I posted a question about Marek's a couple weeks ago. I still have the same pullet in isolation. She is slowly getting worse. I'm not sure how much worse I will let her get before I intervene. But I lost another one this morning. While she was in decline only 6 days, her legs were totally paralyzed last night and this a.m. was gone. From all I've read, I do think they both have/had Marek's. Both birds are/were 7 months old, from different hatcheries and supposed to have been vaccinated. I know vaccines do fail at times. But I have several questions if anyone can help me. Will this strike older birds as well? I'm paranoid to even go to my coop to find more sick birds. I've heard once you get the disease it will always be in your coop. Is this true? If so, how did it get in my coop to begin with? I've had chickens for 5 years and never had this before. Will getting new chicks or hatching new chicks next year be a bad plan? Will they be more likely to end up with this awful disease? I know I would need to vaccinate any ones that I hatch myself. I've also heard that Marek's is so common that all birds are exposed to it. Is this true and I just got two that still got it even though vaccinated? Or are odds raised that I'm in for a long haul of losing lots of my birds? This is so scary. I have 50 chickens and sell eggs, but my birds are my pets as well and I love them and this is killing me.
