We bought the property in July/Aug 09 with the chickens. One got sick and died right after we bought the place. Now i suspect that was Marek's also based on similar symptoms. All those chickens were from an original flock approximately 3 to 4 yrs old. I bought 2 more chickens( 9 months old) after the first one died. One of those chickens was attacked by a red-tail hawk and had her breast skinned, but completely recovered. If she had the Marek virus in her i would think the stress of the attack would have made her sick. No other chickens sick so far. I just thought i should post the results because i see a lot of people with a limping chicken. She did not act like she was in pain except for the non-functioning leg. She was off her feed so I force fed her a mixture of scrambled egg, yogurt, oatmeal, applesauce, and a little honey. Her poops were a brighter green than normal. She would happily cluck when she saw me. I kept her going for a month or so because i thought she had some improvement some days. Then the leg progressed to sticking out straight behind her looking just like the photo in the vet manual of a chickens posture with Marek's. That's when i culled and sent the body for necropsy. Marek's is spread in the dander and feathers of the birds, so i probably will never be able to disenfect it out of my coop. Hope this helps someone.
