Necropsy photo's **GRAPHIC** Marek's disease, for info

[coach723]

How do u know that they having mareks?

Because I have confirmed Marek's in my flock. I've lost a fair amount of birds so have become familiar with what it looks like, as opposed to reproductive type cancers. My cases, thus far, have been the visceral or occular form of the disease. I have one currently that may have mild signs of paralysis, but it has not progressed beyond a slight hitch in her step and raising her foot high. May be something else, but I'm watching.

 

[TwoCrows]

Gosh I am so sorry.

 

[coach723]

This is one of my hens, fairly certain she has it also, but the eye looks a bit different. She also raises one foot up sometimes and shakes it (fairly often), like she thinks something is stuck to it, so possible neural also. Edit, forgot to add, she's 10 years old.

 

[Saaniya]

This is informational for those that may have never dealt with this.
I have Marek's in my flock, most of my symptomatic birds have had occular symptoms, I have not had a bird with the common paralysis.
This bird was acting normally until 4 days ago, illustration of how well they can hide disease. No occular symptoms in this bird, no paralysis.
Found her standing with eyes closed, and a doughy crop. When I picked her up she was very thin. She was wormed in mid March and I did not note any issues then.
Treated to try to get the crop moving. Nothing was passing through her, even fluids, she was bringing everything back up even when not being handled. One small abnormal dropping in 48 hours, she was severely dehydrated and I could not get fluids in her. So I culled and opened her up. I did not send off for necropsy since I already know I have Marek's. This is what Marek's can do to a bird. Sorry for some pics that are blurry, was doing this rather quickly. As you can see she had tumors everywhere, liver wasn't too bad, but did have tumors, heart and lungs likewise, but everywhere else was affected. Gizzard was huge and crammed full (you can see it in the first picture), lower digestion had just stopped, her intestines were very impacted by tumors.
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How do u know that they having mareks?

 

[Tankueray]

Curious...I don't suppose you've ever run into any information that might indicate a particular strain that presents with low/no incidence of follicle or paralysis versions? Even anything anecdotal to your area/breed/etc.? Would any of your flock be related to breeders that were vaccinated?

Because of the, um, "quality" of most of the information out there*, most people I talk to in real life that have never seen it think that all the symptoms have to happen at the same time. (*Or the people providing the information being considered experts when in reality their expertise lies with industrial farming and they've never actually encountered it.)

I've never seen ocular, only maybe two cases of follicle, and most commonly paralysis or a history of suppressed immunity allowing them to come down with all manner of weird ailments. I'll soon have more opportunity to survey folks with more relevant experience - mostly for my own insatiable thirst for knowledge, but it would be interesting if any patterns were to emerge.

 

[coach723]

I can only speak to my flock, I've had mostly occular symptoms, a few visceral ones. The occular ones have been very slow progression, I haven't culled for it. The visceral ones have been much faster to die, at least once they are sick enough that I know, and I'm not sure til I open them up. But symptoms are a bit different than my birds that have succumbed to other cancers. I know there are different strains, I personally haven't had any with the progressive paralysis. Yet. I haven't (yet) been able to determine if one breed or another is better in my case, they've been kind of all over the place between mixes and 'pure' breeds. I certainly don't consider myself an expert, just am dealing with my own little world here, can only say what I've seen. So I don't know whether strain of virus makes more difference than individual genetics or immune systems. A lot of the information out there seems very 'boiler plate', and I always have questions that I don't seem to find answers for. I just read what I can find, try to learn that way, and from what I find with my own birds, and from posts here. For now I'm sticking with it and trying to make it work and breed for resistance. Won't know how that goes for a long time, I'm afraid. Have some growing out right now (my own hatch), and am watching closely to see when/if any show any symptoms. I've got cockerels that have to go, but hopefully I will get one or two that don't have any symptoms and they will be the keepers. I haven't gotten any vaccinated birds as I have concerns about the leakiness of the vaccine, I'd rather deal with the devil I know. At least for now.