Marek’s in the flock

[Evuschak]

I got my small flock of 5 backyard chickens back in 2021, all vaccinated against Marek’s.
Now at almost 3 years old, I had to euthanize one of them as she was becoming paralyzed, and the necropsy points to Marek’s.
All other chickens seem fine but now I noticed one of them is developing a grey eye, which suggests the ocular Marek’s. She seems fine otherwise.

My question is, what is the disease progression with the ocular one? Is she uncomfortable? Do I need to euthanize her right away or is she ok for now? I assume no greater risk to others as they were all exposed? Are eggs safe to eat?

I’m so upset, the 2 sweetest chickens, and I did not expect to be dealing with this with vaccinated 3 year old birds.

 

[Eggcessive]

Are you going to receive a final report on the necropsy, whether it is Mareks or not? Can you post a picture of the gray eye in your chicken, and is the other eye normal? So sorry that you may have this terrible diagnosis. It is kind of late showing up in almost 3 year old chickens. Have you added any other birds to your flock recently? There will be post from others here who are dealing with Mareks. If not, I will tag a few people.

 

[Evuschak]

Are you going to receive a final report on the necropsy, whether it is Mareks or not? Can you post a picture of the gray eye in your chicken, and is the other eye normal? So sorry that you may have this terrible diagnosis. It is kind of late showing up in almost 3 year old chickens. Have you added any other birds to your flock recently? There will be post from others here who are dealing with Mareks. If not, I will tag a few people.

Thank you so much.
I haven’t introduced any new chickens so I’d assume it would be from wild birds, just surprised to be seeing this now. They’ve always looked healthy and otherwise well.
I will be receiving the final necropsy report as well but the preliminary one found tumors and strongly suggests Marek’s.
And yes let me post pictures in a few.

 

[Evuschak]

Picture of a healthy eye

 

[Evuschak]

And she wouldn’t stand still from this side but picture of the cloudy eye…it is visibly different from the other one

 

[Eggcessive]

It is different, but not clear enough to see details. There are a lot of pictures here on BYC of ocular Mareks eyes. Usually, the iris becomes faded and changes to make the pupil irregular. Sometimes the cornea becomes cloudy which may be what you have in the picture of her left eye.

 

[Evuschak]

Yeah it was hard to get a good picture, but it is visibly different/cloudy and similar to what I’ve seen online about Marek’s. I contacted the pathologist working on the case of my other chicken and he said to wait til the final report is done.

I suppose, if it is indeed Marek’s, how can I tell with the ocular one when it’s time to euthanize her? When she goes blind in both eyes or loses weight or something like that? So far she seems to be eating and behaving normally.

 

[Evuschak]

I've seen ocular Marek's show up suddenly in an 5-year-old chicken. She was completely blind but lived comfortably for years with a few accommodations.

That’s good to know! She’s such a sweet one I hope she can live comfortably. My other one was in discomfort getting paralyzed.

I guess now the main thing is to not get any more chickens until all my current ones die and the whole area is sanitized.

 

[goats-n-oats]

You can try putting powdered lysine in their water. That is supposed to halt virus replication. I've read you can also try Chinese skullcap herbs.

 

[Evuschak]

Hmm interesting. Is there any info on recommended dosing? I read the thread about the skullcap as well.