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

[lalaland]

I'm worrying about a couple of hens that are only two years old and have stopped laying, were laying earlier in dec and feb. They seem on the thinner side....shoot. I guess in a couple of weeks when it warms up I could put them in their own coop and dose them with Seminolewind's cocktail. just in case.

on the positive side everyone else seems to be holding their own.

seminole, when you dose I assume you aren't using any eggs for 2 weeks after the 5 day dosing?

 

[seminolewind]

I didn't have to worry, they weren't laying. However, hubby and I eat the medicine eggs. I just don't give them out.

 

[ochochicas]

Lost two over the weekend and still seem to have two more. One looks better this morning, but the hen probably needs to be put down. It looks like all the chicks from my November hatch are probably going to get sick. I must have a very virulent strain at my place.

On a better note, I hatched out quite a few babies over the weekend. Yesterday I had to give vaccines to 34 chicks. LOL Some of my ameraucanas had so much fluff that it was very difficult. It took way over an hour and everyone was mad at me afterwards. They are all still alive this morning, so I guess I didn't kill them.

I got my one-handed restraint technique down pretty well. I don't think they will be any easier to do at 4 weeks. (I am re-vaccinating after I read an article promoting a booster and also showing chicks that were vaccinated at 23 days had better immunity than those vaccinated at 1 day). So my experiment begins...



Edited because I can't count how many chicks I have!

 

[Nambroth]

@casportpony ...You say that you have a rooster with the visceral form of MD? If I may ask, how could you tell if he's still alive? I was under the (possibly incorrect)
impression that the visceral form could really only be determined through a necropsy since the evidence of it are tumors located on the internal organs of the bird.
I'm not trying to be insensitive or a smart-*** or anything

, this question is merely for the sake of my own edification.

Sorry, I know this is a few days old, but it's also important to remember that the visceral form can also involve paralysis. In Marek's birds, the paralysis is a secondary problem to visceral tumors, caused my neural lesions. Thus, if I have a bird demonstrating paralysis, and I have good reason to believe it is Marek's induced, I could say that I have a bird suffering from the visceral form.
Same thing if they get a purple comb or are gasping... that is from tumor growth on/near the heart and/or lungs. I can't see the internal tumors, but I can see what they are doing to the bird. I hope that makes sense.

Only a necropsy can 100% confirm it, but when we are playing the educated guessing game, sometimes we get it pretty darn close.

 

[mightymax]

Quote:
@Nambroth ...Not only does that make sense, but I'm in complete agreement with you. It doesn't take a necropsy to make a self-diagnosis of any form of Marek's if you know for certain that it exists within your flock, as you mentioned.

-kim-

 

[seminolewind]

Interesting. Facts sitting there right in front of our faces

 

[ochochicas]

Same thing if they get a purple comb or are gasping... that is from tumor growth on/near the heart and/or lungs. I can't see the internal tumors, but I can see what they are doing to the bird. I hope that makes sense.

Only a necropsy can 100% confirm it, but when we are playing the educated guessing game, sometimes we get it pretty darn close.

Well darn. I had a cockerel that started getting a purple comb about a week ago. On Sunday he had a seizure and died. I guess now I can assume he died from Marek's too. That night I found his sister sleeping on the floor of the coop. Otherwise she had been eating and walking normally. Yesterday she had some signs of ataxia (isolated from the rest of the flock) and today she is really having a lot of trouble walking. The chicks that hatched in November I'm just calling the Marek's batch now. I'm pretty sure I'm going to lose the majority of them. Thank goodness there is a vaccine or I'd probably just throw in the towel at this point.

 

[Nambroth]

Well darn. I had a cockerel that started getting a purple comb about a week ago. On Sunday he had a seizure and died. I guess now I can assume he died from Marek's too. That night I found his sister sleeping on the floor of the coop. Otherwise she had been eating and walking normally. Yesterday she had some signs of ataxia (isolated from the rest of the flock) and today she is really having a lot of trouble walking. The chicks that hatched in November I'm just calling the Marek's batch now. I'm pretty sure I'm going to lose the majority of them. Thank goodness there is a vaccine or I'd probably just throw in the towel at this point.

I apologize if my post was misleading. The purple comb alone is not an indicator of Marek's... it can be from other reasons. Purple/blueish/unusually dark combs are generally a sign of poor blood flow. This can be from any ailment that affects the heart and/or lungs, including respiratory problems and even just plain bad genetics/bad heart. In Marek's birds, the tumors are known to grow on and near the heart when it is in its visceral form, which can cause the bird to seem short on breath and poorly circulated blood (purpleish comb). I just wanted to mention this so that I didn't accidentally mislead you.

 

[ochochicas]

Quote: No worries. I'm sure he had Marek's. He was also short of breath but didn't show any signs of respiratory infection. That along with the purple comb and half of his hatch-mates having Marek's, it just made sense. I probably will not send in any more bird for necropsy unless they start cropping up with new symptoms. They are going down hill rather quickly now though...the first bird took several months to get to the point where she had to be culled. The second was still eating and walking after a month. The ones that are sick now are dying within a week.

 

[casportpony]

I just necropsied one with a purple comb and was quite surprised to find a belly full of blood!

-Kathy