[non-emergency] Marek's Homeopathic Treatment - Video

[FowlPlayFox]

My hen is definately better this morning. She actually took a few steps to get into her crate and to her breakfast. This would not have been possible yesterday at all. Whether the pills are having any effect or if this is just the natural progression of the disease I don't know. The pills certainly don't seem to be hurting as she is improving. That is the hard to measure variable in homeopathic treatments....are the treatments themselves working or is it just the one-on-one, hands on care that causes improvement? Oh well, improvement is improvement I guess no matter the cause. If she continues to improve, my next decision will be - is there any harm in re-introducing her to the flock? If she was exposed to Marek's they must have been too, so I guess there is no harm in reuniting my flock. Any advice on that would be appreciated. If she does in fact go down hill again later, I'll deal with it then.

 

[Little Ameraucana Mom]

Here is another remedy someone gave me once


Treatment:
Every morning and evening
Put 3 or 4 cranberries – fresh if possible if not canned will be fine
1 whole Brazil nut, no shell of course
All into a blender and using a crop tube put into the hen’s crop
Or force-feed these items cutting the Brazil nut up into quarters to force feed to the hen

This will be all the protein and calcium she'll need for the day.

Instead of water put out a fifty fifty mixture of Pom wonderful and Gatorade.
If she can’t drink on her own you will have to soak a piece of bread and feed her that way or with an eyedropper. .
She will need about five tablespoons in the morning and three at night.

Evenings:
Poke a whole garlic clove down her gullet with two less cranberries.

This is a blood thinner.
You may want to also take the opportunity to spray her with one of the pet store versions of lice spray.
Parasites end up eating a bird in this condition alive, as they can no longer dust bathe.

Cranberry juice
Is used to treat urinary tract infections in people - it acidifies the urine, making the bladder unwelcome to bacteria

Pom wonderful:
Pom wonderful is a juice for people. They sell it in just about every supermarket. No water just Pom wonderful - use one part regular human strength Gatorade per three parts Pom wonderful
I have seen Pom juice in my local Asian market. Might call around or make a shopping trip though it is not something lots of people in my part of the world drink, it apparently is quite popular among those who have emigrated here from other parts of the world. I will have to try it some time.

 

[O.C.Chick]

OMG!!! I want to address the last four posts...I have too many comments but not enough time right now, so I'll do that a little later today...

But quickly, I just wanted to send an incredible '"THANK YOU!!!" to DLHUnicorn for all of the information provided!!!! What an incredible resource!!! All of you should check it out!

And FoulPlay, I'm sending good thoughts to you...Sounds at least a bit encouraging!

I'm afraid to check on my sick one yet. She's sleeping in my office.

I'll check in later. Thanks everyone!

 

[CityChicker]

Quote:
Actually, that's the thing- no, it's not a "hard to measure" variable. They either work or they don't. This *can* be tested scientifically and when it has been, homeopathics have failed miserably. I am thrilled for you that your hen seems to be doing better. I sincerely hope that continues. At this point, do you even know for sure whether or not she has Marek's? I remember one of those threads previously by Moody Chicken on Marek's and no offense, some of what she said was just absolutely completely wrong (like that it is a disease of adult birds and that young birds don't get it). I mean some of what she said was the polar opposite of what the illness even is, that kind of makes the rest of her advice suspect in my opinion. Anyway, no offense. I hope your bird recovers. I will be pulling for you and your girl! I just don't think people should get the false idea that something works, when the original advice is very suspect.

 

[O.C.Chick]

UPDATE: Well, sadly she seems even worse today. Her head is more crooked and her balance is further off as a result. Thought I coud rule out a deficiency, but just as a precaution I made a mix of: Brazil nut (for selenium), vit amin E cap, D3 & K2, Omega 3, cranberry extract, B complex & plain lowfat kefir for pro-biotics. Gave that to her this morning & no great progress. This evening did the same thing, but mixed in baby bird hand-feeding formula & carrot juice. Yes, I know probably too much stuff, but figured at this point it couldn't hurt. I'll let you all know what she's like in the morning.

But in the meantime, I want to be prepared for the worst although I pray it won't happen....If she is clearly suffering and I need to put her to sleep, I have a somewhat unethical question:

Is there any drug that I might have around my house that could put her to sleep easily, without pain? PLEASE don't tell me that I should break her neck, because that's not going to happen...I just couldn't do it. And I don't have a DH, or even a manly neighbor to help!!!...(Only Metro-sexual men in my neighborhood!) Could I give her a Xanax or some other pain killer I might have around from surgery a few years ago? Just want to be prepared, just incase.

Thanks for any info anyone can provide...If you give me the answer, chances are that I won't have to use it!!!!!

 

[O.C.Chick]

Oh I forgot, still giving her the Hypericum as well. And in yesterday's water I gave her some drops of PolyVisol (no iron) too, but it didn't seem to help since she was worse this morning

 

[cicene mete]

I really both chickens from this thread improve. I thought I'd share my personal experience, since I have had three members of my flock get Marek's Disease. The first one to get sick was an adult hen. She is a big, fat, BO. Honestly, I think that's what saved her. She was getting worse and worse, and we had made arrangements with the vet to have her put down. The day we were supposed to go in, she turned the corner and began to get better. It was a very slow process, but she did recover. I don't know what all that nonsense is about mortality being hundred percent, because she is still with us today (and a real pain in the butt!

). In fact, if you ask around, you will find many people on this board that can tell you that occasionally birds do recover. Yes, they will always be carriers, but so will the many birds ( some say nearly all) who have been exposed to Marek's but show no symptoms.

