Mystery disease killing only birds from Ideal Poultry. Help diagnose it please!

[Jungleexplorer]

In May of 2012, I ordered some Cubalaya chicks from Ideal Poultry. I received 16 chicks to begin with. All had Mareks vaccinations. Two of the chicks had defects and died shortly after I got them. The rest began to die off one by one at different ages. By 2 months only 6 birds were left. The younger bird that died, simply fell over and died suddenly, but the older the birds got the longer it took them to die and the symptoms were more easily observable. Basically, a perfectly healthy bird would begin to act drunk and start wobbling around. Slowly it would become unable to walk and then unable to stand. In each case I immediately put the sick bird on a high nutrition diet and vitamin enriched water. In all cases this failed to slow the progression of the disease. The birds would eventually become totally paralyzed from the neck down. The birds could continue to eat and drink if food and water was placed directly in front of them, but were unable to move to get to food and water. Eventually they all died. While going through this whole process, the birds showed no other symptoms or signs of distress.

Eventually I got down to two males and they seemed that they were going to make it. Eventually they were introduced to the general population of the rest of my large flock and they seemed to be doing well until last week when, the best looking one began to start to act drunk. The onset of the symptoms have taken a lot longer, but he is now totally paralyzed and unable to move, except for his head.

I want to make it clear that I have several other breeds of chickens, including three other lines of Cubalayas. In all I have about 75 birds, as of right now. All of these other birds were raised and cared for in the same exact way the Ideal birds were cared for. The same food, the same living standards, the same water, the same everything, and not a single one of my other birds have ever had any symptoms like the condition that has killed off the Ideal birds. In the very same pen that I raised the Ideal chicks, I have raised 22 Cubalaya chicks from another hatchery, and not a single one of them has died or ever been sick.

What could this affliction be? It only affects the birds I got from Ideal and it does not appear to be contagious. I am at a total loss.

 

[Jungleexplorer]

Does anyone have any ideas what this could be? I am really desperate because I only have one birds left and I am trying to figure out what is doing this before it gets sick too.

 

[realsis]

because of the paralysis my guess would be Mareks disease. please look up Mareks disease and see if symptoms fit . Mareks is a very common and highly contagious airborne disease. you can protect against it by getting the chick vaccinated at hatchery or doing it yourself. once you have an outbreak you are going to have to disinfect EVERYTHING! it can even be in the soil from shed dander of infected bird. the very BEST advice i can give is to get a consult from a chicken professional. if you don't know of one i do. you can go online and go to first state vet. for 25 dollars and this will be money well spent to protect your flock and future flocks and neighbors flocks! you can get a consult with the chicken Dr. its Dr. peter brown.he can give good solid advice on what you should do and how to handle things from here on out if it is Mareks. you really should get professional advice because a LOT of misinformation is online regarding Mareks. they only way to be sure its Mareks is get a post moredum exam through the state. i believe its free not positive. they will do a neurcropsey ( i spelled that wrong) but the exam will confirm or deny the Mareks. its EXTREMELY important you get this done so you know if your dealing with Mareks for certain. once you know you can move forward from there. this is not to be taken lightly. the post mordom exam should be done for your sake your future flocks sake and your neighbors flocks sake! its that important! this way you know if your dealing with Mareks or not. i would get that consult and he can help you go from here. hopefully its not Mareks but it certainly sounds like it could be. I'm so sorry. please i urge you to get the bodies or body tested. if you don't and it IS Mareks you can infect your new flock as well as your neighbors flock as well . like i said its air born and the virus is shed off the birds. so I'd get a professional consultation and please send a bird that has expired off for testing! this way you can confirm or deny the existence of Mareks. i wish you the very best. this is too important to ignore. once the body is tested you will know for sure what your dealing with and can move forward from that point. only a post death test will confirm for certain weather or not its Mareks. this will give you a piece of mind knowing for certain what your dealing with! to me it sounds like Mareks. the symptoms are the same but the ONLY way to be certain is get the test! i hope this is helpful and please look up Marek's disease and see if symptoms seem to match in your opinion. good luck to you. it is strange it only effected those chicks also strange they had the vaccine. is it possible they were somehow exposed before the vaccine was given? this is very strange indeed. i would ask a professional opinion and do take a body for testing if possible. this way you can know for sure what is killing these birds and if your others are at risk.its very strange. this is the only way to know for certain whats going on.

 

[Jungleexplorer]

There are 2 reasons it cannot be mareks. They were vaccinated for Mareks by Ideal and none of my other 75 birds, all of which have not been vaccinated for mareks, have never shown any symptoms of mareks.

 

[realsis]

yes i read this its very strange. if i were you id get a post death exam to know exactly what your up against!! are you positive they were actually vaccinated?? if you get a post moredum exam and find out it IS Mareks id be pretty upset with that hatchery...Id hate to think you paid for the vaccine and didnt receive it.
only way you can possibly find out is get that exam... its worth it just to know what in the world your up against. even it its not mareks it would be nice to know what your dealing with!!! and if it is, .... well at least you will know..its best not to guess its probably best to get he exam so you know FOR CERTAIN. please keep us posted on whats going on. my thoughts are with you!!! hope all goes well!!!

 

[Jungleexplorer]

I have not found a vet in my area that deals with chickens. But my guess is that either the Maerks vaccine is what caused the conditon (since only the birds that got the vaccine died with these symptoms) or there is something genetically wrong with Ideals line of cubalayas.

 

[Zrcalo]

It also depends on how old the vaccine was when they were vaccinated. It could be that the whole reason ideals vaccinates against mareks is that they have it in their flock. If they got a bad batch of vaccine, and the vaccine didnt "take" they could have contracted it. Not only that, but there's a good chance they were actually /not/ vaccinated. I HIGHLY doubt it's the vaccine that caused the birds to die, as vaccines do not work that way. If anything, it was a defective and/or old batch of vaccine.. IF they were ever vaccinated.
Mareks only affects young birds as well. So that might be why your flock is currently fine.

 

[realsis]

i was reading in my chicken disease books and i found another disease that causes staggering and paralylsis then death! its Newcastle Disease. symptoms include diarrhea staggering like drunk paralysis then death. so again with a few major diseases it could be a post death exam might clear it up.

 

[Jungleexplorer]

Everything would make sense, if it were not for the fact that I was raising other chicks that I hatched out myself and bought from other hatcheries right along with the Ideal birds (and none of them had these symptoms). Another confusing thing is that the time in between the deaths of the birds, especially this last bird, which was over 4 months. In fact, the bird is still alive, but has not been able to move anything but it's head and neck for a week now. It still eats and drinks fine as if nothing was wrong with it. I have it in isolation of course, but it has been running with many other birds it's own age for months. It is these factors that throw a wrench into any theory about a contagious disease.

Like I said. It is a mystery. The only common factor is that all the birds that have died with these symptoms are from Ideal Hatchery. I just don't see how it could be anything but genetics. I have raised chickens on my place since 2006 and this is the only time I have seen anything like this.

 

[Miss Ashly]

I am just wanting to bump this because I am currently dealing with birds from Ideal that have come down with the same symptoms that you have described. I have already put one down, sending the other for necropsy.