7 of my flock to a fox. this was just as we moved house so my electric fence was not yet working. i replaced these . 9 months ago the fox got over the 7 foot fence, 4 ft electric fence, and the 5 ft inner wire fence and killed all but 3 of my feathered friends. still you recover somewhat and start again. we spent loads on a covered run and have the electric fence as an extra round the outside.

now it looks like i will be wiped out again, sigh. the cost both financially and emotionally is huge. however anyone runs a business with chickens i've no idea.i thought in the beginning they might pay for their own keep..........

my first year of chicken keeping was a joy. this last year has been enough to make me want to give up. will it get better?

 

[esther5]

and here he is







it really doesn't look like mareks does it?????? but what is it. i looked for threads on vit D deficiency and found a few but they seem to indicate stiffness and difficulty walking. this chap can walk fine. when he approaches death he will be weak and wobbly but he will also be emaciated...thin now. the others have had pale combs but as they were pullets and only approaching maturity that might have been normal. this one has respiratory issues. you can hear it slightly and there is clear mucus...not loads but a bit around his nostrils. most don't have any resp symptoms. they all start though with dropped wings and are lethargic.

whatever it is the incubation period is presumably quite long.

my pekin with the sour crop may be totally unrelated since she is the only one not starting with droopy wings and lethergy and she was not from the same breeded.

 

[seminolewind]

I would treat for lice and mites, they can lead to which leads to anemia and weakess With Mareks, they look happy and health thru tho. I would worm too when she's stable.l Check for any physical findings. that can be eodog

 

[casportpony]

I would treat for lice and mites, they can lead to which leads to anemia and weakess With Mareks, they look happy and health thru tho. I would worm too when she's stable.l Check for any physical findings. that can be eodog

X2, but I always worm with fenbendazole 10% unless they look like they're going to die just from being handled. What wormers are available in the UK?

-Kathy

 

[esther5]

the licenced wormer is flubenvet and is the recomended wormer to use. there are other herbal options. i used flubenvet for 7 days in the feed as dirrected and had a good look at the poops from the sick chicken. i saw no evidence of worms and that was only a couple of weeks ago so i doubt worms is the issue. i will sprinkle them with lice and mite powder but haven't seen any signs of lice or mites. i ran a paper towel over the roosting poles as i was told there would be blood specks if there were mites, no blood on any eggs either.nor can i see lice on the chickens themselves.

if it was lice or worms wouldn't the youngest chicks be most likely to die? there are 5 younger onesfrom 8-12 weeks of age who so far seem fine.

do you think i can rule out mareks?

 

[casportpony]

I think Flubenvet is in the same family as fenbendazole, so it's probably very safe, too. As for seeing worms in their poop, I have only seen them a couple of times... FWIW, my most recent worming experiment was on a rooster with a pale comb and what looked like intestinal lining in his poop, which many will claim is normal, but I think I have to disagree since after worming, his comb is now bright red and there's no more "intestinal lining in his poop.

When mine are "off", they get dusted for mites/lice and de-wormed unless the act of handling them might send them over the edge, which has happened to me a few times.

-Kathy

 

[esther5]

hi kathy. i feel so stupid i could cry. i think it is red mite that has been killing them. the reason i ruled it out is because i went at dusk and ran paper towel over the roosting poles and in some cracks and saw no red spots. i examined the eggs and saw no red spots. my chickens show no reluctance to go into the shed at night and are not restless as all the info says they will be. my girls pick them up all the time and i do often and have never had anything crawl on me...i realize they live mostly in the wood.

tonight i turned my sick cockerel upside down again to check and saw 2 red things. i killed one and sure enough it was a mite. that led me out to the coop ....a bit later on than i checked before and i ran the paper towel over and it is covered with red spots. there are mites everywhere.

i feel terrible fpr not finding out sooner. i will know what i'm looking for in future. check late not at dusk for example.

all i had at hand was frontline so everyone has had a drop under each wing. no idea how that helps but it is one of the things people say is effective. i have also vaselined the ends of each roosting pole so hopefully a load will get stuck in that. tomorrow i will buy something for the coop and will order one of those fumigation bombs as well.

of course i might find there is something going on as well but if i am lucky this is the problem. i am waiting to shower. my dd's who helped are in it now as we were all covered in crawly things at the end of it all.

thank you to everyone for so persistently mentioning the little blighters.

 

[esther5]

thank you. see my previous post . you are right.

 

[casportpony]

Don't feel bad, I used to only dust them when I could see them. Then one day I had a very "off" looking hen, I put on reading glasses and looked all over her and couldn't see any bugs, but I decided to do an experiment.... Dusted her with poultry dust from head to toe, put her in a box on white paper towels, covered the box and came back in 30 minutes. They must have been hiding in the feather shafts, 'cause they were everywhere, thousands of them! SO now everything gets dusted, period. Glad you found them!

-Kathy

 

[esther5]

thank you for being so kind. even tonight they were all contentedly roosting with red mites crawling all around them. i constantly read about hens not being settled and not wanting to go inside. all mine do with no problem.

well i'll be at the shops tomorrow seeing what i can get my hands on. at least for now i can take a break from scouring symptoms on the internet.
off to bed now.
thanks again