Marek's?

[MrsBeck]

We are very new to owning chickens. In April 2017 we purchased 6 pullet chicks from Tractor Supply. We lost 2 of them early on to a dog. But the 4 flourished and started laying beginning of August. These 4 hens are still laying and they are fed laying crumble. They are also kept seperate from my newer chicks except when they all free range together.
Mid August we decided to get more chicks. We purchased 7 chicks from Tractor supply. They were all growing beautifully. When my newer chicks were around 6 weeks old, I added four 7-week old pullets from a breeder down the street.
They were all growing well until early December. One of the olive eggers I purchased from the local breeder started having trouble walking. She had no other symptoms. She still ate and drank well. I started keeping her seperate from the others. We finally decided to cull her because she couldn't keep her balance anymore at all.
All my newer birds will be 20-21 weeks old tomorrow. They are still kept sperate from my 4 older hens and they are still being fed grower/finisher. Yesterday we noticed that our only cockerel (a beautiful Delaware boy and one of the 7 chicks we purchased from TSC in August) has started stumbling. We are devastated and scared. He was my husband's favorite so he is very upset.
I am scared we are going to lose all of them 1 by 1. I'm scared my 4 older hens who are now 42 weeks old are going to get sick too. I am wondering what I did wrong. They have big pens we had built. We keep the pens veey clean. I wonder if I did this when I added the 4 from the breeder down the street. I am wondering if there is anything I can do to help. Any advice is appreciated.

 

[Rugbygainz]

You didnt do anything wrong so do not worry about that, mareks is relatively common so do not blame yourself. I read a thread a while back where a woman shared her experiences in helping the recovery of her chickens i will do my best to find it for you.

 

[Rugbygainz]

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/mareks-survivor-reintegration-w-flock.1124794/
Read thorugh the thread, one of her lower down comments actually expalins what worked for her. Hope this helps

 

[Runt of the Flock]

i don't have any experience with Marek's but i remember reading somewhere in my hunt for information on another chicken issue, that when another chicken mama had marek's sweep through her flock, she isolated the afflicted immediately. she also mentioned that they went pretty quickly. one day, the hen was fine and the next, she would be instantly paralyzed from the waist down. they would just fall over, stiff legged. i don't recall how quickly her birds died after they fell though.

i'm really sorry about your birds, i hope u find something to stop the epidemic. honestly, there is no way you could've caused it yourself. talk to the local breeder and see if he is having any of the same symptoms within his flock. it might've come from him but there was no way of knowing so don't blame yourself.