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

[CeeJ]

This is the 12 week old chick. Of course, he held his head perfectly the whole time I was taking pics. You can see his eye is clear and looks normal. His other eye is the same. on day 2 of his life he develop tremors (shaking all over). On day 3 he seemed paralyzed on one side and his head was twisted upwards and backwars. He couldn't eat or drink on his own. I thought he was a goner. I had called the breeder I had gotten the eggs from and she said she had that prob and gave chicks 2T of Duramycin in 1/2 gallon of water and they got better. So I mixed it up, gave it to all for 7 days. The lame chick I gave it by drooper full every hour throughout the night. I fell asleep at 5am and when I rushed out to check at 8, the lame chick was walking! He was fine until just a couple weeks ago, it looked like his twisted head thing was coming back. But then I realized it was different than before. This was a vision thing. Can MAreks cause this? He gets around great and I let him free range with the others when I am present. He even catches the occasional bug. But this morning he was in the dusting bath area, which is a circle made out of cut stumps arranged in a circle and filled with sand, and it too him almost an hour to figure out how to get out. He would walk right up to a stump and look up, but also tried to keep walking. Maybe he meed glasses for his up close vision, lol.

This eye doesn't look like occular Marek's at all. Your chick survived, what are it's symptoms now? Let me ask another thing, it looks like hay or straw for bedding, did you check this for mold before putting it in? There are fungals that chickens can pick up from hay or straw with mold in it. It wouldn't be the complete answer, but a start.

 

[CeeJ]

S

Your dept of ag vet is right, but the ones over a year old are becoming more common than they used to be.
I think it sounds like Marek's.  Some of mine have also seem to peck at the food but not pick it up.  It does seem like there's no depth perception.

You may want to try brooding your own eggs.  The hens may pass on some resistance.

ince the hatchery chicks have been so healthy, I was thinking of that again for spring. But when I get some broodies again I may try again. Right now the image of a coop full of 40 blind chickens has brought my chick planning to a screeching halt. I was so excited about adding some Cream Legbar for their large blue eggs, but now I am seriously debating whether I should add more of anything.

Oh my goidness! I just had an awful thought!!! I see eggs for eating. Do I have to stop? No buyer that I am aware of has any chickens, but it is a self-serve egg stand and I don't know everyone that buys yet.

Good grief. I struggle with all these thought, but then the Dept of Ag guy says, really Marek's is everywhere, like it's a natural part of having chickens. He said even if I cull them all, torch my coop (not likely as I just spent $6k on it in March) And waited 5 years, I'd likely see it again anyway. I never ever feel defeated. Until that statement.

 

[CeeJ]

I j

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Are you saying 2 tbls?  If you are saying 2 tbls. of Duramycin-10 to a half gallon of water, you are lucky any of them made it. 1 tbls. is 800mgs in a gallon of water and you tripled that. A word to the wise, if a breeder tells you to give a dosing like that or any dosing of an antibiotic because they also had the same problem?  Run!  The birds are diseased and will probably infect your whole flock.

 At 2 days of age?  No, it's not Marek's but it's some kind of a disease you got from the breeder from the sounds of it.  Please, if you can do this for giggles, I'd like you to get a bottle of human Super B Complex, it needs to be the Super B Complex, take a whole pill, crush it up and add it to a 1 gallon waterer.  Let them all have it.  In the meantime, I am going to be searching for whatever this could be.  Is it possible you have Marek's there?  Sure, but you have something more serious going on unless I miss my guess and in my opinion, it starts with the breeder.
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I just bought the Super B and will start in the morning. how long should I give this for? What does it do, how might it help?

 

[CeeJ]

One

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I j

Are you saying 2 tbls?  If you are saying 2 tbls. of Duramycin-10 to a half gallon of water, you are lucky any of them made it. 1 tbls. is 800mgs in a gallon of water and you tripled that. A word to the wise, if a breeder tells you to give a dosing like that or any dosing of an antibiotic because they also had the same problem?  Run!  The birds are diseased and will probably infect your whole flock.

