Sadly, I must have brought home a chicken or chickens with Marek's disease the first of August. All the chickens we brought home that day appeared healthy until a couple of weeks ago when we lost one. We took her to Purdue for an autopsy and the pathologist told us that she believes that our chicken died from Marek's disease because she found tumors on multiple organs.
So, now I've just got to wait and see who will be next. Several of my girls have combs that are black or turning to black like the one we lost. So I expect that we will lose them too. The pathologist suggested that the color change might be caused by hormonal problems (possibly tumor on the ovary?).
Our flock consists of 21 chickens (4 cockerels and 17 pullets) and 6 of the pullets have combs that are black or turning black. They range in age from about 17 weeks to about 30 weeks.
So my questions are
1. Who else has been through this, and how did it all turn out? I'd really like to hear your stories!
2. Did anyone else have combs that turned black?
3. Did your girls ever start to lay eggs or were they infertile? Should I not expect eggs at all until the spring when they are recovered?
4. Did your cockerels make it? Was their fertility intact? (We wanted to breed all our own chicks starting in the spring.)
Thanks everybody!
So, now I've just got to wait and see who will be next. Several of my girls have combs that are black or turning to black like the one we lost. So I expect that we will lose them too. The pathologist suggested that the color change might be caused by hormonal problems (possibly tumor on the ovary?).
Our flock consists of 21 chickens (4 cockerels and 17 pullets) and 6 of the pullets have combs that are black or turning black. They range in age from about 17 weeks to about 30 weeks.
So my questions are
1. Who else has been through this, and how did it all turn out? I'd really like to hear your stories!
2. Did anyone else have combs that turned black?
3. Did your girls ever start to lay eggs or were they infertile? Should I not expect eggs at all until the spring when they are recovered?
4. Did your cockerels make it? Was their fertility intact? (We wanted to breed all our own chicks starting in the spring.)
Thanks everybody!
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