mcmurry sick chicks please post here

[TheFunnyFarm]

I agree I don't think this is an epidemic either.

 

[carousel]

Best we can tell,
my friend and I have 12 chicks each from our McMurray order.
they were split up at 1 week of age when everyone seemed to be doing great. (and needed more space)
we each have 2 BLRW that are having trouble, we each have one having more trouble than the 'other" so it is a "degree" of things.
I spend A LOT of time staring at my chicks hoping they are acting normal.
our chicks seen EVERY so slightly beter since we started vits.
and no more seem to be having problems. Our chicks were hatched on the 23rd of feb.
I found it interesting that the 2 that got sick were my 2 biggest chicks!
I'm prepared to euthanize the worst chick my estimate from the Avian vet was a bit under 100.00 to euthanize and do a necropsy, an additional 85-120.00 if we send out tissue samples.
So you can see that since I understand that some chicks have been sent out for necropsys........ I'm not in a big rush to do mine. This is partly because no one else seems to be getting sick? and thy are NOT getting worse and are even getting slightly better.
I do not think my 2 in the hospital brooder feel well, they are not all that active and while they are eating, I don't think they are eating much.
I have been giving the chicks some hard boiled egg yolk about every other day and they DO like it!
That said, if there is no information from this list about an exact cause, we going to euthanize the worst chick on thursday as the vet will be out the following week herself for surgery!
CS

 

[coopist]

As to the vacc. vs. unvacc. some hatcheries have been known to ship alternates when stock is short. So, say they run out of un-vaccinated birds, might they not ship some vaccinated ones instead to fill the order? I'm not saying MM does this. I'm merely pointing out that it might be possible in some instances.

Also, as you point out, TheFunnyFarm, MM drop ships. If so, then there's no centralized, constant procedure for these things. It could be one bad location...or it could be two different ones...but not all.

Again, my sympathies sincerely go out to all who are having problems, no matter what the cause.

 

[ebonykawai]

This is so sad. The pics of the sick chicks just made my heart sink.

 

[PennySue]

Hi Folks, I just returned from the vet. I took in 5 sick chicks and the frozen one I kept. I even sacrificed one of the chicks that first came down with this and is doing good except for it's size (1/3 normal). She's sending them to UW Madison for autopsy(this cost me $87.50 per chick). I also brought along a healthy chick from Ideal ( same age) to compare and rule out these causes.
From the exam I now know the following:
1) this is not cause by shipping
2)this is not caused by lack of nutrition or vitamins
3) this is not caused by improper care
These are the facts relating to my chicks.
This is a disease and it must have come from MM. All the signs point to Marek's disease.
All my Ideal chicks are still fine and much larger then the MM chicks.
The results should be back in 2-3 days.
In the mean time, keep this chicks away from all other birds until we know for sure, please.
Still waiting for call back from Ron Kane from UW and an email from MM as to the type of Vac. they used and how it is administered.

 

[silkhope]

Ok, so I'll post on here, even though it's a frustrating thread. I will say I have ordered from McMurray before, last spring and the ones that remained after the "stress-of-shipping-deaths" did wonderfully.

I started with 10, arrived March 4 (split order with others), lost 6 within 48 hours.

The four remaining have been doing very well, very active chicks until Friday, I noticed that a mille fleur was dropping back on it's hocks, only standing up a few seconds at a time or doing the "army crawl" so I've started calling it. If another one bumped into her, she would fall to her side and struggle to get back up. It has been four/five days and she's still the same, no worse, no better. She army crawls to her food and water.

As of yesterday, a buff laced polish is doing the same exact thing, only stands up a few seconds and army crawls around. Throughout all of this, he had been the strongest of all and I assumed was a roo because of his attitude.

They're not growing/flourishing as fast as they should be, none of them. There are two mille fleurs and two polish (one buff, one golden laced).

It's just entirely too much of a coincidence. An order of chicks, split between three different homes, and the chicks are all showing the same symptoms after two weeks. And then showing similar symptoms to other people who have ordered from the same place. I'm not bashing the hatchery, I've never had issues with them, they've always had wonderful customer service. But I agree with MNKris, I think we can safely say something is going on.

 

[LoneCowboy]

Ok, here might be something else, I also give my chick's vit and eletrolytes from the second they hit the brooder till they are about 7 weeks old, or I run out, whatever comes first. So mine are and were always on Vits.

And I only lost the typical 3

 

[PennySue]

Be careful with the vit and eletrolytes, they do help but too much can cause problems also.

 

[McQueen]

hi all I'm new here an just happen to stumble on this page. I just received my MM chicks Monday the 15th. its been 24 hours an out of 25 i have lost 17 chicks. I keep reading to find out if I'm doing something wrong. they have been chicks that drank water, eating running around then just started dying. Ive never had chickens before an i have been reading everything i can find on them for the past 3 months. I raised pigeons for about 15 years when i was a kid so a lot of this is not new. I'm guessing like everyone else i got a bad batch of chicks. I was soooo looking forward to this an now I'm kinda depressed an piss at the same time. I will call MM an have them replace the chicks i lost or get a refund an order from someone else.

 

[FeatherFluff]

PennySue, I was told by MM that the Marek's vaccine is an injection given in the "scruff" of the chick's neck and the cocci vaccine is sprayed onto the chicks in their shipping box (if the cocci vac was ordered).