Living With Mareks: And Yes, that's my introduction, sadly.

[drumstick diva]

I know Jennifer (think her last name was Miller) wrote the "Big Fat Mareck's thread ( or similar name) regarding everything she learned the hard way and knows about the disease. You should be able to find it on BYC.

 

[seminolewind]

I know Jennifer (think her last name was Miller) wrote the "Big Fat Mareck's thread ( or similar name) regarding everything she learned the hard way and knows about the disease. You should be able to find it on BYC.

The link is right at the bottom of my posts. I carry it with me all the time because it covers almost all the information . Nambroth (Jennifer) was the one in our little group that put it all together-bless her heart!
It's Marek's ...Nambroth's really BIG one

 

[seminolewind]

These are the kinds of lessons I need to hear. Yes, one of the hardest losses is keeping my broody hens from hatching out their own. I will always miss that--there's just no way back. But, I'm hoping to find a road forward. Sounds as if you did find one! Thank you for giving me that tiny hope. Kat

Yes it all is sad and heartbreaking. And if you want healthy chickens to live with you you still can. But they have to be vaccinated and quarantined. Keep a closed flock meaning no new chickens except day old hatchery chicks-vaccinated, or incubate your own and vaccinate. Or buy fertile eggs and incubate. At one point I was so neurotic I thought my closet was the cleanest room , so my incubator went in to the closet.

There is alot that is still "hazy". I had read that the most likely time to be symptomatic was 6-12 weeks. However Marek's does not follow any rules. I have told myself many times to use "most likely", least likely, not really likely.

Chances are we on BYC end up being more knowledgeable about Marek's than our vets. But vets are good for setting broken legs and euthanization.
Just not focused on Marek's. There seems to be an immense amount of knowledge right here on this thread.

The vaccine itself does not spread the virus. But a vaccinated bird can carry and pass the virus. The vaccine appears to be only good for the symptoms but is not likely to do any more than that. The vaccine surely enables me to enjoy being with my chickens instead of crying all the time and not knowing why.

Yes! we backyarders were ignored, told by vets it only happens at production chicken farms but never even thought of as killing our own chickens. Always diagnosed as something else, we all are sitting at home not knowing why our chickens are dying one by one. They waste away looking like they are eating but they are not actually picking pellets up. Then comes the loss of peripheral vision where they can't aim. And no one can tell you why. And most likely one leg paralysis or some other paralysis (I've seen) like no control of their neck.

 

[seminolewind]

Mush Mouse was a silkie roo I hatched who had needed a bit of behavior modification. Shortly after, he would be outside the coop at bedtime and dummy me I thought he was waiting for me. A few days later I realized he couldn't walk. He was 16 months old (outside the window). He was the one I brought the hen home for.

So I kept him on the porch in a cage. I tube fed him. He still crowed! He oddly went downhill. it got to where he could not control his wings, then neck, then peripheral vision. I put him on a blanket for some exercise (haha) and he fell on his face and could not get up. All this time never "looking" sick, always pleasant.

I decided to see a vet about putting him down. It was very peaceful. The vet offered a necropsy. He called later and said he could not see any tumors, therefore his diagnosis was Eastern Equine Encephalitis! I guessed it was possible since they used sentinel chickens to test for it in the field.

That was not until I hatched 10 perfect little BLPolish. And at 5 weeks they got paralysis one by one. Then I knew. Very sad. It was at Christmas time. I cried alot.

 

[CHlCKEN]

 

[CHlCKEN]

 

[MyMomCuredMareks]

We raised bantams and Marans for 10 years. Regretfully, we brought in a chicken with Marek's and my heart is broken.

I've researched for six months after our diagnosis. I've leaned on our poultry department at our local university, top scientists, and local extension offices. I'm a prof, myself. And here's the one thing I cannot find anywhere:

How do we live with it if we decide not to cull??

Half of my flock (thirty) lived through the virus. We have been vaccinating our babies and trying to raise them out to join the herd. I'm just not seeing any success stories--or any stories, really, past "is this Marek's?" Because, in our case: yes. It is.

Please. If anyone has had any success raising their own vaccinated chicks and letting them rejoin a Marek's positive flock, let me know your experience? I don't want to cull my babies. It wouldn't really work, anyway, as the virus lives for so long on the property and we are staying put. So. Please. Any stories, any lessons, any hints on how to now go forward are so welcome.

Thanks, Kat

I have raised over 300 chickens over the past 5 years and I've had great experiences buying chicks from hatcheries or my local farm store or rare breeds from Craigslist. I love keeping chickens. Unfortunately one fateful day two years ago, I sought out American Bresse chicks from a hatchery in Missouri; they seem to have been an extremely poorly run operation that sent me Mareks infected chicks. I never thought to even question sellers since I had had such good experiences and there was nothing to suggest this one was not "legit." But this one sent me the wrong breed of chicken, at the wrong time, and the chicks they did send were sickly. Extremely upsetting.

