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

[lalaland]

I came back from chicken chores and got another bit of food into her.
Set up a wire kennel, put hay for bedding and moved her into a bedroom.

She started chirping, so I offered her water, and to my shock, she drank! All on her own. So i got some feed, wetted it down with the electrolytes and put it in a small jelly jar and she ate like crazy. And, here is the first time I have seen this: she kept missing the jar - making eating motions in the air.

So I am wondering if she went a day or two without eating because she was missing the food - and that weakened her.
She is much improved in appearance too - more alert, her good eye is still watery but not as much and she is keeping her eyes open much much more. IAnd that is less than 24 hours after applying vetrx. I floated vetrx in her drinking water -


Question: Has anyone had a mareks hen who pecks and misses, ever get back to being able to feed on their own?

 

[lalaland]

ok, here's another question. A couple of weeks ago, I noticed a hen make that chirping sound similiar to a rooster calling a hen for food. A rapid, high pitched ah ah ah ah. Now I have a couple of hens doing that, as well as Angelina....is this a symptom of Mareks?

 

[seminolewind]

I came back from chicken chores and got another bit of food into her.
Set up a wire kennel, put hay for bedding and moved her into a bedroom.

She started chirping, so I offered her water, and to my shock, she drank! All on her own. So i got some feed, wetted it down with the electrolytes and put it in a small jelly jar and she ate like crazy. And, here is the first time I have seen this: she kept missing the jar - making eating motions in the air.

So I am wondering if she went a day or two without eating because she was missing the food - and that weakened her.
She is much improved in appearance too - more alert, her good eye is still watery but not as much and she is keeping her eyes open much much more. IAnd that is less than 24 hours after applying vetrx. I floated vetrx in her drinking water -


Question: Has anyone had a mareks hen who pecks and misses, ever get back to being able to feed on their own?

I did but he didn't eat normal very long. Maybe 2 weeks and then he went back to missing. I think it's depth perception. Other ones I have not seen them get better.

 

[seminolewind]

ok, here's another question. A couple of weeks ago, I noticed a hen make that chirping sound similiar to a rooster calling a hen for food. A rapid, high pitched ah ah ah ah. Now I have a couple of hens doing that, as well as Angelina....is this a symptom of Mareks?

NO! God only knows what they are saying. My Polish seem to do that the most and I still don't get it. Try to watch what the other hens do when someone is doing ah ah ah.

 

[jgoldy2]

NO! God only knows what they are saying.  My Polish seem to do that the most and I still don't get it.  Try to watch what the other hens do when someone is doing ah ah ah.

I don't understand it either, but I used to have a Polish hen that did that, and I never understood it.

 

[lalaland]

I culled Angelina today - she was doing poorly and the prognosis was not good. I remember that she began highstepping a few weeks ago, perhaps that was the start of the neurological lesions that led to her pecking the air and missing the food.

No one else is showing any symptons of either mareks or the respiratory thing Angelina had going on. I sure hope the goopy eyes and swollen face wasn't a contagious devasting disease like Mareks.

 

[ochochicas]

Sorry to hear about Angelina. You did the right thing for her though.

You could send her for necropsy if you are curious to know if she had a contagious disease. I should have sent my hen in, but didn't think of it until it was too late. Best of luck to you and the rest of your flock.

 

[mightymax]

@lalaland...
...I'm sorry to hear about Angelina also. Although I have not been posting much recently, I do continue to read through my favorite threads (this being one of them), just
so I can keep up to date on everything, and from what I've read about Angelina and you and your schedule and such...I believe that you did 'right' by her and that she was aware of your love for her and likely understood that by euthanizing her you were actually giving her the greatest gift that your love for her could ever give...Eternal Freedom. Freedom from the confines and constraints of a life that had constantly been inhabited by the tenants of disease and pain. Once I finally realized this and truly accepted it without question, my peaceful slumbers returned and I no longer laid awake at night wondering if I had done 'the right thing'.
I hope your New Year will reap you and your flock many rewards!
-kim-


On the subject of what I like to call the 'Dippy Bird' dance (anybody remember the 'Dippy Bird'?), but what I'm sure most of you would refer to as the 'hunt and peck' method of Marek's Mastication...I've found that when my birds get this affliction, if I take a good sized chunk of a ripened banana and mash it up with a couple of tablespoons of their normal feed (I use crumbles, it's easier to mix, IMO) and a few squirts of some ElectoVitaMoo (now I make this myself, so don't go asking for it by name at your neighborhood feed store or they might look at you as if you weren't so much just a 'local' but rather a 'loco local' !!!). Anyway, I mix it all up until it's about the consistency of Play-Dough and then drop by rounded spoonfuls onto a greased cookie sheet and bake in a 350 degree oven for....................oh wait...that's my dumb drop cookie recipe (sorry, couldn't resist !!!)...then I re-shape them into about the same size as a Fun Size Snickers bar and place it (or fairly large pieces of it) in a semi-circle around the sick chicken. And believe it or not...they seem to actually eat it. I'd have to say that my girls even seem to enjoy it. I don't know if they eat it because it's sticky and mushy and so parts of it break off and get stuck to their beaks so then they have to swallow it, or if they just feel sorry for my sad state of existence that I have the time to do this for them in the first place !!! I don't know and I don't really care all that much either. I just know they eat it! So take it for what it's worth or add your own twists and turns. Just remember that the banana is the poor man's super glue, so everything it touches will have to be either washed or thrown out after wards (not your bird of course !!!)
Anyway. Enjoy !!! It couldn't hurt!

-kim-

 

[lalaland]

thank you both. Poor baby did so well for a day there that I thought she might recover but she was miserable and stopped eating again.

I considered bringing her down to the path lab for a necropsy but probably don't want to know if she had mg or one of the other really awful diseases. Since my flock has the mareks exposure, I already am not going to be sharing chicks, giving hens away, selling anyone, and I am already careful about my visits to the feed store - I even have someone else picking up the feed for me. So I don't think knowing would change anything.

I read Dupont say that the virus lives 65 weeks in their advertising for a disinfectant that kills the virus. That is a lot less time than forever.....

Kim, the idea of using banana is brilliant.

Heading for -25 F weather here.

 

[jgoldy2]

lala, you did the right thing, Angelina needed to rest in peace. I almost feel bad having not euthanized my bird, it didn't come to my mind at the point to send her for necropsy, and two hours away is the vet school, I will re-post the poem in a minute that I wrote recently