Merick's Disease

[realsis]

well I was told by a vet yes it is my oldest was 6 months when she was vaccinated. but the goal is to vaccinate BEFORE exposure. its a race. its so wide spread this is why recommendations are for the very young chick. but I was told by the vet its OK to do it when they are older in hopes they weren't already exposed. its the race to do it before exposure. when I did mine they were 3 months 4 months up to 6 months. but because I'm working on their house and run they have been inside. however the doctor vet told me yes its OK. keeping I'm mind the goal is to do it before exposure..my birds did very well. no reactions what so ever to the vaccine. they didn't even flinch from the shot
thank God. its fairly easy to do. hope this helps out.I would have preferred to do it when they were younger but this is how I did mine after talking with my vet. I wish you the best of luck. its always best do do them younger but it can be done older assuming they haven't already been exposed
if they have been exposed I believe then its too late. remember its kinda a race to get them vaccinated before exposure. this is what my vet told me. the younger the better but I did do my older birds. they were raised inside and haven't been outside due to the construction of there run and house so hopefully I got to them BEFORE exposure happened. then after vaccine you have to wait a week or two before actual immunity happens. so by the time my run is finished and I move them outside immunity would already be present . its always a roll of the dice with older outside birds have they been exposed or not. that's the good question. that's why its recommended that they be vaccinated as EARLY as possible. but older ones CAN be vaccinated. just hope they haven't been exposed yet....

 

[ChickieG'ma]

NewMomma: Mine is just now about six weeks and she does continue to get stronger but very slow. Have you had any more get sick?

RealSis: How many doses was that for that price?

And anyone know how likely it would be for a chick to recover from Mareks AND what is the treatment if you were going to try to treat?

 

[ChickieG'ma]

I'm sorry, I forgot I had already calculated they were six weeks when I first commented. So she is about 7 1/2 weeks now.

Another question, a stupid one: I guess the vaccine would be the best bet for any home hatched babies especially since I suspect my place has been exposed?

 

[NewMomma]

Well, thank you. And did you do the shots yourself or did your vet do it?

 

[NewMomma]

And no, thank goodness I haven't had any more sick cases yet. I hope that it stays that way.

 

[ChickieG'ma]

I have had another get sick today. She is showing the weakness in the legs, stumbling, lack of balance and unlike the first one she goes through spells of hard shaking. I took her away from the hen and brought her inside so I could take care of her. Started them both on Hypericum (St. John's Wort) tonite.

 

[NewMomma]

Oh my. Well I hope that it doesn't take a turn for the worse. Keep us updated.

 

[ChickieG'ma]

Sorry it's been awhile.

I'm going to take the two chicks to the state poultry center in Puyallup today. They will observe them there then eutanize and necropsy them to see if it is Merick's. I'm also taking one of my Polish hens that started to show weakness yesterday. She would run or walk a few feet then sit for long periods. When I caught her to check her out her keel bone was so prominent you could almost slice bread with it! Sudden weight loss is also a symptom. Thing is, other than the three chicks I purchased from the Co-op, all my flock has been vaccinated. So now I'm wondering if I'm going to have to watch my whole flock whither away one at a time?

My biggest worry though is that I have 10 really good quality chicks from a breeder and 25 hatchery chicks from Cackle Hatchery (vaccinated) coming at the end of the month. This just keeps getting better and better.

Hope you all are doing better.