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

[salt and pepper]

I'll be honest, I feel horrible that I've gone to the feed store without thinking about spreading something. Never got an autopsy on my birds, so I can't know for sure if they have it, but will definitely be more careful! Just went through a week of taking care of my Friends birds, and it was HORRIBLE trying to make sure I kept my flock separate ( for my birds protection, not for his ) Most of the things my birds have had, his had it first, and still have most of it, so not really worried about my birds making his birds sick, but the other way around. So far all my birds are awesome, and am looking for that first blue egg. Praise the Lord!
God Bless

 

[hogster160]

I'll be honest, I feel horrible that I've gone to the feed store without thinking about spreading something. Never got an autopsy on my birds, so I can't know for sure if they have it, but will definitely be more careful! Just went through a week of taking care of my Friends birds, and it was HORRIBLE trying to make sure I kept my flock separate ( for my birds protection, not for his ) Most of the things my birds have had, his had it first, and still have most of it, so not really worried about my birds making his birds sick, but the other way around. So far all my birds are awesome, and am looking for that first blue egg. Praise the Lord!
God Bless

I think the not knowing would do me in. I have always been that way. If something broke, why? Had to figure it out. lol Drove my parents crazy. My hubby too! So I will have the necropsy done. I just have to know.

Well maybe, from this, we can all learn that we need to better protect our birds. I am very glad to hear your birds are doing so well at the moment. I was hoping for blue and green eggs, and so far I'm getting 3 green and no blue. It was very awesome! Praise the Lord indeed!

 

[pysankigirl]

I think the not knowing would do me in. I have always been that way. If something broke, why? Had to figure it out. lol Drove my parents crazy. My hubby too! So I will have the necropsy done. I just have to know.

I am like that too. I cant deal with a mystery. I HAVE to know. I like everything known and everything out in the open. I am one of those people with whom there is no mystery. I am all out there, heart and mind on sleeve.


Turns out I don't have Mareks, but I might have MG (here is my thread: https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/796700/living-with-mg ) I am hoping to do the blood testing next week for my whole flock and see how bad a situation I am in. but there are people who want me to cull my entire flock just because of the MG, which I find bizzarre because of how mild the symptoms (or lack thereof) are.

I will test for MS, too now that I know my one girl doesn't have Mareks. (she hasn't really improved much, BTW, on the vitamins or antiboitics)

is there anything else I should test her for that you can do a blood test on? I'd rather not kill her for a real necropsy, but am considering it. (but she still seems happy enough...)

 

[casportpony]

I'm hoping that I find it to be true in my case. $300 for necropsy is gonna hurt the pocket book! Purdue charged $88 + $10 fee for each necropsy. Then the gas to get there, its 2 hours one way. If it is indeed free, I'll go there, but if not, I'll get the blood drawn and send it to Texas.

No need to drive, just euthanize if not already dead and ship, that's what I do. Be sure to calll them and ask if you can use their FedEx account number to save on shipping.

-Kathy

 

[casportpony]

Casport, you are lucky in that. As you know most of the time I have to cull the poor things because of the blindness and have only had a couple who have been allowed to go to the end. Maybe that's the difference, do yours actually lose their vision? Mine do within a week after the change or they will just drop. I'd really like to figure this one out or have someone explain it to me.

The ones that have obvious ocular changes seem like they can still see, they find food, water and their roosts just fine and none have lost any weight.

-Kathy

 

[Haunted55]

Thanks for those links, I did not have them and will look into getting some oxine.

I only have 2 acres, and really only use 1, the other acre is used to grow feed. So do you think I can still do it? Raise a second flock? I'd also need a rooster to get fertile eggs, and so on. I'm guessing another coop as well. Hmmm I wonder if my hubby will go for this? I think hes ready to throw in the towel lol. We really only wanted a few chickens for some eggs lol, now it sounds like if we want to continue, we will have lots of chickens. Can we still get growers? or will they fall to MD as well? ugh! How long did it take to get to the 8th generation? I really wasn't planning on hatching my own but if I can and get them to be safe from MD I might try it.

