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

[NJchixs]

Bertha and Lucille (the red head) I still miss them terribly....

They where beautiful.

 

[Nambroth]

So sorry Kat-- they were both very lovely. I understand the pain you have gone though.

 

[casportpony]

Here's Wingman with his ocular Marek's eye and purple comb.



-Kathy

 

[seminolewind]

Bertha and Lucille (the red head) I still miss them terribly....

They are choking me up! There's some days I really couldn't look at mine's pictures.

 

[KAT Bird]

They are choking me up!  There's some days I really couldn't look at mine's pictures. 

I know what you mean about the pictures. Being a first time chicken owner, a I took A LOT of them. But that reminded me that I do have a few pictures of them when they were symptomatic. I would email them to my vet. I'll post them....in case someone else's birds are doing the same things.

 

[KAT Bird]

This was Bertha panting and with her wings dropped. This was her first symptom. She would do this at night and I believe she may have had a fever because I would roll an ice pack up in a towel and let her sit on it and she would stop. The panting actually got better but then she had a hard time getting up. She never lost the ability to walk but she could only walk short distances before she would sit back on her haunches to rest. She didn't lose her balance and never wing walked. At one point I put another chicken, Sophia, in with her because she was developing similar symptoms and Bertha found the strength to peck her on the head and grumble loudly that she didn't want her around! So Sophia was removed and I had multiple cat and dog crates stacked up with sick chickens in them. Bertha lost her desire to eat and started wasting. I did try to hand feed her but she hated it and after I got the necropsy results back from Lucille, I decided not to force her to eat. While I was at the vet's he did check her stool (I think he was hoping maybe she had parasites not Marek's) and he said no parasites but there was a lot of blood (not enough to be visible to the naked eye) in it.

 

[KAT Bird]

Lucille's first symptom was shutting her eyelid on one eye. At first we thought something was in it or it got pecked/scratched. I took her to the vet and she was treated with eye medication and Ivermectin (suspected maybe mites?). Her pupil never really changed to an irregular shape, but stopped responding to light. It did get cloudy and she was blind in that eye. She kept that eyelid closed. One strange thing she did was walk in circles, a lot. In the beginning I thought it was because she could only see out of one eye. But later she went blind in both eyes and kept them both shut...still she always walked in circles. I taught her to find her food and water dish by tapping on it and she had an appetite right up until two days before she passed away.

 

[pwand]

Lucille's first symptom was shutting her eyelid on one eye. At first we thought something was in it or it got pecked/scratched. I took her to the vet and she was treated with eye medication and Ivermectin (suspected maybe mites?). Her pupil never really changed to an irregular shape, but stopped responding to light. It did get cloudy and she was blind in that eye. She kept that eyelid closed. One strange thing she did was walk in circles, a lot. In the beginning I thought it was because she could only see out of one eye. But later she went blind in both eyes and kept them both shut...still she always walked in circles. I taught her to find her food and water dish by tapping on it and she had an appetite right up until two days before she passed away.

When I had picked up these hatchery chicks, one was spinning in circles in the box. I wasn't sure what was going on, as she got a little older, I noticed her eyes were odd looking, as it turned out she was blind In one eye, her pupils were odd shaped, she later had a cataract covering the bottom half of her eye. She would spin in circles when she gets stressed, she would look at you in a sideways glance. I had always felt she was injured at the factory. She was obviously partially blind in the beginning, but the question always is did she have Marek's. My understanding they develop that later. I notice another pullets eye was weird, two other pullets had crocked toes, it was a bad batch from the hatchery. Here's a picture of her at I think 12 weeks.

 

[casportpony]

Wingman's Cutaneous Marek's tumors.

Spoiler: Graphic pics

-Kathy

 

[casportpony]

Wingman's Liver.

Spoiler: Graphic pics

-Kathy