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

[Nambroth]

Seminole - thanks - my vitamins have electrolytes so I'll just continue giving them water mixed with that and vitamin b, maybe for winter to hopefully keep them strong and resistant.

Jennifer - you could also add firststatevetsupply to the places you can get vaccine. that's where I got mine. He does currently have issues with the website, apparently certain browsers don't cooperate but I called and got it. I didn't read the whole mareks page you wrote, but it looked nice!

Got it, added!!

 

[seminolewind]

Nambroth, first off, it is a great pleasure and a goose-bump giver to read Marek's information that's correct.

Especially when there's so much mis information out there.

The coop that's half a shed. I can spray down the chicken side, but the other side has covered furniture, and 2 fans, and a bunch of junk that I can't let go of.

 

[deville]

Hey there. just wanted to post where I'm at with a mareks battle:

Several months ago I wrote in and got some advice, have lived through marek's now, and want to re-tell my story. I had about 50 birds...silkies, layers, and crested polish. All started as babies, was into it 1&1/2 years, Then I bought 3 adult crested polish from a breeder/shower for $25 each. They were so cute, I just had to have them. Big mistake. They were the source and I now know I bought her rejects ( so to speek) that were carriers but resistant to mareks. One by one, month by month, my birds died slowly, mostly wasting with some paralysis. Towards the end I gave about 12 layers away to live out their dying days at a friends who had no problem accepting them disease and all, and I kept about 6 strong ones hoping they would be fine. Then a couple of those wasted too so I made the decision to cull the rest (this stunk) and try to start over. I pressure washed my chicken house inside and out. Then I sprayed it using a backpack sprayer with liquid lysol and water to the point of runoff. Then I pored both hydrolized and garden lime over walls , floors, and the outside pen. Some of this I tilled in, some not.. There are still some chunks of the hydrolized lime out there because it was caked and never really mixed in all the way. Then I shut down this coop and let it bake in the sun over June, July, and August.
Meanwhile I was raising chicks from the old birds that I culled, and bought some new ones online which I had vaccinated. Plus I bought some more at the local feed store. I raised them in a new place, up wind from the old coop. At the end of August they were between 4-8 months of age and I moved them into the old coop. It's October now and there are no signs of Mareks (fingers crossed).
All are healthy, eating well, and no one is acting strange. Could I have kicked this disease out??? I hope so. Culling was not easy, so I hope I made a corrective decision. I'm hoping that a live carrier is more of the cause then shedded virus in the soil and surroundings. Just wanted to share. We'll see what happens in a month or two.

 

[seminolewind]

Deville, thanks for updating. We all learn so much from it. I'm sorry you lost so many chickens.

You may have done the right thing in reducing the concentration of Marek's in the area. On top of that, your vaccinated chicks have resistance, and your chicks from your exposed chickens have resistance. Are the feedstore chicks vaccinated?

I do believe that chickens have a better chance if the concentration of virus is very low. But I would have to say that it's not gone, it's everywhere that chicken dust could have possibly blown. All that disinfecting and cleaning can only help.

 

[schnebbles]

Gosh, I hope it does a LOT of good!

That doesn't give me much encouragement tho...I started with 8, now have 5. One loss was probably not mareks tho. I can't stand the thought of losing any more.

 

[schnebbles]

So, my last pullet death didn't appear at all like the other 2 who had mareks. Could she have had it and that's what made her lose so much weight when I thought it was all respiratory? She didn't have paralysis but didn't move much, I thought she was weak from not eating.

Got to thinking on this after I read Deville's post.

 

[seminolewind]

Schnebbles, Yes, I think she could have been wasting and the respiratory may have been secondary due to low immunity/resistance.

 

[schnebbles]

Thanks Seminole. It really never occurred to me until I read the post by Deville.

 

[seminolewind]

I had a hatch where 5 died of necrotic enteritis or eye infection. Happened so fast. And these were 8 week olds that had been vaccinated twice.

 

[seminolewind]

Husband comes in this morning and says that one of my 8 month old roos, from a resistant mom, has a leg sticking straight out, and wing down. I think in the past the 8th month mark has been the age where I've had Marek's symptoms.

I think Haunted has seen certain ages have more 1st symptoms than others. His brother looks okay so far. I'm not so attached to him, so I'll have to cull him today.