Mereks dicease questions

[dskerns]

My 8 months old silkie hen has been showing symptoms of mereks.She has been sick for almost 4 months.She doesn’t act like she is sick she eat and drink well and she is finally putting back on some weight.When she first got sick she got really skinny but now she is gaining weight.I just had a hen die from the same symptoms that this chicken has.I’m wondering if there is a chance this could be mereks or she just got hurt and is going to be partially paralyzed?We took her to the vet two times,the first time he looked at her and said a spinal injury.We went back a second time cause we still weren’t sure,that time he said that it’s been so long since she first got hurt that her spine probably already got used to and probably won’t heel,he gave us some steroids to maybe move her spine back in the Same postition it’s suppose to be but that didn’t work.He still believes that since she acts not sick and she hasn’t died yet that she most likely got a spinal injury.When I found her one of my roosters were on top of her,that’s when I noticed something was wrong.

 

[azygous]

Your hunch is probably closer to the truth than your vet's. Her symptoms follow what you can expect from the two most common avian viruses. They cause paralysis and weight loss, and remissions are not at all uncommon until the disease progresses to the turning point of overwhelming the chicken. Then the decline is rapid.

If you're up for a long read, I have a thread that documents my treatment attempts to conquer symptoms from an avian virus. https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...update-now-another-pullet-going-lame.1432738/

 

[dskerns]

Your hunch is probably closer to the truth than your vet's. Her symptoms follow what you can expect from the two most common avian viruses. They cause paralysis and weight loss, and remissions are not at all uncommon until the disease progresses to the turning point of overwhelming the chicken. Then the decline is rapid.

If you're up for a long read, I have a thread that documents my treatment attempts to conquer symptoms from an avian virus. https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...update-now-another-pullet-going-lame.1432738/

Okay thank you for the documents,I just thought it was weird that she is gaining weight.My other chicken that showed the exact same symptoms as her got better for a week and then got really bad sick for a week and died,she was very very skinny.This chicken was very very skinny but now is gaining weight.She acts like nothings wrong.I’m just worried for my other chickens.The day the other chicken was dying I brought her out with all the other chickens for about 5 minutes.