Leg injury vs Marek's

[BigPeep]

I have a five month old that has been having progressively worse problems with one leg. I isolated it 48 hours after I first noticed something. Nevertheless, even with lack of needing to move around in isolation, the leg is getting worse. Basically the bird holds the leg up against it's body and doesn't want to put any weight on it.

I am not noticing any other symptoms so far. This bird was the runt of the flock so it may have just been getting picked on and was injured. The previous flock runt showed a similar pattern but was pecked to death within the first 24 hours do I don't know what happened. I had an older hen also get very listless and die within 24 hours just as she was coming into her first lay. She did not show any limping or other similar behavior, but did want to sit a lot and not move around much. I attributed that to problems associated with passage of her first egg.

I contacted the local breeder I got them from said she did not vacinate for Marek's and has never had a problem with it. I never had chickens here before so there was no previous flock but I am keeping a goose in the same area who had been in the wild previously (domestic but released by someone at the local park). the goose looks fine.

Other than that the rest of the flock looks great.

I have new chicks in isolation in another area and am preparing them to move to larger quarters that were previously occupied by the older group. I have sterilized that area with hot water and chlorine and put down fresh pine shavings. I don't know if it's safe to move them in there or not now.

I am going on a week now since I first noticed the leg problem with the above bird.

Any advice?

 

[ranchhand]

I can't give advice, I can only relate my experience from last month.

I had one young bantam roo in with a group of standards. He was a scrapper and seemed to be holding his own. He started having a problem with one leg, so I isolated him and the smallest hen in the house. After a week, his leg was no better, and the hen was fine.

After 12 days I took him to my vet. He examined him carefully, and said one of his bantams had had the same problem, so he had killed it and sent it off for necropsy.

It turned out to be permanant neurological damage, most like due to moldy food perhaps in the bottom of the feeder. Not Marek's, though the leg problem was the same. Fungal toxicity.

We had had a lot of rain recently, so it was possible that some feed had gotten wet and I hadn't spotted the mold. I told him to put the little roo down and he did, since there appeared to be no chance of him walking again.

Came home and cleaned all the feeders and waterers with bleach, but didn't find any mold. There was a corner of the run, way back under the coop, that had mold growing in it. I ended up cleaning that whole run with lots of disinfectant, after treating with bleach and letting dry/air out thoroughly.

Good luck, maybe something I said will help!