My Flock Is Falling Apart😢 Is it Marek’s? Gleet? I’m Devastated😞

[NorthFLChickenChick]

Hi all…I am going to throw a lot at you, so please bear with me and thanks in advance for your patience…I’m a people nurse and this is my second time raising chickens…but the first time was in a different state/climate with a few breeds and they were a breeze…now I’m in the south with all kinds of different fluffy butts and ROOSTERS and it hasn’t even been a solid year and I feel like we’re circling the drain with chickie challenges

So starting off I have 11 hens- 4 Eggers, 2 Orpingtons, a Light and a dark Brahma, a RIR, a Gold Wyandotte and a black Australorp.

I had two silkie roosters but one of them had to be rehomed about six weeks ago due to his extreme aggression towards the girls and his bro once he went “Full Roo”. Now I’m also considering donating my other roo bc of what I “think” he might be doing to some of the girls with his insatiable libido?? It’s a shame bc he’s cute and not nasty like his brother, but since he’s such a squirt he really has to tackle some of these bigger girls…particularly my largest gal Bunny the dark Brahma who has something hellish going on with her backside

I’ve noticed some girls, my RIR in particular “plucking” at some of the girls fluffy butts and eating the feathers! But I also found chunks of feathers gone around some of their necks, likely where Dixie grabs them for his ‘afternoon delight’. But some girls are worse than others, Pepper the australorp looks like she went through the garbage disposal and poor Coco the Wyandotte, who used to be my Queen of the Coop, is now a timid kitty with her little pink butt exposed. Ginger, my RIR is a HUGE feather snacker…and she’s missing some neck feathers yet her bum is fluffy. Oddly enough, my Buff/Lav Orpingtons and four Eggers all look just fine. And then there is Honey…my light Brahma. she’s the one I’m most worried about. Her feathers are actually fine…but my daughter and I were putting saddles on ALL the girls the other day, and when we got to Honey…we discovered something terrible about her wing…it was swollen and dropped..,I had never noticed this before, and she was very tender to the touch, I was afraid that she had broken it? But when I investigated further, I saw and felt this hideous tumor/cyst. The breeder where I got my chicks last April vaccinates all their birds for Marek’s and they are very strict about bio containment. I have not introduced any new birds to my flock, and I haven’t been around any other chickens…but I don’t know what else this could be? See pics attached. Other than the tumor, she has no other issues, and other than this feather problem, which I can’t tell if it’s rooster inflicted or something else, no other symptoms with the birds. They all eat fine, they have plenty of space, they free range every day. Our property is only 5 years old and the people we bought it from built the house 2 years before we moved in and did not have livestock. I’m just wondering if this isn’t Marek’s, what else could it be? And if it IS Marek’s…I guess there’s really not much else that I can do except for provide them with as much love and care as I have been until it looks like they are uncomfortable? I have increased the protein in their feed, I always add probiotics to their water or electrolytes in the summer heat, I sprinkle “wormsBeGone” herbs on their scratch every morning (been doing that for 6 months”, they always have plenty of grit and oyster shells, grubby treats and I started supplementing them with a treat mix for feather health. Plus vetricyn spray on the bums and hen healer.

Any insight or advice that anyone has would be amazing…I just love these babies and I’m so crushed

Thanks in advance

 

[Eggcessive]

The pictures (5and 6) could be a squamous cell carcinoma, which is a common type of skin cancer in chickens. Can you any other small ones on her? You might want to separate the nice silkie rooster for awhile, and place him in a pen or dog crate. He may calm down in time. I like having one rooster at a time. They can be rotated of course, but in their first year, they can do a lot of feather damage to the hens, as well as cause a lot of bother.

 

[NorthFLChickenChick]

The pictures (5and 6) could be a squamous cell carcinoma, which is a common type of skin cancer in chickens. Can you any other small ones on her? You might want to separate the nice silkie rooster for awhile, and place him in a pen or dog crate. He may calm down in time. I like having one rooster at a time. They can be rotated of course, but in their first year, they can do a lot of feather damage to the hens, as well as cause a lot of bother.

Hi thanks for the response. No other lesions anywhere, I checked. Her eyes are clear, she has a steady gate and she even can fly up to the roost (I do have a low roost as well if that becomes a problem). Is the SCC from the herpes virus/mareks? Or just straight SCC skin cancer? I feel awful:/. I actually just bought a little stuffed animal chicken to put in the run to see if Dixie might go for it…you know like how puppies hump stuffed animals? Part of his aggression is just trying to hold on to these big hens

 

[Eggcessive]

Mareks causes lymphomas. Squamous cell (also called keratoacanthoma) is a skin cancer that is not related to Mareks or lymphoid leukosis viruses. Chickens can get quite a few different kinds of cancer, including adenocarcinomas and melanomas. Here is some reading:
https://www.merckvetmanual.com/poultry/neoplasms/neoplasms-of-unknown-etiology-in-poultry

 

[NorthFLChickenChick]

Thank you for those references. I’m going to reach out to the breeder for further guidance, just to see if he’s had any similar reports from any customers in our area in the past year. He also rehomed our other silkie too, so if it IS Marek’s, I feel AWFUL.