Lessons from Marek's

[Ben the Hen]

This is not an emergency for me. We had a hen with Marek's but came across the situation too late to save the poor thing (although symptoms improved over a few days). It seemed like a particularly horrible strain.

In a nutshell, we saw our chicken out in the yard lying on her side Thursday afternoon. We had known about Marek's but never prepared because we thought all of our flock was vaccinated. We did our research and ordered our supplies. We started treatment Friday afternoon; she was nearly catatonic at this point. By Saturday night her head was up and her will to fight us was strengthing. Sunday she was able to move her way around the box we put her in, and our hopes were up. She flailed to move around all morning but by the afternoon she had passed away. I do not think these flailings were seizures, they seemed intentional and goal orientated for food, water, socialization, and normal chicken stuff; therefore, I'm guessing she exhausted herself and lost her will.



Materials Method and Supplies

- one of the treatments was acyclovir based on this article
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3039621

- another was St. Johns Wart based on this post
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/st-johns-wort.135247/

- the third was a Lysine supplement, as it is well known to be the preferred protein to fight herpes
http://herpes.com/Nutrition.shtml

We measured dosages based on these links and used a pipet to feed her.
We followed other herpes guidelines like no direct sunlight.
We helped her move around if we could, but it seemed to upset her, so it was limited.
We had her box outside for a little bit at a time, but the other chickens made her flail, so we limited it; who knows if that was the right decision because she passed while indoors.



Conclusion

Obvious, not a cure for Mareks in this case, but I think more evidence would be needed to rule it out, based on the evidence and hope provided.

Anyway, I hope this helps. If you try the same and it works, please spread the word.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Did you have it confirmed as Mareks? Generally it takes longer for them to die from it that a few days. Things like botulism will kill in a few days to a week.

 

[Eggcessive]

Welcome to BYC. Sorry about your chicken. If you experience any more illness in your flock with similar symptoms, I would recommend that you get a necropsy after death. Mareks can best be diagnosed with a necropsy, and to examine feather shafts or tumor on internal tissue in the body. Promptly refrigerate the body and ship it to your state vet or poultry lab on ice packs. There are many other things that can cause similar symptoms.

 

[Chickens like to peck me]

I had marix.... we had 13 chickens........ now we have three.

 

[Chickens like to peck me]

I WATCHED ONE DIE.... RIGHT IN FRONT OF MY EYES.....

 

[theoldchick]

http://www.thepoultrysite.com/diseaseinfo/90/mareks-disease


http://www.chickenvet.co.uk/health-and-common-diseases/mareks/index.aspx

 

[rebrascora]

There are no hard and fast rules with Marek's. Some die very suddenly with no apparent symptoms, some are incapacitated with it for a few days and then miraculously recover and you cannot tell they were ever sick. Some take weeks or months of supportive care to recover and some deteriorate and die. I have cared for many chickens with it over the past few years and I find that sunshine and grass are two of the main things that appear to have been most beneficial so I am surprised you have found research that suggests preventing exposure to direct sunlight is helpful.
It is very hard to assess the efficacy of any treatment because of the unpredictable nature of this disease and on a small scale of treating just one individual bird, there are really no conclusions that can inferred because many of my birds have rallied without any of these treatments. I find that the stress caused by applying such treatments..... feeding by dropper or pipette etc.... is counter productive..... I've tried St Johns Wort and Turmeric and if you put it in their food they lose interest in eating and if you force feed them, they get stressed which aggravates the condition. I feed them whatever they will eat that is wholesome, get them out on grass in the sunshine whenever possible and try to keep them in contact with the flock but in a safe environment (a large cage) because depression suppresses the immune system and causes them to stop fighting it. Keeping them happy and stress free and well fed seems to give them the optimum chance of recovery in my experience with this disease, but sadly some do still die.
Of course any that do recover will always carry the disease and be prone to future attacks.