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

[BigECarter]

There are stories of chickens recovering. My pullet, Ursula, could not stand at all. But she was my daughters favorite pullet, and even when paralyzed was a happy girl. So, we kept putting off culling her. Eventually she recovered, but she was a house chicken for several months. It was a difficult transition back with the flock.

Ursula was vaccinated for Marek's as a chick so I think that made a big difference. Also she (presumably) didn't have the tumors.

 

[seminolewind]

BigECarter, that's interesting because I had one do that too and she was vaccinated. But she's been laying for 2 years now.

Ladyrsanti, I've seen every combination. Several having paralysis and walking again for a week then paralysis again. Most of the time I also see a loss of perception. Like they go to eat food and can't "connect" with it. I've had a few that got the crop paralysis. If you look at the bottom of my post, there's a link to a Big Marek's FAQ created by Nambroth.

Generally I see paralysis spread upward to the wings and the neck. They fall on their face and can't get up. Very sad. I think they all have wasting (weight loss) whether eating or not.

If you got a pullet in mid June, it would make sense that the timing of her getting symptomatic is within a common range, 8 weeks or so. So chances are that you had it in your flock.

From the time my "Marek's carrier" joined my flock, my first paralysis was at about 8 weeks. Then a chicken would waste and die every few months, but never had symptoms until a day or so before dying and that was sleeping a lot.

I think you'll just have to wait and see or send a dead chicken for a necropsy. There are several diseases that have similar symptoms to Marek's, such as Aspergillosis, which is supposedly common.

 

[ladyrsanti]

Thanks for the anecdotes. I think I'll hold onto her for a while as long as she's not getting worse and see how she responds. If there's no progress, then I'll cull. It sounds like it can go either way. Right now she's eating like a pig when I hold her still in front of the food and reaches for the dropper of vitamin water and drinks when I hold it over her head, so there's at least that connection. But her right leg is the worst one and it seems very stiff. She needs chicken physical therapy. I try to massage it a bit when I hold her still, to get it to relax enough to tuck it under her. But I really don't know what I'm doing.

Aspergillosis is something I thought it might be when she initially started stumbling around, because of our rainy weather and chickens eating feed off the ground - but I'm really thinking Marek's after all the research I've done (including that link you shared) and how it's progressed. There doesn't seem to be any respiratory trauma at all and never was, while nerve damage is rare so it's unlikely (though not impossible of course). I'm actually not overly concerned with identifying the disease though. If the pathologist says it's Marek's and it was just a matter of time, and I will have it if I don't already, then I might as well treat the flock as if I do have it. If nothing else develops in my flock in the near future then I will be ready when it does strike because apparently it's so widespread in our state and he's seen so many cases that it's easier to just say "Marek's" and move on - and I can do that. He doesn't even recommend post-mortems because it's a waste to tell folks what he already knows to the tune of $170. I admire his honesty.

 

[Nambroth]

Hello Marek's friends (that sounds like an oxymoron!),

tridentk9 was kind enough to share this link with me. It looks promising. I am a bit confused about the PCR testing (we already know about that-- is it only just now being reported on or is this a new way to run the PCR?) but the idea of an improved vaccine is promising!

This is dated August 2014 so the information should be quite up to date. http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/AR/archive/aug14/disease0814.htm

 

[seminolewind]

August 2014????? wow. I have to laugh at most of the research dates.

 

[KAT Bird]

I sent an email to the USDA when I saw the article. I meant to post the reply sooner but I've been dealing with bumblefoot in two hens. Unfortunately we will have to wait awhile but it is still good news.


We corresponded back in February about sending some samples to us for virus characterization. CVRM2 was recently licensed so this will need to go through the time consuming safety trials and testing before being marketed. I would guess this will be several years out. It looks like you are taking the smart approach of having your replacements vaccinated which is your best course of action.

Regards,
John

___________________________________
John R. Dunn, DVM, MS, PhD
USDA-Agricultural Research Service
Avian Disease and Oncology Laboratory

 

[Nambroth]

Yes.. unfortunately these things require a lot of testing. Fortunately they require a lot of testing. It's a catch-22! Of course while I am eager to better protect any new birds I bring in, I also appreciate that testing for more than a year will help show any problems associated with the new vaccine.

 

[Cheralee]

Hi.
Unfortunately, I am dealing with a mess that we believe to be Marek's. We have birds out to the PSU lab for necropsy, so we are waiting on feedback. I have lost 30 of my 35 birds in the past two weeks. They were from late June and late July hatches. I haven't had a bird show symptoms in 48 hours. How much longer should I wait before I can stop holding my breath on this instance? None of my adult birds were affected and I have survivors from both hatches. Any thoughts? I definitely need to thoroughly clean, etc. However, we are now at the stage where they would have moved to the adult pen in their own run. Should I hold off another few weeks? Any advice? Thank you so much. This has been horrible.

 

[schnebbles]

oh no, I'm so sorry. It's a sad and devastating thing to get and maddening. I've lost all of my initial chickens since last year. Mareks can hit at any time, any age. I had a few made it thru winter and then wham, as soon as it warmed up there it was.

From what I've learned Virkon-S will kill it (only thing that says it will), but if you have it, cleaning might keep it down a little but once it's there, it's there to stay

What were the symptoms?

 

[Cheralee]

We started with some bloody stool, so I treated with Corid. Then, a pullet began keeping to the side, with a retracted neck and hunched. I culled her with the extra cockerels, thinking it was cocci. I had enough pullets that I could afford to sacrifice the one if the others weren't as far along. One, by one, other pullets began to hunch over, have odd stool (some very smelly), list to the side then eventually having a curled foot and prone on the floor. They were alert, ate if I held them up to the food and some attempted to stand back up. Eventually, all who came down with the symptoms died. I did a home necropsy. I found no tumors, lesions, enlarged organs or even odd looking nerves. We had changed food and my husband suspected a mold toxicity, but not every bird was affected (all had eaten it). I looked at the intestine and noted some discoloration. After looking online, I thought perhaps it was cocci-induced necrotic enteritis, but I found no granular content like photos I saw. The legs were never prone like textbook MD, and the feet and legs were all very cold towards the end, which indicated yet another disease. We have the last few bodies and blood tests out for identification, but I am afraid to put the survivors in with my grown birds. Even worse, I raised Barred Hollands, an extremely low population breed. They were housed a few birds to an exhibition cage in towers in my garage. I assume all of my garage is "dirty" which will be a mammoth task. We built a new, elaborate multi-flock coop based on having 50 chickens. I haven't added ANY because I now only have 17. Does anyone have information on life after Marek's? I mean, how can you function? I already had separate shoes for travelling to farms, already used foot baths, already quarantined new birds. I literally have no idea on what my options are now. I have (2) Australorp hens that will be 3 next April that were vaccinated. They will probably be culled because they aren't laying at all anymore. I have a young BCM cockerel that has been vaccinated and a young Australorp pullet that was vaccinated (both hatchery stock from mid-May). Otherwise, I can't confirm ANY of my other 8 adult birds were vaccinated, but they have all been with me for 1-2 years with no signs at all like this.


The chicks I lost were from two hatches, one on June 20 & July 25 this summer.