Lame hen..is she doomed?

[seminolewind]

If it's Marek's, the afflicted ones do shed alot more dander. Cleaning the coop out and spraying with Oxine may help keep the available virus down, and improve the chances of your chickens being resistant rather than getting the illness.

From my first adult, it was several months later that the 2nd one died. And 5 more with a few months between each one. I didn't know they had it. Then I hatched 10 chicks and they all died one by one.

So I would agree that the older the chicken, the less will die of Marek's.

From now on you need to just add vaccinated day old chicks, or bator hatched and vaccinated on day one of life. And quarantine all of course.So far, I've lost 2 adults out of 20 adults, 4 under a year old, and 10-11 chicks (1 a week). The first 6 in a two year period, the 4 about 2 months apart, and the chicks, one a week.

Of course, it it's Marek's.

 

[rcentner]

Quote:
I have put vitamins in the water and given her pain meds, but it is clear as of tonight. I picked her up this afternoon, she hasn't moved in 2 days on her own. I put the waterer up to her and she drank real well this morning, but this afternoon she was very wobbly and had a hard time drinking. She seemed confused. I am pretty sure that she has mareks.
Where did this come from ..hmmm, well, I got a hen from a good friend of mine who has never had mareks that she knows of and I have seen her flock, very well cared for. I got that hen about 3-4 weeks ago. Prior to that I got some hatching eggs from a guy locally, but that was july. So...was it the hen..she is a hatchery bird, did I pick it up at a poultry show I went to? could be a lot of scenarios unfortunately.
I have to look at the differential for lymphoid leukosis vs mareks. I plan to clean out the coop and spray with roccal (it is a disinfectant and it specifies that it is effective against herpes and mycoplasma and a whole bunch of stuff, it also it more effective that bleach because it is effective in 5% soil matter aka poop) So I will take the coop apart, clean it out and wipe it all down with roccal. It's a Quaternary ammonia solution. I will let the coop air out for the day. This will be a major task!

My DH doesn't believe in euthanasia, it is harder for him to be the cause of death and easier for him to let nature take it's course. BUT he isn't the one hand feeding them and scooping the poo. It's sad I do believe her wings are becoming affected and I would bet that soon her neck will be as well. I may secretly euthanize her and just tell him she passed overnight. He won't know..I do all the chicken handling.
I hope zylechicks that you have better luck. I hoped it was a soft tissue injury, clearly not the case.
Such a dismal update for you guys, sorry. Thanks for all your help and I will continue to update as to how she proceeds to do cause I know a timeline for her decline may help someone else in the same shoes (which is a surprising amount of us

)
seminole wind - did you do preventative measures and still continue to lose chickens?

 

[Kansas Gal]

As for me, there really didn't seem to be much to do, except to just quarantine her to reduce the spread of it, if it was infectious, and to keep the others from picking on her while she was unable to defend herself. Our vet said two years ago that this just happens in chickens sometimes. I don't know of any medication that can prevent it or cure it. I could be wrong. I do know that I noticed Henny had been walking with a limp one morning, and I thought maybe she had just injured herself jumping from the roost or something. When the next day I saw she was off by herself and limping worse, I checked her over, but did not find anything broken, and within 2 more days, she took to laying in the coop with her leg out behind her. Right then, I knew it was the same thing Colijah (my roo) had suffered two years before.

 

[rcentner]

ok well, I have found the bird that brought it into the flock. turns out it was my least suspected since I got her from a friend but after telling her about Indy and her symptoms my friend tells me that the other barnvelder she got had some sort of weird leg thing and they euthanized her and no one else ever got sick so she never looked into it futher.
grrrr....I am enraged about this.

so what do I do with this bird? does it even matter which bird brought mareks in at this point? She has been with the flock for a good month or so now, perhaps a little more. I quarantined her for 2 weeks prior to introducing her to the flock, but what good did that do......NONE!

 

[seminolewind]

Quote:
I have put vitamins in the water and given her pain meds, but it is clear as of tonight. I picked her up this afternoon, she hasn't moved in 2 days on her own. I put the waterer up to her and she drank real well this morning, but this afternoon she was very wobbly and had a hard time drinking. She seemed confused. I am pretty sure that she has mareks.
Where did this come from ..hmmm, well, I got a hen from a good friend of mine who has never had mareks that she knows of and I have seen her flock, very well cared for. I got that hen about 3-4 weeks ago. Prior to that I got some hatching eggs from a guy locally, but that was july. So...was it the hen..she is a hatchery bird, did I pick it up at a poultry show I went to? could be a lot of scenarios unfortunately.
I have to look at the differential for lymphoid leukosis vs mareks. I plan to clean out the coop and spray with roccal (it is a disinfectant and it specifies that it is effective against herpes and mycoplasma and a whole bunch of stuff, it also it more effective that bleach because it is effective in 5% soil matter aka poop) So I will take the coop apart, clean it out and wipe it all down with roccal. It's a Quaternary ammonia solution. I will let the coop air out for the day. This will be a major task!