One chick died, which had never happened before, but I figured it was simply a weak one. The rest of the chicks grew up and were moved to the coop. As they continued to grow, one of the cockrels developed strange symptoms and died. Soon, other members of my laying flock started showing the same symptoms: droopy wing, loss of balance and falling over, extreme rapid weight loss, diarrhea, lethargy, death. I researched the symptoms and Mareks fits the bill. So this horrible hatchery gave me Mareks positive chicks, who spread the disease to my flock, and I have now had about 10 chickens die over the past couple of years. This is devastating and disappointing, as I have always taken good care of my chickens and now Mareks is here to stay, for life, in my flock, thanks to this one disreputable hatchery. It is devastating to raise a laying hen and have her taken out by a disease. A) because I love the chicken, B) because I do make a business out of selling eggs and meat and it is super unprofitable to raise hens only to have them cut short in prime of lay.

BUT, there is good news. When I was pretty certain it was Marek's, I talked to my Mom about it. My sister and I jokingly call her "Dr. Mom" for her ability to sleuth out very satisfactory medical cures. I call her Dr. Mom, DVM for my animal questions. Anyway, Dr. Mom, DVM suffers from cold sores, which are a flare up of herpes virus that always lives inside your body. She takes L-Lysine when she has a coldsore outbreak. She said that since Marek's is a herpes virus, try L-Lysine. I mixed L-Lysine into my flock's water and it did seem to make the virus go into remission (there is no "cure" and they will always live with it and be herpes carriers, from what I understand about how herpes virus works).

Dr. Mom, DMV's treatment proved to be a rip roaring success. When I have a bird showing signs of Mareks, I mix up a dose of L-Lysine in water (btw, this is anyone's guess to look at the bottle for a human dose and reduce it down to a suitable chicken dose, but just take your best guess and it turns out fine) and give it to it in a syringe or in oatmeal; about two applications per day. If caught early, this does seem to cure them. I had a rooster showing symptoms and growing very sickly this winter, so I put him in a box in my garage, mixed up a batch of L-Lysine oatmeal, he did eat it, I kept giving it to him as he ran out, talked encouragingly to him and checked in, and after about 4 days, he had improved enough to put him back with the flock (so that loneliness did not take a worse toll), where he continued to make a complete recovery (at first his poor little crow was weak and he was obviously still looking weak and moving gingerly, but he gained strength); he is alive and kickin' and attackin' (me) this summer, totally recovered.

Now, if the disease is advanced when it is spotted, then administering L-Lysine may not work. Don't blame yourself for this. When I see a chicken looking isolated and eyes closed and droopy, and I pick it up and feel it is thin, and its back end has diarrhea on it, then I try to treat it, and it may still die at that point because it is too far gone. However, it does depend on the bird's will to live (the rooster was far gone and he recovered) and also probably on how advanced the disease is inside their body (maybe some already have tumors or whatnot going on inside and there is not much to be done by the time they show outward symptoms). I find that when you catch it early, or if you catch it late and have a bird with a strong will to live, administering L-Lysine is a successful treatment for Marek's.

If I see a chicken developing symptoms, I treat it, AND I also treat the rest of my flock as a preventative (add some to their water). The preventative application is the most effective. Before, if one chicken started developing Marek's, more were sure to follow and several would die, sort of in batches of the outbreak, three or four at a time over the span of a couple of months. Now, when I see a sick chicken and I treat the flock with a preventative dose, that chicken may recover or else die, but it is the only one and the others will remain healthy and are prevented from getting Mareks and dying as well. The L-Lysine seems to drive the virus into remission. If it flares up again, as evidenced by a sickly chicken, then I dose them all with L-Lysine again.

Additionally, it works with introducing new chicks (always unvaccinated - I do not vaccinate) into my Mareks positive flock. When I move them to the coop, I mix in some L-Lysine with their water to give them the boost they need to encounter the virus-carrying flock. This has worked well. This spring I had one chick die of Mareks, but when I saw it developing symptoms, I treated it (did not work, too far gone), and treated the rest of the 25 chicks, and all the rest of the chicks were fine.
I am hoping the chicks' young, strong immune systems exposed to Mareks early on are better able to encounter the virus and fight it off; maybe over time, my flock will develop natural immunity.

The alternative is to kill of my entire flock and go chicken-less for several years in hopes that the virus will die. This is not a viable option for me. So using L-Lysine in water works well. I do not need to treat frequently. Just when I see symptoms, give a preventative dose. I will likely still get a few casualties in the future, but overall my flock is going to survive and live with the disease successfully.

I truly hope this info helps others battling Mareks. It is so sad to watch your beloved chickens die and feel responsible and helpless. This has been a great treatment to keep chickens from dying from Mareks. I am not aware of anyone else who has discovered this and wanted to share Dr. Mom, DVM's breakthrough research. I am so happy to have a treatment for my chickens. Please share with anyone else dealing with Mareks as I hope this will help many others!!