Marek's : Lessons Learned the Hard Way

[leadwolf1]

Wow. I am shocked. Many on here have found state labs that are very reasonable. For tissue cultures, parasitology exam, all kinds of cultures for various chicken diseases, mine was total,$35. I'm sorry that yours was so expensive. From the time my first died until my second died was over 3 months. Once they have been exposed, they are carriers for life. I thought I was safe with my year olds...they have never shown signs. With the heat, I have now lost 4 chickens over 1 year old....

I could write a book on what I know about Marek's....

Hi leadwolf1 -

Necropsy cost for me was 45.00 for the initial cost and then 85.00 for the tissue cultures - so $130 and that was from Texas A&M Poultry diagnostic laboratory...so it is a State U.

I'm going to start a thread on Mareks. It would be like a wiki and everyone interested can post their facts and anecdotes etc. There is a lot of Marek's info here on BYC but it is dissapated and some kind of old. I will come back and edit. I hope that when I put the link in---You will be among the people who would visit it and put information in. I'm so very sorry that you lost so many to the disease.

For KristyAZ, the cost of necropsy is quite expensive IMO and if you have the symptoms that you had, then you can be pretty sure that is what it was. Only if there was a scientific reason would I go to the extent of necropsy. According to Merck Vet manual the incubation period for Marek's is 12-weeks.

I sweated it out for the 12 weeks and kept the new chickens who had been penned with the one who died isolated from my others for the full 12-weeks. One was a hybrid from White Leghorn which breed has been shown to have some resistance, the other was an Easter Egger. Both of them are fine now. The EE's chicks are the ones I'm currently raising. The most concern, from some research I saw was birds with Rhode Island Red heritage.

Also of interest is Peter Brown-- AKA "the Chicken Doctor" has an article about vaccinations for grown chickens, and not just day olds. I will put a link up on the page that I will build so when I come back with a link it should be readily available.

When you feel like it, if you want to -- (after I start the page on Mareks...come back edit a link etc.) Maybe you too would put your views there and your approach to vaccinations. Thanks.

 

[En Plein Air Farms]

I got my chicks from Dell's (Tractor Supply in the west coast). Does anyone know if store chicks are vaccinated?

Does the vaccine have live cultures in it, and wouldn't that be in the poop and then the ground? Seems a vicious circle.

 

[furbabymum]

I don't think if you kill one thing that needs a nice death that you'll suddenly be ok with killing everything. I kill what needs to be killed and save what can be saved. We don't even kill spiders in our house unless they are black widows. Black widows have to go for safety reasons. When you save something from a horribe painful death you should think of it as saving and not killing.

 

[n8ivetxn]

x2

 

[leadwolf1]

You would have to contact the store and see if they vaccinate their chicks. Some places do, some don't. As for the vaccines leaving the disease in the ground....Marek's vaccine is made from Turkey Marek's and it can not pass on Chicken Marek's. The virus is not shed nor is the chicken a carrier for life.

 

[En Plein Air Farms]

thank you leadwolf.

 

[leadwolf1]

You are welcome

 

[dancingflower68]

I'm so confused about Mareks!!! I just had my Buff Brahma put to sleep because of Mareks on Monday. She came from My Pet Chicken as a day old chick, and she was vaccinated for it. She started showing symptoms of lameness at about 6.5 weeks, and couldn't even walk by 8 weeks, which was when I had her put down at the vets.This was after normal xrays, antibiotics and antinflammatorys. I just can't figure out when/where she might have been exposed, especially since the incubation period is 12 weeks supposedly. I was thinking the vaccine might have given it to her, kinda like polio vaccines can, but if it's the Turkey mareks live virus, I just don't see how that's possible. This was my first batch of chicks ever, so unless she got it from wild birds when they started spending some time outdoors in their run at 3 weeks, I have no clue where she got it. Especially since that would put the time from exposure to symptoms at 3.5 weeks, not 12, and that's if she was exposed to it the very first day they went outside!! Oh well, I suppose I will never know, now I am watching for signs in the remaining 3, although I guess there is really nothing I can do if they do start showing signs!!

I already freaked out because of this and thought my BA had some respiratory illness because of a small crust on her bottom eyelid, so I hurried and bought some Tylan at $60 with shipping!! Turns out it was just missing black pigment on her eyelid...oops....I guess I am over paranoid now. I started thinking I was going to lose them all and questioning everything I'm doing with them!

One thing I would like to point out is my BB never grew as fast as the others, I mean she was about half the size at 8 weeks, and when she ate her crop never got full, I could never even feel it! The other 3 would eat and have bulging crops! Maybe there was something wrong with her from the start, or the vaccine did something to her, I don't know. She was a good eater too, even on her last day. And perky and sweet waaahhh...I miss her...

 

[leadwolf1]

Did you have a necropsy done on her? What you are describing sounds more like a vitamin deficiency to me! Stunted growth, paralysis, etc in one so young are all symptoms of a vitamin deficiency also. Without positive confirmation from a necropsy, it is impossible to really tell if it was Marek's or not.

I've always heard that the incubation period can be as short as 6 weeks and there are some on here that have had necropsies done on chicks as young as 6 weeks and they were positive for Marek's. The first chick I lost was 10 weeks old.

The vaccine did not give your chick the disease. It isn't possible. The wild birds are a possibiltiy as they do carry Marek's.

When a chick so young gets the disease, I don't think that it takes as long for them to die as in older birds.

 

[dancingflower68]

No, we didn't do a necropsy, but the vet was sure, and he consulted with the other vet too. I thought it might be a vitamin deficiency too, so I started her on Poly-vi-sol right away, and sav a chik in her water, but there was no improvement, also, it seems weird she would have a deficiency, and not the other three. They were on Purina start and grow since day one (plus they had gro-gel the first day) plus I gave them all scrambled or boiled eggs and yogurt starting pretty early to help with pasty butt, and then they started getting greens/veggies/fruit after 3 weeks when I started giving them grit. I think I did everything right (I hope!) and the other ones are really healthy and strong. It was just heartbreaking to see her get like that so quickly..I hope I don't have to deal with it again.