Not an Emergency...Marek's in the Flock

[Nambroth]

There's a farm in Texas that sells pullets and cockerels. His chicks come from Murray McMurray, who offer the newer vaccination. Shipping is very expensive, since the birds are older. After losing 7 of 9 supposedly vaccinated pullets/cockerels from a local breeder, I bought 9 chicks from MM. Of those, I have 8 healthy pullets and one recovering from Marek's.

If you are interested in the farm in Texas, I can dig up the contact info. I plan to buy a cockerel from him - I think it will cost ~$80 by the time I pay for shipping. Multiple birds would drive the cost down some.

After I have paid for the Marek's vaccine (HVT based, the old one) with shipping and syringes to myself twice over, I probably have over $100 in a single bird just vaccinating myself. $80 sounds like a deal for a sure sexed, healthy, vaccinated bird....

It feels stupid to say that for a hatchery bird, but this disease sure changes how I look at things!!

 

[schnebbles]

it definitely changes things! nothing can ever be normal. I was going to get 2 4 month old EE's from him and it was going to be about $100 shipping to Ohio so I didn't think that was bad either for a 4 month old, well started, vaccinated bird. I'd pay it, no doubt! I just wish he had bantams. I have such limited room, I'm just afraid the larger birds might be a little too much. Maybe not, I don't know. They would be twice the size of my silkie roo who is my 2# boy.

 

[KAT Bird]

Just wondering, anybody have a chicken that just stops eating? No other symptoms. I took her to the vet today, normal X-ray, lungs clear, heart good, bones good. Bright and alert but losing weight and won't drink or eat. I am tube feeding her now. She is one of my unvaccinated birds (only two left of the original nine) and I suspected Marek's but I don't see any neurological symptoms. No symptoms at all other than no appetite for food/water. Crop emptying normally when I tube feed her, poo is normal. I am perplexed...

 

[Harry Rooster]

Just thought I would try to reply since no one else has yet. I have not had one that just stopped eating for no reason except when they start to try to sit on eggs or go broody. They will not eat anything when they do that, but if yours is not trying to sit or going broody, I wouldn't know why. Have you tried giving her some treats like pasta, seedless grapes cut up, scrambled eggs, meal worm treats or something really enticing that she would like, to see if she would eat that? Sorry I can't be of much help, maybe someone else will chime in soon that knows more about things. Hope everything turns out okay and she regains her appetite soon. So sorry you're having to do the tube feeding. I've never done that and it would scare me to death to have to do that. You're a real trooper and good doc!

 

[KAT Bird]

Just thought I would try to reply since no one else has yet. I have not had one that just stopped eating for no reason except when they start to try to sit on eggs or go broody. They will not eat anything when they do that, but if yours is not trying to sit or going broody, I wouldn't know why. Have you tried giving her some treats like pasta, seedless grapes cut up, scrambled eggs, meal worm treats or something really enticing that she would like, to see if she would eat that? Sorry I can't be of much help, maybe someone else will chime in soon that knows more about things. Hope everything turns out okay and she regains her appetite soon. So sorry you're having to do the tube feeding. I've never done that and it would scare me to death to have to do that. You're a real trooper and good doc!

Thanks for the reply! I have tried meal worms, oatmeal, scratch, grapes, cantaloupe and greens. She won't eat.... The tube feeding was scary at first but after a successful attempt is gets easier each time for me...not the chicken. She sees me coming and tries to hide.

 

[KAT Bird]

FYI

So far Murray McMurray is the only hatchery I have found that vaccinates with all three Marek's strains, HVT, SB-1 and CVI 988. I wrote to Meyer in the hopes they might too but they only use the HVT vaccine. If anyone finds another hatchery that does all three, let me know!

Hi,

That is a very good question. This is what I found that we use for our Marek's vaccination:

It is FC-126 Strain (which is the parental HVT) Stereotype 3 live virus.

Let me know if you have any other questions.

Laura
[email protected]

 

[schnebbles]

I lost my silkie pullet Saturday. Found her dead in the coop. She never had paralysis but she quit laying and hung out under my deck steps a lot. It was weird. So, that's all of my pullets from last year

I'm getting 2 ee's from the guy in TX who gets birds from MurrayMcMurray and grows them out. They will be 10-16 weeks old. Expensive shipping but peace of mind will be nice.

I have 2 unvaccinated roos from last summer, I hope they stay ok. I really love them.

 

[KAT Bird]

Just thought I would try to reply since no one else has yet. I have not had one that just stopped eating for no reason except when they start to try to sit on eggs or go broody. They will not eat anything when they do that, but if yours is not trying to sit or going broody, I wouldn't know why. Have you tried giving her some treats like pasta, seedless grapes cut up, scrambled eggs, meal worm treats or something really enticing that she would like, to see if she would eat that? Sorry I can't be of much help, maybe someone else will chime in soon that knows more about things. Hope everything turns out okay and she regains her appetite soon. So sorry you're having to do the tube feeding. I've never done that and it would scare me to death to have to do that. You're a real trooper and good doc!

Still tube feeding Olivia twice a day. I put her outside with the other chickens today and she took several dust baths, scratched around, flew half way across the chicken pen, started a fight with another chicken (and won) and roosted with them at dusk. I removed her and put her back in the hospital pen so I could tube feed her dinner and breakfast. I will put her back out with the others for awhile tomorrow.

I bought her live crickets to try to entice her, she chased them, picked them up and spit them out.

Still a mystery as to why she has decided to stop eating/drinking on her own.

 

[casportpony]

So sorry.

-Kathy

 

[KAT Bird]

I lost my silkie pullet Saturday.  Found her dead in the coop.  She never had paralysis but she quit laying and hung out under my deck steps a lot.  It was weird.  So, that's all of my pullets from last year 

I'm getting 2 ee's from the guy in TX who gets birds from MurrayMcMurray and grows them out.  They will be 10-16 weeks old.  Expensive shipping but peace of mind will be nice.  

I have 2 unvaccinated roos from last summer,  I hope they stay ok.  I really love them.

That's where my Murray McMurray pullets came from. So far, so good. I bought some as started pullets and some as juveniles (I think they were around 8 weeks). I kept the juveniles in my house until they were around 30 weeks (not sure I could handle that again!) and the pullets I kept separated for about a month before I put them in the coop with my Marek's survivors. The started pullets have been out there since November and the juveniles went out about a month ago. All are doing great (fingers crossed) and laying eggs like crazy. We had one hiccup with a EE that got pecked in the head (as I later found out from the vet) she couldn't use her third eyelid on one side so she kept her eye shut and she stopped eating, became lethargic. I immediately thought "Oh no...Marek's" but as it turns out she just took a rather hard peck to the skull in some of the pecking order sorting out. 24 hrs after giving her Metacam for inflammation she was completely back to normal. Within 72 hours she was back outside. No other issues with them. If you want more of a color variety, contact him directly. Otherwise, they will likely all be brown. I still have his email address if you need it.