Lymphoid Leukosis Help

[altair]

My spouse and I had several of our young birds, 3-5 months old and assorted breeds, die from a disease(s) our vet and Cornell couldn't identify. All chicks came from the same breeder. Quoting our vet after a necropsy: Both femoral heads had chronic necrosis (bone was dying) - the femoral head is the part of the leg that fits into the hip joint.

"The poor body condition and skeletal changes in this bird are suggestive of nutritional imbalance (calcium deficiency)*Note, fed several commercial rations so a deficiency is doubtful*. The collapsed corneas and urates around the vent may additionally suggest dehydration."

"The bones of the keel, skull and ribs are soft and pliable while the long bones are thin and brittle"

"Histologic findings show evidence of encephalitis" - that's inflammation of the brain with acute hemorrhage.

They (Cornell) think the encephalitis could have predisposed the bird to the signs that followed, ie weakness and loss of body condition. They are still doing some testing on the femur and the brain, so I'll let you know when those results come in. The chicken tests came back negative for EEE and West Nile.

I tend to think it was lymphoid leukosis, they had green diarrhea, but have no conclusive evidence. The breeder we got them from said one line of her flock had lymphoid leukosis. Alas, the vets had nothing more to input.

My next step is how to manage future chicks. We're hoping to order some come warmer weather, but want to prevent anything like this from happening again. Would it be best to raise chicks in total isolation, then mix with the old after the former are 5+ months old? Could it happen gradually as chicks? Not raise them together but gently expose them to the same pasture without direct contact with the older birds. I read chickens are pretty vulnerable at the 5 month span of time, so really don't know how best to proceed.

Thank you, readers.

 

[chooks4life]

My spouse and I had several of our young birds, 3-5 months old and assorted breeds, die from a disease(s) our vet and Cornell couldn't identify. All chicks came from the same breeder. Quoting our vet after a necropsy: Both femoral heads had chronic necrosis (bone was dying) - the femoral head is the part of the leg that fits into the hip joint.

"The poor body condition and skeletal changes in this bird are suggestive of nutritional imbalance (calcium deficiency)*Note, fed several commercial rations so a deficiency is doubtful*. The collapsed corneas and urates around the vent may additionally suggest dehydration."

One thing that is potentially confusing is that just because you're feeding them a balanced diet, does not guarantee they are receiving a balanced intake of nutrients.

Calcium goes together with magnesium, and in its natural form in plants etc is found in the correct balance and forms animal's and human's bodies cope best with. When we isolate nutrients, our body can fail to utilize them properly or bind them in fat pending a balanced diet, because the body uses different vitamins and minerals etc to digest each nutritional element, generally speaking.

There is also genetics at play. Some animals don't absorb, synthesize, distribute, eliminate or process things properly. If all your birds from one breeder are so plagued by trouble, abandon the breeder. If you're friends that's harder to do but there is no obligation for you to keep buying diseased and dying or doomed stock from someone just because you have a friendly association with them.

Another thing to consider is that even if everything else is working, if their kidneys for example are not functioning properly, the calcium etc can be harmful.

There are different forms of calcium and the cheapest commercial rations are full of the cheapest nutrients and supplements which are known to cause disease, i.e. synthetic vitamins, mineral and canola oils, etc; canola oil for example is classed by the FDA as a neurotoxin and industrial lubricant.

"The bones of the keel, skull and ribs are soft and pliable while the long bones are thin and brittle"

"Histologic findings show evidence of encephalitis" - that's inflammation of the brain with acute hemorrhage.

They (Cornell) think the encephalitis could have predisposed the bird to the signs that followed, ie weakness and loss of body condition. They are still doing some testing on the femur and the brain, so I'll let you know when those results come in. The chicken tests came back negative for EEE and West Nile.

I tend to think it was lymphoid leukosis, they had green diarrhea, but have no conclusive evidence. The breeder we got them from said one line of her flock had lymphoid leukosis. Alas, the vets had nothing more to input.

I've seen leukosis and this does not appear to be it. All those other symptoms are not related to leukosis to the best of my knowledge, at least not in birds so young. In older birds you would expect some skeletal issues caused by the wasting of leukosis, but not all the rest of those symptoms. But, my knowledge of the disease is localized and may not apply to the forms of the disease present in other countries.

My next step is how to manage future chicks. We're hoping to order some come warmer weather, but want to prevent anything like this from happening again. Would it be best to raise chicks in total isolation, then mix with the old after the former are 5+ months old? Could it happen gradually as chicks? Not raise them together but gently expose them to the same pasture without direct contact with the older birds. I read chickens are pretty vulnerable at the 5 month span of time, so really don't know how best to proceed.

Thank you, readers.

Until you know what's wrong I would not buy more, personally. If this is something contagious, permanent and fatal or long-term debilitating, better to eliminate this flock and clean the ground before you buy more rather than spend your next few years tending doomed stock that have no chance of getting better.

Even those birds that seem healthy may be infected and lifelong carriers.

I would suspect the pasture and environment at your place as a potential source of the disease, until proven otherwise, because if you got all these birds from one breeder yet their stock are still alive, the fault is likely on your end somewhere. Not saying it's your fault, of course, but rather that you may well have some disease present in the soil at your place, or something else dangerous they have accessed, be it fungi or heavy metals or other toxins.

Hydrated agricultural lime will kill some pathogens in the soil, but going over the place carefully might render a reason as to their illness; they may have been consuming lead paint regularly though this doesn't sound identical to the symptoms for that. They could have been drinking from a chemicalized water source the other birds chose not to touch. Isolated cases of poisoning are more common than one might suspect, so just because all of them didn't die from it doesn't mean that some weren't consuming it.

I hope the vet can give you something solid to work from. Best wishes.

 

[altair]

Thank you for your reply, it had a lot of logic to it. The place we moved into and subsequently raised the chickens on hadn't had poultry before. There were however ornamental plants the chickens were regularly exposed to. I doubt we'll ever find the true cause. Their droppings were quite green and loose, maybe bile, something liver related perhaps. Most wasted away and died from onset of symptoms from days to a couple months in the case of the spitzhauben cockerel. He had an appetite but stayed thin as a rail even after worming.

The experience was disheartening to say the very least but we will persevere. Thank you again.