It takes 5 months before chicken is able to lay, generally, then the first eggs, fertilized or not, shouldn't be used for hatching. Let them get it right before you do that. So say a month, that means you could probably do 2 hatches a year. So for the full 8th generation it would be 4 years. On a good day. I have 2 hatches already, one from the survivors and one from the survivors children. It's confusing so I call them Control Group1 and their young Control Group 2. As soon as #2 is ready I will be hatching their eggs for the 3rd group and so on. The trouble is going to be who do you keep from these hatches and who ends up in the soup pot. I have a beautiful roo from the first group. Seriously fantastic bird and will keep him. The second group is still young and I haven't been able to really get a good look at their potential yet. I have to look at it this way...they are an experimant, they are there to get babies that have resistance to the strains of Marek's here. If I happen to get a bird that is a keeper, more good for me, but not the objective. Sounds so cold but it really isn't. The control groups of mine are a cross of dark cornish, australorp, ameraucana, black jersey giant and golden comet. There is something about the DC that has a resistance to the Marek's naturally, no clue what, but it has proven itself to me time and again. They are loved and cared for as a pet rather than livestock. That's just me and I don't have anything against people who don't agree. some as i said will end up being processed for their meat. I brought in new birds this year so that I could later introduce new blood to the mix. You can't keep using the same stock over and over and get birds who are strong and healthy even if they do show resistance to Marek's. There are a whole bunch of other things I feel are a lot worse and you will get them eventually without new stock being added to the mix. All of these birds were vaccinated except the meaties. I thought it had hit one of them, but it in fact turned out to be a broken leg instead. So yeah, you can do it, just keep them away from each other. Let's face it, a meaties life span isn't all that long to begin with. Unless you have an extremely virulent strain of Marek's there, chances are even if exposed, they would just be showing symptoms when processing time came round. I feel a non issue. The herpes virus that causes this isn't one human can get so another non issue. Having your husband agree with this??? Lol! sorry, you're on your own with that one. I can tell you a truth though. Let's say he decides he wants to cull them and start over. Well, in all honesty, you can't. Sure, you can get vaccinated birds and clean everything up really well, but depending on the type you have there and whether it's mutated or not, your birds could still die. Thinking about your neighbors, especially the older woman, you may be doomed before you even try a second time. If she has an outbreak there, she is close enough that anything airbourne is going to find it's way to your birds. So his choices would be deal with the hand dealt you or give up completely. The vaccination for Marek's will most times keep the birds from having the problems that cause death from the virus, but doesn't keep the birds from getting it or shedding the virus later on if they do get the disease. And you would never know if they had it or not because they are not symptomatic. Lol, yeah, TMI to say the least.

 

[casportpony]

Here is a copy and paste from a post of mine:

How to Send a Bird for a Necropsy​

They need the whole bird, not frozen. If you live in CA, there are four labs that do necropsies on poultry (chickens, turkeys, waterfowl) for free. I know that they do out of state necropsies, but I think they charge for those. You could call them and ask what they charge for out of state "backyard poultry". The lab I use is the one in Tulare, CA.

CAHFS
Attn: Dr. Shivaprasad
18830 Road 112
Tulare, CA 93274-9042
(559) 688-7543
(559) 686-4231 (FAX)
[email protected]


The other labs are listed here:
http://www.cahfs.ucdavis.edu/services/lab_locations.cfm

If it's Friday, unless you want to overnight for Saturday delivery, I would suggest shipping on Monday for Tuesday delivery. What you need to do, if you haven't already done so, is put your hen in your refrigerator, NOT the freezer! Then you need to find a box, line it with styrofoam (I use the 4'x8'x1" stuff from Home Depot. You can also get smaller pieces at an art store like Michael's, but is way more expensive. Click here to see foam options. You'll also need at least one ice pack. Here are some pictures that I took of the last bird that I sent:

Box lined with foam on four sides and bottom. Seams of foam taped sealed.


Box, sides, bottom and and top.


Frozen ice pack in ziplock baggie.


Brown paper on top of ice pack.


Hen in ziplock baggie on top of brown paper.


Brown paper on top of hen.


Ice pack on top of brown paper.


Lid on top of brown paper.
​

Inside the box you should also include a submission form in a ziplock baggie. Do not tell anyone at FedEx that you're shipping a dead animal... that seems to really worry them. Just make sure that nothing will leak.

 

[hogster160]

I am like that too. I cant deal with a mystery. I HAVE to know. I like everything known and everything out in the open. I am one of those people with whom there is no mystery. I am all out there, heart and mind on sleeve.


Turns out I don't have Mareks, but I might have MG (here is my thread: https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/796700/living-with-mg ) I am hoping to do the blood testing next week for my whole flock and see how bad a situation I am in. but there are people who want me to cull my entire flock just because of the MG, which I find bizzarre because of how mild the symptoms (or lack thereof) are.

I will test for MS, too now that I know my one girl doesn't have Mareks. (she hasn't really improved much, BTW, on the vitamins or antiboitics)

is there anything else I should test her for that you can do a blood test on? I'd rather not kill her for a real necropsy, but am considering it. (but she still seems happy enough...)

I'm so new to chickens I don't even know what MG or MS is. But if its anything like MD I would be hesitant to continue. As I am right now. I sure hope you find out exactly what your flock has.

 

[Haunted55]

I am like that too. I cant deal with a mystery. I HAVE to know. I like everything known and everything out in the open. I am one of those people with whom there is no mystery. I am all out there, heart and mind on sleeve.


Turns out I don't have Mareks, but I might have MG (here is my thread: https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/796700/living-with-mg ) I am hoping to do the blood testing next week for my whole flock and see how bad a situation I am in. but there are people who want me to cull my entire flock just because of the MG, which I find bizzarre because of how mild the symptoms (or lack thereof) are.

I will test for MS, too now that I know my one girl doesn't have Mareks. (she hasn't really improved much, BTW, on the vitamins or antiboitics)

is there anything else I should test her for that you can do a blood test on? I'd rather not kill her for a real necropsy, but am considering it. (but she still seems happy enough...)

I wouldn't cull for MG either. You just have to take the same precautions we with Marek's do is all. Something interesting...MG is one of those that can be transferred through the egg as well. Some of the offspring will be carriers of the disease and some will not and will be immune. It again is one that can be bred out through subsequent hatchings. I don't remember how long it takes and will have to find the articles I read. The tetracycline drugs are the ones most often used and prescribed for outbreaks of this.

 

[hogster160]

Here is a copy and paste from a post of mine:

Thank you for this.

Deb