My DH doesn't believe in euthanasia, it is harder for him to be the cause of death and easier for him to let nature take it's course. BUT he isn't the one hand feeding them and scooping the poo. It's sad I do believe her wings are becoming affected and I would bet that soon her neck will be as well. I may secretly euthanize her and just tell him she passed overnight. He won't know..I do all the chicken handling.
I hope zylechicks that you have better luck. I hoped it was a soft tissue injury, clearly not the case.
Such a dismal update for you guys, sorry. Thanks for all your help and I will continue to update as to how she proceeds to do cause I know a timeline for her decline may help someone else in the same shoes (which is a surprising amount of us

)
seminole wind - did you do preventative measures and still continue to lose chickens?

Hi. LL is similar to Marek's but does not cause paralysis. And that Roccal sounds good. I just ordered something similar, says it works on porous areas, like wood. I think it's the same ingredient.
Sounds like you got it from that hen. I have to say that most people do not know their flock carries it. If they are not visually symptomatic, there is no test for it. There is no cure. It does not pass in the eggs.
As for preventative measures, My first died 2 years ago. Vet diagnosed him as Eastern Equine Encephalitis because there were no tumors. (He didn't look for inflamed nerves) . So then over 2 years I lost 5 more-they wasted away. There was actually nothing to give me a clue. The demises were all chicks hatched by me, but less than 8 months old. The clue came this past summer, 10 chicks hatched and started dying one by one with paralysis and/or wasting away. Some had this slow gasp. They all looked normal except for that, they all acted hungry and ate. The last little roo could not control his neck enough to eat. He actually had paralysis, got better, and had it again 3 weeks later.
The first of these 10 chicks had a" broken leg". The second one with a "broken leg" --I knew then , and cried. So there were no preventative measures, the chicks died because it was in my flock and I didn't know. Afterwards , after all the deaths, I sprayed everything down with Oxine, removed all the shavings, and limed the dirt, but on a half acre, it will still be there.



You can't prevent it, unless you never buy a chick or chicken that has never had contact with another chicken. See with that hen you got from a friend, see how important the flock history is? I had hatched all my eggs here. I made the mistake of buying ONE pullet from a breeder at a swap. So I know where mine came from.

So my current "prevention" is: cleanliness, hatched chicks vaccinated at one day old, and quarantined for a month or two (mine), or buy vaccinated hatchery chicks and quarantine. My original flock are carriers , I have a few that are a year old now and survived. My silkies, that had the direct exposure, have hatched and raised their own chicks with no problems-I think resistance can be passed on by resistant parents. And you should not sell your birds to others unless they have all vaccinated chickens, or have already been exposed to Marek's.

It's a horrible disease.

 

[seminolewind]

Quote:
I don't know if removing the bird will help since your flock is already exposed. Hopefully your older birds won't be affected.

 

[seminolewind]

Quote:
I would give the vitamins, since some people here have had birds with vitamin deficiencies.
All the virus is live and is everywhere if your chicken has it. I'm not sure how much difference there would be with or without the symptomatic chicken there. I have cleaned like crazy and separated the affected ones, trying to reduce the concentration of virus, but can't know if it helps or not.

Not all your chickens will be affected by Marek's. It depends on exposure and age, immune system , and I really do think that chicks from resistant moms do have some resistance. Even if they were eggs that you bought and hatched. But your chickens can't get the disease from the egg.

Your chicken could possibly be the only one affected and you not have another one for months, years, or never, or as soon as 6-8 weeks . I'm kind of suprised that it didn't show up for 4 months.

 

[rcentner]

so I should vaccinate all the chicks that I hatch, anything I can do for the adults? Or just see who makes it through and be happy with that? I hope my little roo doesn't get sick...I have grown too attached to him. Did just have 2 chicks die last week...the 1st one idk what happen to cause I think the adults ate the chick after it died. the 2nd chick had pasty butt

I have never had one get pasty butt so from now on I will have to keep any eye out for that too. Fortunately I wont be dealing with chicks until march.
I also have MG in my flock which doesn't help the situation. They are on denagard for that and will be done with that in february and hopefully I will not have to treat for that anymore. I only lost 3 birds to the MG thanks to the denagard. Sometimes I just wish I could start over with the flock, it has been 1 disease after another ever since the fox attack. (when I had to replace what I lost and ended up introducing diseases with my new additions, even after quarantining for 2 weeks)
just goes to show that 2 weeks is not long enough and if I ever have a healthy flock again I will not buy any new birds from anyone. I just pray that I do not lose my phoenix hen and rooster.

as for Indy - she is still in the same boat and the poor girl is slowly wasting away, I got the euthanasia solution today and will give it to her in the next few days. I just need to come to terms that she will not get better. I am getting there. I spend as much time as I can feeding her and holding the water dish so she can drink.

she still has head mobility and can peck at food if put infront of her, still loves her scrambled eggs and bread pieces.

 

[seminolewind]

If they have Marek's , there is nothing you can do for the adults. For newly hatched chicks from the bator, they have to have the vaccine and then quarantined from the virus and the flock for 2-8 weeks. Or buy vaccinated hatchery chicks, and quarantine.

 

[rcentner]

ok guys....I need support today....I think I should let her go, but I am having a really hard time with it. She is still eating but is getting more wobbly. I just need a push in the right direction. I want to end her suffering, but I can't bring myself to let her go. If I keep hand feeding her then I guess she could be paralyzed in the cage forever, but I can't have her starve to death. She still looks lively...ugh. Wish I didn't have to make this decision. please help me make the choice to let her go