Leihamarie,
I am going to call the lab tomorrow - I ended up sending him to San Bernardino just like you did. They received him Friday about noon so I think I should be able to call them tomorrow for preliminary results. One of the other people on this board encouraged me to be persistent. I too strongly suspect Marek's despite the fact that every single chicken I've brought home has been vaccinated. I am about 60 miles north of you near Temecula area and it has been very dry here. I don't have too many places to put a chicken coop either and the urge to burn the current one down has been there. I am also concerned that it may have been a combination of Marek's and incorrectly feeding the younger chickens, especially the roosters. After reading all of the threads on lay mash, I wonder if that is what caused some of the illnesses in my flock.
I read another one of your posts and we are exactly in the same boat. Exactly. I have one hen left and she is so lonely and sad that it breaks my heart. She has been crowing when we are out there with her and looks for the other chickens. She's much older and so far has not exhibited any symptoms. She stopped laying eggs the last time all her flock died. Over the past two years I have lost about 6 out of 8 chickens and she is the remaining survivor. I bring a couple of them home and they seem to thrive for just long enough for us to get attached to them...and her too. One by one they start to get sick.
My gut tells me that she won't last long without company but I can't help but feel incredibly guilty about bringing home new chickens.
If it is Marek's disease, I am not sure how I will be able to sanitize the property as we have a few acres and its all dirt. You seem to know a lot about this kind of stuff as so many others on these boards and I will be searching for advice on how to proceed.
If it ends up that my chickens were improperly fed, then that will be on me. I would feel awful. I just know that this will be an extremely hard lesson that I had to learn. I am sure people have said this before, but I always thought chickens were so easy to raise...low maintenance. I never believed that I would get so attached to them either - I never knew they were such great pets. I have adored every single one of them and they have all died but one. I wish that I had educated myself better on the day to day care.
My heart goes out to you because I truly do know what you are going through. Please reach out to me anytime via pm or on this board.
Kristen
