Neurological symptoms quick death

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Thank you for being so willing to give detailed information. Many people will not, and it makes helping them tedious and frustrating. Knowing your location enables me to look up insects and other creatures that reside there that can be dangerous to chickens.

I was surprised you have a few insects that can kill chickens. One caterpillar you have looks very similar to one I have here that has killed baby chicks of mine, causing paralysis and death. Look this over and see if any look familiar and might be lurking there. https://njoycostabrava.com/dangerous-creatures-catalunya/
 
A little update: the mystery continues.

My two currently affected roosters have neither gotten worse nor better.

Since I hadn't had any incidents for weeks I had given away some of the young ones and now one of those I gave away has symptoms as well. Age, about 12 weeks. I asked the owner to check for lice and she said there were none.

My going theory was that it was either the lice itself or a disease transmitted by lice similar to fowl pox but if this one is louse free that's also not likely. In any case it's already been away from here for 3 weeks so it has been carrying this whatever it is with it for that long? Could it be some parasite?

I spoke to another friend and farm owner whose partner is a vet, and they had similar casualties when raising chicks last year. They tried vitamins to no avail, but they did say that some recovered on their own. I'm not sure this is the same thing though.

I'm getting really frustrated with this. I can't be sure the animals are healthy at all with it spreading so slowly. Also the animals generally look good with red combs, eating and drinking normally, even once the sympoms set in. Only the tails are a little down sometimes.

So, should I try a dewormer? I have levamisol or I can try to get something different. Any recommendations for something I can buy in Europe? Ivermectin I read isn't very effective anymore, is it?
 
Another update in case anyone still cares.

I culled one of the staggering roosters and had a cursory look inside. I didn't find anything my untrained eye would find abnormal, except that his intestine seemed bloated compared to a healthy roo I culled simultaneously. I had a closer look and found many small white worms inside.

They were about 1cm long max. Not sure if those were babies or a smaller type of roundworm from the ones I usually see in the poop in my adult flock. Anyway I decided to give the entire coop levamisol to see what happens.

I have several areas for my chicks/ juveniles and I only did one batch for now to see how it goes. This group was showing increased lethargy and droopy tails surprisingly. I had not really seen it as a wide spread thingso far.

If it is related to worms how soon can I expect to see improvement?

Thanks
 
Glad you found out what the problem is.

Worms will deprive their hosts of vital nutrients and damage their intestines, so it will take a while for them to recover and rebuild a healthy gut microbiom.

Depending on the dewormer used they might even get worse prior to recovering due to the toxins the dying worms expel, but this will depend on the amount of worms present and can be seen when there is a severe worm infestation.

After deworming you can add poultry vitamins to their water for a few fays and prepare Moro carrot soup to give for three days.
It helps to restore a healthy gut. But add only half the amount of salt mentioned as chickens have sensitive kidneys.

https://www.ency123.com/2015/09/natural-remedy-for-diarrhea-professor.html?m=1
 
Heh, I don't know if this is the problem or just one of many exacerbating circumstances. There still might be something additional causing the lameness, but I'm relatively certain the worms aren't improving the situation. Got to treat what I can and keep eliminating the suspects I guess.

Thanks for the carrot soup idea
 
So, after several more cases I've come to the conclusion that, despite the early onset of the disease in some, it's Mareks.

It's been going through about 60% or more of my chicks, now close to POL. In fact I might still lose more and don't know if I'll be left with any at all. Just recently my cochins started showing symptoms, I had a 4 week old silkie with neck paralysis and an almost 1yr old layer started limping and has a deformed pupil. That last part was what confirmed it for me. The immunosuppression, unthriftiness of the young ones and all that suddenly all makes sense. The worst part for me is that every time I think the ones that are left are the strong ones, the survivors, I find out they were just slower to succumb.

I'm reading up on breeding for resistance, but that would require me to have at least some survivors. The numbers however are dwindling.

I really hope the ducks start laying soon...
 
I would do a blood test to confirm. Or have a vet, if you have access to one, do a full panel. I also think there are places online you can send blood samples and they’ll do tests for you. BirdIQ might be one of them.
 
Although it wouldn't be precisely definitive, if you cut open a deceased bird and look at the liver, lymphoid leucosis would present with an enlarged liver often covered in tiny white tumors. If you find a normal liver, then that would add weight to this being Marek's.
 

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