However, one of our pullets soon began to show symptoms. She got sicker and sicker and really struggled. After about two weeks, we could tell she was miserable. We took her to the UConn veterinary hospital where she was put down and had a necropsy performed. We confirmed what what we already suspected, it was Marek's. DW and I made a decision that day. Again, I'm not telling anyone what to do, and I hope people won't be too judgmental of us for what we decided. We decided: 1. We would vaccinate all new chicks. 2. We would put down any juvenile bird that began to show symptoms. If we didn't think they had enough weight to survive the starvation, especially if the neck became involved, we did not want them to go through the kind of suffering we saw in our pullet.

A short time later, another pullet began to show symptoms. DW and I put her down ourselves. It was definitely a horrible experience, but we used the broomstick method, and it was over in an instant.

Fortunately, we have had no more instances of Marek's. Because the disease is so widespread (some argue that it is omnipresent), a lot of BYC members will have to deal with it at one point or another. Again, I would never presume to tell someone else what to do, but I only want to share my experience as someone who has had 1 survivor and also lost 2 birds to the disease.

 

[chickbird]

O.C.Chick :

I wanted to share my gratitude for the BYC members that mentioned that a treatment for Marek's DID exist! Following is a link to a video of my chicken that the Vet said was going to die 10 days ago:

(Title: Appenzeller Recovering From Neurological Symptoms)

This is video of my 20 week old Appenzeller Spitzhauben sisters, one of which has been exhibiting symptoms of progressive paralysis of wings, legs, weakness and incoordination consistent with the neurological form of Marek's for the past 10 days. (Note: she is the lighter of the two sisters, with the lower tail-feather position and the drooping right wing) She had been unresponsive to a course of triple antibiotics prescribed by my vet, who said that if it WAS Marek's, she would be dead soon. She had continued to decline to the point that she could barely keep her balance or hold her wings up. Although she was eating well, I was beginning to lose hope.

Luckily, I stumbled upon several older threads that mentioned a homeopathic remedy, and I figured I had nothing to lose by trying it. That was yesterday....

Since then, I have given her three doses of homeopathic 'Hypericum Perforatum 30x', and she has shown a remarkable improvement within 30 hours!

Her coordination and energy are almost back to normal, and the wing droop is only evident on the right side, and has improved dramatically. I don't think that this is just a coincidence. I wish I had taken video of her yesterday...You would not believe that this is the same bird! Her rapid change in energy and coordination is pretty amazing!

I should also mention that I have been giving her probiotics and ACV water in between antibiotic doses, and gave her 1/2 of a raw Brazil nut yesterday (for selenium and B vitamins), and raw organic juice mixed with water both yesterday and today. Not sure if this made any difference, but thought it worth mentioning.

I will update her progress, which I hope will continue to improve! Wish me luck and say a prayer for my little Dottie.

With much hope and gratitude,

Alys

i have a chicken like this now and i think it is marek's, she is weak. unable to stand, lies on her side, i purchased 5 hens from a man and this is the 3rd of the hens that this has happened to...i think they were all infected... what probiotic are you using , are you using acidipholius like humans take??? i'm going to try your therapy with the herb... i'd like to know from you or the readers,,,,if your flock has not been vaccinated for marek will this continue to infect other poultry???? i was reading something today that said vitamin deficiency can cause symptoms like this and cause something called crazy chick disease..i live in an area where we do no have a vet knowledgeable in poultry diseases and it is so frustrating to have something like this and not know how to help the chicken, i allow my chckens to free range and feed a good quality food that is always available.​

 

[FowlPlayFox]

Thank you so much cicene mete; your post gives me some hope as last night my hen seemed very strong. She was a pretty fat wyandotte to start with so maybe that is working to her advantage. Also the fact that yours was reintroduced to your flock no problems, was great to hear!

OC Chick - I am so sorry to hear your hen is not doing better, I was really pulling for her. I too would be in a similiar situation if I needed to euthanize a bird, my husband would probably be as useless as I would be. I heard on here about some people putting the birds in a garbage bag with some sort of alcohol that puts them sleep and then kills them. I don't know though...if there was any type of struggle inside that bag, I couldn't do it. I think if it ever comes to that for me, I'll just have my vet do it. Sure, some people might consider it a waste of money...but just think of the emotional trauma you'll save yourself, not to mention saving the bird from a failed attempt on your part. Even if you found a drug around the house to give her, what if it caused suffering first that lingered. The broomstick is what I have heard people on here use a lot and it is apparently quick, painless, and easy enough....but I'd be afraid I'd mess it up. As much as I wouldn't want to watch it...maybe there is a video out there demonstrating it, and maybe it is fool proof.

 

[O.C.Chick]

Cicene Mete: I'm so sorry you had to go through that, and I'm glad that at least one of your birds pulled through. My little gal is so thin that I don't think she has that advantage. I'm dreading going into my office to check on her this morning so am putting it off 'till after another cup of coffee.

ChickBird: I encourage you to check out DLHUnicorn's website, an incredible resource for information:
http://dlhunicorn.conforums.com/index.cgi

Also, Merck Veterinary Manual / Poultry:
http://www.merckvetmanual.com/mvm/index.jsp?cfile=htm/bc/toc_200000.htm

LittleAmeraucanaMom: Thanks, I had seen that other remedy too. I did give her the cranberry and brazil nuts, as well as a bunch of vitamins to help with neurological symptoms just incase. You need to be careful with the brazil nuts though...Depending on where they are grown, they can have SO much selenium in just one nut, it could potentially cause poisoning.