 At 2 days of age?  No, it's not Marek's but it's some kind of a disease you got from the breeder from the sounds of it.  Please, if you can do this for giggles, I'd like you to get a bottle of human Super B Complex, it needs to be the Super B Complex, take a whole pill, crush it up and add it to a 1 gallon waterer.  Let them all have it.  In the meantime, I am going to be searching for whatever this could be.  Is it possible you have Marek's there?  Sure, but you have something more serious going on unless I miss my guess and in my opinion, it starts with the breeder.
[/quote

I just bought the Super B and will start in the morning. how long should I give this for? What does it do, how might it help?

One other thought. Mareks is a virus, correct? And as such an antibiotic wouldn't help. But in my case, that super strong dose of Duramycindid help. The chick was walking by morning. And no otger chicks developed any symptoms. Could be coincidence. Maybe none of the others would have developed symptoms anyway. But it does lead me to the next logical question. Is there a bacterial infection that can cause lameness, tremors and vision issues? Just a thought.

 

[seminolewind]

CeeJ, many of us on this thread have gone thru the same feelings. Thinking it's the end of the world. But it's not. You and everybody else can eat the eggs. No problem.

You can get vaccinated chicks from hatcheries, quarantine them for 2 plus weeks. I've done 6 weeks. If you hatch your own eggs under your own hens, they should be born with some resistance. If you get eggs from someone else, they got to be incubated and vaccinated.

You might save a lot of money if you buy an incubator and hatch your own Cream Legbars. And vaccinate. It is truly a lot more fun than getting chicks in the mail, LOL.

You may not have any control over what's happening now, but you can have control over what happens in the future. And be excited about your chickens. Don't let this nasty virus take the joy away from you.

 

[seminolewind]

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Eastern Equine Encephalitis has most of the same symptoms, that's a virus. Botulism has paralysis, but the affected chickens die within a day or two. So I'm not sure. Heck, if Duramycin worked, put them all on it. Won't hurt to try.

 

[alamb1]

Hello everyone. I have a problem with a couple of silkies that I think might be the neural form of mareks. I ordered them from a breeder. They were shipped overnight. They were in a box of their own, however, there were 3 more in another box attached to the sick silkie box. The two in question are black. They arrived Friday. I put them all five in a round pen for insepection. They all seemed fine except for the black pullet. She didn't seem interested in the food or water. I put the blacks in an isolation pen and the other three in another pen. Saturday I decided something was wrong with the black pullet. She was just laying around. Sunday she was very sick. Her head seemed to be retracted back and she wasn't eating or drinking. I started syringe feeding her nautical and water. I took her to the vet on Monday. He did a couple of X-rays to see if her neck or back we're broken. They looked fine. He thought maybe wry neck or an inner ear infection. Started her on antibiotics and meds for wry neck. She's not doing any better and kind of lists to one side or the other. Today when I came home from work the rooster was down. He seems to be similarly sick, without the head retraction. They both have pasty poop stuck to their feathers. I was told that the breeder vaccinates for mareks, but the breeder hasn't told me that personally. Do any of you have any insight or opinion as to what could be wrong with them?

 

[seminolewind]

How old are they? If they are around 6 weeks old, I would suspect Marek's. I hope you haven't contaminated the rest of your flock. Keep the new ones quarantined and change clothes and wash hands and change shoes to go out to your other chickens.

 

[alamb1]

How old are they?  If they are around 6 weeks old, I would suspect Marek's.  I hope you haven't contaminated the rest of your flock.  Keep the new ones quarantined and change clothes and wash hands and change shoes to go out to your other chickens.

The male was born in January and the female in March.

 

[TNBarnQueen]

How old are they? If they are around 6 weeks old, I would suspect Marek's. I hope you haven't contaminated the rest of your flock. Keep the new ones quarantined and change clothes and wash hands and change shoes to go out to your other chickens.

Karen..this is my friend I PMed you about. If all the other chickens are vaccinated her son will still be able to show won't he? I mean this is not a death sentence is it? Adults can be vaccinated can't they?