i think its Marek's Disease please HELP!!!!!

[MoodyChicken]

Sudden emaciation is usually caused by internal tumor growth. In this case, your bird likely won't make it. Treating with Hypericum will stop the tumor growth, but once they've reached a certain point the damage cannot be undone. Give the bird two weeks of treatment, after that point, if you see no improvement, put him down, he's in a lot of pain. Crush his chicken feed into a powder and mix it with a little yogurt (thin enough that you can squeeze it through the tube). It's really easy to force feed. Just be sure not to shove it down the trachea (that's hard to do though...). Good luck!

 

[sammi]

just make sure the tube is smooth on the end..sand if necessary..
if you use a syringe..you have to get it way back in the throat behind the glottis..
using a crop tube gets the food down into the crop.

here is an illustration with instructions for tubing:
make sure the neck is straight and not curved.
keep feel of the crop..feed until about 1/2 full or so. don't over do..

baby cereal oatmeal with yogurt is an option..maybe a little egg yolk..
the baby parrot feed is the best choice for now.


http://fowlfacts.proboards40.com/index.cgi?board=ffanswerstoquestions&action=display&thread=769

 

[speckledhen]

I disagree that all chickens have Mareks. Being exposed to it is not the same as having it. That said, the only way to be sure is testing.

For those who dont know, Mareks and Lymphoid Leukosis have similar symptoms. Mareks is NOT passed through the egg, but LL is. A friend of mine had two birds die from Mareks and had necropsies done on both. She had none manifest itself in her flock till buying a bird that had the disease. Since then, she has closed her flock, none in and none out.

A side note: Mareks vaccine does not prevent the disease, just keeps the birds from developing the tumors associated with it.

 

[horsejody]

Actually, if properly vaccinated and quarantined, it does prevent the disease. The vaccine virus is not the same as the disease virus, but it is similar enough to give immunity. Also, there is more than one type of Marek's. The vaccine is only for the paralysis type, not the type that can effect the eyes.

 

[speckledhen]

Jody, I have read the opposite about the vaccine for Mareks. Here are some articles on it.
http://www.dpi.qld.gov.au/cps/rde/dpi/hs.xsl/27_2741_ENA_HTML.htm
http://www.shagbarkbantams.com/page9.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marek's_disease

Vaccination is the only known method to prevent the development of tumors when chickens are infected with the virus. However, administration of vaccine does not prevent transmission of the virus; i.e., the vaccine is non-sterilizing.[1] However, it does reduce the amount of virus shed in the dander and hence reduce horizontal spread of the disease. Marek's Disease does not spread vertically.​

 

[horsejody]

Last year I asked a poultry vet at MSU about this and other things regarding Marek's. Here are copies of his e-mailed responses.

Dear Jody:
Unlike some diseases of poultry, that is not true for Marek's disease. The vaccine is supposed to prevent infection rather than just mask the symptoms. The plan is to have the birds infected with the Marek's disease vaccine virus before they get infected with the "field virus."
Hope this helps,
R. M. Fulton, D.V.M., Ph.D.


Dear Jody:

I understand your and your poultry pal's concerns but you are right in your thinking about Marek's disease. Marek's disease virus is
everywhere. In fact, the vaccination of poultry for Marek's disease is a race to see which virus is going to win in the bird.....the vaccine
virus or the disease causing virus. While it is true that Marek's
disease vaccinated birds are infected with the vaccine virus for life, I am not aware of them shedding the vaccine virus. The good news is that the vaccine viruses do not cause disease so your chickens are safe and not "Typhoid Marys." The other vaccines used in poultry do not cause "Typhoid Marys" except for almost all vaccines used to protect against Infectious Laryngotracheitis. Chickens vaccinated with those vaccines can shed the vaccine virus and the vaccine virus will make non-vaccinated chickens sick.

As for vaccinating your chickens for other diseases, I only recommend vaccinating chickens against diseases you have had or that are in your area. In most cases, that only includes fowl pox. Please note that chicken pox is a human disease and not a chicken disease. The virus that causes chicken pox in humans does not cause disease in chickens nor do humans get it from chickens.

Hope this helps,

R. M. Fulton, D.V.M., Ph.D.

I also spoke to a vet a Marek's vaccine manufacturer and received similar info.

 

[speckledhen]

Very interesting. Seems that there may be some disagreement in the medical community. I am no expert on Mareks by any means, but was just saying I have read that the same thing I mentioned about the Mareks' vaccine in several places. I find the Mareks issue one of the most confusing.

 

[horsejody]

Quote:
I found it confusing too when I was hit with Mareks in my little flock. I called poultry vets at major universities and talked to the vaccine companies. I read through the articles that you posted. The only one that mentioned the vaccine not preventing the disease was the wikipedia one. I always take what's written on wikipedia with a grain of salt because people can post almost anything there. The biggest cause of vaccinated birds having latent marek's is improper quarantine. If not properly quarantined, they can contract the disease but have just enough immunity to not get symptoms (I was told that by a vet at the vaccine manufacturer). I think that is where a lot of the misunderstanding comes from. I think many vaccinated birds are exposed before they have full immunity. There are a lot of people that buy vaccinated chicks and accidentally expose them in the first 10-14 days to the virus. Maybe the brooder isn't completely sanitized. Maybe the waterer or food dish is contaminated. Maybe the opened bag of chick feed was kept in the barrel out in the coop. Maybe somebody wore the same clothes taking care of the chicks that they wore out to the coop. Maybe one of the kids petted an adult chicken and then handled the chicks. It happens. Since the Mareks outbreak at my place, I vaccinate all chicks. Then I do everything short of making them wear little hazmat suits.

edited because I forgot to proofread

 

[speckledhen]

I also found this from another source on the web, which may be where Wikipedia got their information (just couldnt locate it at first--yes, I know about Wikipedia.):

Vaccinating for Mareks with the Mareks vaccine : Vaccination should take place as close to one day of age if at all possible,but may be done at any age as earlier discussed. Mareks vaccine is unique in that it does not stop a bird from becoming infected with the virus,but it stops the formation of the Tumors that are caused by the Mareks virus. Birds that are newly vaccinated should not be exposed to adult birds for at least fourteen days to allow the vaccine to take hold.

I have read several articles that completely conflict with one another on this issue. Just dont know which to believe, honestly. At this point, I guess I wont vaccinate unless Mareks happens. Im not all that thrilled with vaccines in general, I guess.


To the OP, yes, if I saw that in an eye on one of my birds, I would think ocular Mareks. Let us know how this turns out.

Jody, the visual of little chicks in hazmat suits cracked me up, LOL.​

 

[lacontenta]

I too am worried my chickens might have Mareks. I got them from a friend & 6 of them from Farm & Fleet. I don't know if the one's from F&F were vaccinated, but I know the others weren't.

I have had 2 die in the last week...no symptoms until they're lethargic in the morning, not eating in the afternoon & dead by morning???

at first it was just 2 of the mixed breed free chickens (1 yr old) that died, but this morning one of my buff opington from F&F is sick!@!
help!

I'm going on vacation tomorrow & I don't want to come home to an empty henhouse! (my friend will feed & water them, but medicating them is a stretch...unless it's the vitamins in their water)