Likely Marek's disease, what works for care/treatment

[kerthomp]

Hello:

I have spent the last week reading various threads on this site and others trying to get a clear idea of what works and what doesn't. I could use some advice as to how to best proceed.

I got several pullets at the same time. All of them were vaccinated for Marek's. I also have adult chickens out in the coop that were vaccinated for Marek's as well. Theses pullets have not interacted with the adults and are currently still in my bathroom. None of my chicks leave my property or have any interaction with other chickens or other chicken keepers. Every one else seems healthy. One of my silver grey dorkings named Thelma (13 weeks old) starting walking weird/limping a week ago. She is in a separate cage/brooder with her sister Louise since they had some nasty pin feathers coming in and one of the others was trying to pull them out. Thelma then went down later that day and hasn't gotten back up. I originally thought it was a leg or back injury. I took her to the vet and the vet said she had classic symptoms for Marek's. I have been doing supportive care since she went down. The vet said Marek's is usually fatal and recommended humane euthanasia. I wasn't prepared to do that since she was still perky and wanted to eat (even if I had to bring it to her) and I know I have seen success stories and recovery stories on here. She sent me home with Meloxicam and critical care to syringe feed, which I have been doing. I was alternating which side she laid on. She still moves her legs so they aren't paralyzed but are just weak. Over the week some things have progressed and some have improved. The weakness seems to be focused on her left side. Her right side leg tends to tense up, extend outwards, and shake. She does still contract it back to her body some, so she has the movement. I don't know if she is using it to stabilize herself or what. I thought she was improving and we became hopeful she was on the mend. We built her a chicken chair this weekend to try to help her strengthen her muscles, which she keeps escaping from. I am able to place her in a neck pillow for support with her legs tucked underneath her but she escapes from it as well. She is still moving herself around in her cage on her side and I sometimes find her on her opposite side to where I saw her previously. She has had diarrhea since her appetite decreased and that is still occurring. Now for the bad, we came home on Saturday evening to find her moving her neck oddly. My opinion would be it is like wry neck but I wouldn't think it is caused by a vitamin deficiency. She does this really freaky thing where she puts her head under her body and it looks like she is headless. It honestly scared the crap out of me the first time I found her like that. As a result, she his having more difficulty eating her crumbles as of today and syringe feeding is more difficult since you have to get her neck at the right angle with it bent oddly. Once you get her in the right position, then she is happy to go to town on the syringe to get her food. She is also willing to drink out of the water bowl at the right angle. She is now mainly hanging out on her right side since if she goes on her left, her head is bent that direction so it is an odd angle to lay. She can move her head but a lot of the time if she tries to go too far to the other side her head starts shaking back and forth a bunch quickly.

I have been reading all the various threads for days. I know for Marek's people recommend supportive care and vitamins, hypericum, cranberry, b-vitamin complex. I know for wry neck people recommend vitamin E and selenium, poly-vi-sol drops, turmeric.

I made her a turmeric tea this morning and she drank a decent amount. I have also done some of the save-a-chick electrolyte mixture. I still have the Meloxicam I am administering and critical care omnivore syringe food.

I have a bottle of human super-b complex tablets that I have been hesitant to give her since I'm nervous about dosing, etc.

I finally gave in and ordered some poly-vi-sol drops (I couldn't find any without iron in my drugstore), vitamin e with selenium, hypericum perf. 30x. All of which will be delivered tomorrow.

Is the wry neck treatment (vitamin e and selenium) worthwhile to do since this is likely wry neck caused by Marek's? Or is there something else I should be doing?

I will definitely add the poly-vi-sol drops once I get them because I feel like vitamins aren't going to hurt anything. However, what about the hypericum perf? Can this be harmful? Is it worth it to try it? I don't tend to put a lot of faith in homeopathic treatments and there seems to be a lot of mixed opinions on this product. If it will help, I'm not opposed to trying it but I also worry about mixing all these different products together. Also, dosing?

Is the super-b complex needed if I am going to do the poly-vi-sol? The poly-vi-sol appears to have all the necessary B-vitamins in it.

Basically, I need someone with more experience to help me out. I don't want to torture my poor girl. She is a sweetheart and I want to give her every chance to recover. I also don't want to make things worse or force her to suffer. Do I continue on as I have? Do I add in some of these products? If so, which ones?

