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New to BYC- we have Marek’s :’(

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Swt T of chickadees said:
Hi, I’m Tracy and this is my first post. I found ya’ll through a link a friend (whom I met through TikTok) sent me regarding Marek’s disease.
I’ll begin by the six chickens we started with and after being told we couldn’t have chickens in the little country community we were living in, my hubby n I bought a little farm on 10 acres, 11 months ago. Of course the plan was to add more chickens which is exactly what we did in Feb 2023. We Added 53 chickens in less than 2 months and I had just ordered more chickies online (non refundable and arrived in early May), which totals 68 chickens, when we realized we had Marek’s disease, the end of April.

Ffwd to today, we have lost 25 birds in the past 6 months to Marek’s, along with losing 2 of our original chicken’s we started with we lost due to predator’s and 1 baby chick (from 1st added clutch) passed as a result from failure to thrive.

My husband and I have been married nearly our whole lives … haha.. (33 years), we have 3 grown daughter’s, all are married, 9 grandchildren (8 are living) and are ages 8 months-12 years of age. We are fairly young empty nesters so buying a little country farmhouse on 10 acres was an exciting decision to host all our young grand babies; and having a few farm animals, we believed, would be fun for us and for them.

Needless to say, I’ve cried a flood of tears, combatted an emotional breakdown as a result of so many losses and have missed hosting much of anything as we’ve poured ourselves into caring for and attempting to slow the spread of this evil disease (As well as spent a fortune attempting to doing so).

So here I am, a young chicken mom in the grand scheme of chicken keeping, who is trying to find the joy I dreamed about after falling in love with my first 6 chickens & then the idea of having a large flock.
In addition, we currently have 2 Boston terrier dogs, 6 baby turkeys (2 months old), and 4-six month old Emu’s (2 boys/2girls).
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Welcome to BYC!!
 
Welcome to BYC Tracy. I’m sorry you’re having a rough go of it!

You might consider deep cleaning your coop with Virkon S on a regular basis. If it’s confirmed Marek’s from a necropsy, it is shed in the dander of your birds. As long as you have your existing flock they may spread it to any new additions. Vaccines only hide symptoms, they don’t prevent it.

Here is an excellent article for you, hope it helps!

https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/the-great-big-giant-mareks-disease-faq.66077/
 
Tookie said:
Welcome to BYC, we're so glad you joined us! :frow

So sorry for all your losses, and that you have to deal with Mareks. I hope your flock does better soon and that they all stay healthy! :hugs:hugs
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Welcome to BYC!
So sorry you had to learn about adding birds the hard way.
You are not alone....this happens to a lot of people.
 

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