Ok I have a sick roo. Started with one leg seeming to bother him. I checked him out and he had a bad spot on his foot ... thought bumblefoot but he was still getting around. Then his foot got better but then he was holding out his other leg. He could not get up into the coop for food and water so i put him in a brooder. He is a year old silkie. He was not getting better. Oh and he had diarrhea and his tail feathers were nasty so I gave him a bath. I had a friend come over and I showed him to her and she thought maybe mareks but has never seen it before. She said his eyes were crusted shut ... but they are open and fine now but MAYBE cloudy. I don't know if I would have said that though if I had not read it was a marek symptom. So this is like week 3 or 4 of him being sick. My friend thought he would die in a day or so and yet he is still holding on(it has been 3-4 days since then). He eats plenty and drinks. If I let him out of the brooder he just flails to one side when trying to walk. Idk what to do ... figure out a way to put him down? Have him tested(expensive! ) to see if it is mareks? Just keep feeding him and hope he gets better? I have also been fighting mites on him. Ok if I needed to put him down ... any suggestions that don't include me breaking his neck with my hands? So if it is mareks they never recover? I got a bird last Fall that was vaccinated. All my other birds are not vaccinated. I have heard that vaccinated birds can be carriers. None of my other birds are having any troubles. Ugh! I hate it when they get sick! I hate it when they just die and you had no idea anything was wrong but somehow that seems better/easier!
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