She and her sister are my favorites so of course she is the one with the issues. I discussed it with the vet and she indicated that it was probably fine to leave Louise in with Thelma since she would have already been exposed and she is also vaccinated. The main concern was her picking on her which hasn't been an issue. They are a very docile breed and like to cuddle. I think it would be more distressing to separate them at this point.

Any advice is greatly appreciated as I've never dealt with anything like this. Thanks in advance.

Kelly and Thelma

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Heres's a good read.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/the-great-big-giant-mareks-disease-faq.66077/

If you lose her, then sending the body for necropsy can give you the best answers
https://www.metzerfarms.com/PoultryLabs.cfm

 

[Eggcessive]

B complex tablets are pretty inexpensive, and 1/4 tablet daily is the dosage. It can be crushed into food or a spoonful of water. Polyvisol without iron is kind of expensive, but it does have riboflavin (B2) that is helpful with leg issues. Make sure that she is getting a balanced chicken feed for calcium-d3-phosphorus to prevent rickets. Leg bone deformities can cause problems as well. Hopefully it is not Mareks, but a necropsy by the state vet is the best way to get a diagnosis.

 

[kerthomp]

We made the difficult decision to put Thelma to sleep this afternoon. Last night she started having breathing difficulties and didn't want to eat. It seemed like one thing would improve and another thing would go wrong. We did get a necropsy done and had samples sent off to test. I will update when I know the results in case this thread may be useful to someone in the future.

 

[Sally PB]

Thank you for taking care of her, and for taking the time to write about what's going on. I'm sorry for your loss.

 

[Kiki]

We made the difficult decision to put Thelma to sleep this afternoon. Last night she started having breathing difficulties and didn't want to eat. It seemed like one thing would improve and another thing would go wrong. We did get a necropsy done and had samples sent off to test. I will update when I know the results in case this thread may be useful to someone in the future.

Good job.

 

[Eggcessive]

Glad that you sent samples to your state vet to test for Mareks. Sorry for your loss, but glad that she is not suffering.

 

[Quirkyfusion]

We made the difficult decision to put Thelma to sleep this afternoon. Last night she started having breathing difficulties and didn't want to eat. It seemed like one thing would improve and another thing would go wrong. We did get a necropsy done and had samples sent off to test. I will update when I know the results in case this thread may be useful to someone in the future.

I’m sorry for the loss of Thelma. I’m dealing with this exact scenario. I’m at the let’s give it one more day and see what happens point. Have you gotten any results back?

 

[kerthomp]

I’m sorry for the loss of Thelma. I’m dealing with this exact scenario. I’m at the let’s give it one more day and see what happens point. Have you gotten any results back?

Thank you. I'm sorry you are dealing with this same scenario. It is an awful thing to deal with. I haven't heard back on the necropsy or sample results yet. I talked with the vet earlier today, and they were still waiting on an update from the lab. Only you know what's best for your chicken. I did my best to give her a fighting chance and for a while I thought she may turn things around. I decided to end her suffering once she was no longer interested in the syringe food (she was enjoying it up until then) and her breathing started being difficult some of the time, almost like an open mouth gasping with her head tipped back. I had fed her that afternoon and over the course of a few hours things drastically changed for her. I was honestly shocked that she hung in there until the next day and even seemed to perk up some that next morning. I tried to feed her again that morning just in case and she ate a little bit but nothing like she needed to and then the weird gasping breathing started up again. I knew at that point that I needed to help her along or she was just going to keep fighting a losing battle. It's a nasty thing to deal with and seems to go up and down with improvements and setbacks. Good luck with your chicken. I hope you have a better outcome than I did. I'll post on here with her results when I get them in case they will help someone else.

 

[kerthomp]

We just received the necropsy results back on Thelma and they were consistent with Marek's disease despite the fact that she was vaccinated. Our whole flock is vaccinated as well. I guess now I get the lovely distinction of being a Marek's flock despite the fact that we did everything we could to prevent it by vaccinating and keeping a closed flock. I'm worried about all the chicks we have that have been in contact with her. We removed her as soon as she showed any symptoms but I think it would be too late at that point. I'm also worried about moving the younger ones outside with our adults now too since I don't want to expose them to anything. I'm assuming that is a futile worry at this point though since they are likely exposed as well. It wasn't a surprising result based on the way her symptoms but progressed but still upsetting and somewhat shocking since everyone is vaccinated.