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

[ochochicas]

This morning I culled my last Ameraucana pullet. I sincerely hope she is the last one. She had been holding her own for the last several weeks and just had some trouble walking when she tried to move fast. I noticed this week she has been getting lower and lower and spending all day "standing" on her hocks. This morning she couldn't stand at all. I gave her some time to try to regain her composure and eat breakfast. She didn't want to eat either - maybe because she couldn't stand and she didn't want to eat laying down. I knew it was her time. She was 26 weeks old.

I'm happy to report that I don't think any of my other birds are sick with Marek's. I have one pullet that is coughing, but I'm not sure if it is related. There is a second bird that is recovering from an impacted crop. Both seem to be improving and I'm hoping they don't relapse.

That leaves two black australorp pullets and one rooster that survived from that hatch. The australorps seem to be resistant, and the rooster...well he's just the luckiest **** rooster on my farm. HIs brother died from Marek's about a month ago.

Moving forward...I'm going to set some more Ameraucana eggs in the incubator this weekend. My hen crossed with my rooster makes the most beautiful chicks. Sad to lose all of them, but happy I can hatch more and see how they turn out.

 

[ochochicas]

seminolewind. Tell me more about the enteritis symptoms, please?

My bird(s) with enteritis passed undigested food. Scratch grains were the first thing to be noticed. Then they would have blades of grass, whole pieces of peas, corn, carrot, etc in the droppings. Birds had voracious appetites yet continued to lose weight (or in some cases would barely maintain their weights although they were eating twice as much as a normal bird). Necropsy showed birds had tumors on the pancreas, liver and other organs. One bird also had "hepatitis".

 

[ochochicas]

What's louder Turkeys or Peacocks?

In my experience, peafowl are loud in volume. They don't make a lot of noise all day long, but when they do they are very loud.

Turkeys are noisy for a greater part of the day, but in general the volume is not as bad as the peafowl.

 

[lalaland]

ochochicas, I'm sorry to hear about your Ameracauna pullet.

I mayb jumped the gun thinking the little legbar was well. she's better....but I noticed she was pretty quiet today and hanging out in her spot under the trailer. When I stuck my head under there, she watched and was alert, and finally came to me. I picked her up and couldn't feel anything in her crop. ****. Put her in a wire kennel, gave her a scrambled egg with garlic again, and picked some fresh green clover and dandelion for her. SHe is tiny, was very eager for the egg but only ate about 2/3rds of it. I 'm hoping she will leave a dropping before I have to free her as I have to leave in an hour and won't be back til after dark. I did see her eating this morning but didn't watch long.

 

[ochochicas]

I hope your legbar keeps eating! I've had ups and downs with Marek's chicks. You never know from day to day what they will do.

On a happy note, I'm trying to get some Pheasant eggs today to put under my broody. Seems like a good compromise since I can't let her hatch any chicken eggs.

 

[Michael Apple]

I'm glad your little one is coming thru this.

Oxine is great but it's only Oxine if it's activated. Unactivated Oxine does nothing much. Even with a different name for soaking horse hooves. It's got to be activated. We have much better luck with Virkon. I mix it in a hose sprayer and spray everything. And it's one of the few you can actually use on wood. Most others won't work on a porous surface.

Unactivated Oxine is still bacteriostatic. That is why it is used in water lines and drinkers to suppress enteritis causing bacteria, among other things. For cleansing/disinfecting purposes, yes, it needs to be activated. When you fog a stripped coop, you can be assured it is clean with Oxine. I have used it for a long time with citric acid as an activator:
http://www.kellysolutions.com/erene...\9804-1_OXINE_1_16_2005_3_55_42_PMSecured.Pdf

http://www.bio-cide.com/applications/animal-health/oxine-ah/

 

[seminolewind]

seminolewind. Tell me more about the enteritis symptoms, please?

Well a few years ago, my first 3 just dropped dead over night. They were 8 weeks old and acting normal. Next morning 3 laying there dead and with internal hemorrhage . Then a few more got a one eye infection and died. The rest were put on what I had, Tylan and Sulfadimethoxine. That was a few years ago. The 3 with supposed enteritis fit the symptoms. They had all been in a pen together , I think there was 12 growing out.

Then there were a few over the last few years and 3 sent for necropsy last year that all died from opportunistic bacteria/cocci, and also had mention of Enteritis. Symptoms? Since then, one Polish was acting pokey and lethargic, and wasted, and I gave her those meds for 7 days and she got better and has become a hog and lays eggs. Then my flock of 7 big chickens had been skinny for a long time, and not laying anything for months. I tried everything to fatten them up. Finally I just put them all on those 2 meds in their water for 7 days, and within a month, they were gaining, and the younger ones laid eggs. They are still nice weight. Now I have a group of 7 in the back who are a year old, eat a lot of feed, and got thin. I just finished 5 days of the 2 meds hoping they will now put on some weight. There's no reason for them to be thin.

From reading everything I could get my hands on, I found that there's a major problem in the world with Enteritis since poultry companies are moving to antibiotic free. And what they are finding is that these chickens may get " sub clinical" cocci and bacterial infections, namely Necrotic Enteritis caused by Clostridium Pefergens (sp)., meaning that they are sick , but barely noticeable. And usually the only symptoms are less thrifty, and less eggs. My 3 necropsies had other problems as well, but Enteritis was mentioned in all three. And that goes along with being immunosuppressed.

The biggest symptom I am treating for is wasting or skinniness but eating well. And wormed.
Long story short, since Marek's causes immunosuppression, I feel that's like an open door to sub clinical anything.

 

[seminolewind]

Quote:
I've also read that Enteritis can cause undigested food to be excreted.

 

[seminolewind]

Quote:
The more I read about Oxine the more I realize that many many articles are using Oxine (Sodium Chlorite) and sodium DIOXide interchangeably . Makes for a lot of confusion .

The trusty killer of bacteria and other nasties is called Sodium DIOXide. The way to get that wonderful chemical is to extract it from sodium chlorite, or Oxine. The chemical used for water lines , drinking water, slime prevention, etc. is still Sodium DIOXide, known as Activated Oxine or Activated Sodium Chlorite. You can't really buy sodium dIOXide because it's too volatile., like explosive. So they sell it in two parts: Oxine, and the Activator.

Oxine or sodium chlorite by itself may be bacteriostatic (not supporting the growth of bacteria). I would get better results for my money just buying a can of Lysol Spray. I'd rather kill 99.9% of the germs and viruses than just tell them they can't be fruitful and multiply right here on this surface.

Edit: I mean that Lysol spray would kill more bacteria than inactivated Oxine.

 

[Michael Apple]

The more I read about Oxine the more I realize that many many articles are using Oxine (Sodium Chlorite) and sodium DIOXide interchangeably . Makes for a lot of confusion .

The trusty killer of bacteria and other nasties is called Sodium DIOXide. The way to get that wonderful chemical is to extract it from sodium chlorite, or Oxine. The chemical used for water lines , drinking water, slime prevention, etc. is still Sodium DIOXide, known as Activated Oxine or Activated Sodium Chlorite. You can't really buy sodium dIOXide because it's too volatile., like explosive. So they sell it in two parts: Oxine, and the Activator.

Oxine or sodium chlorite by itself may be bacteriostatic (not supporting the growth of bacteria). I would get better results for my money just buying a can of Lysol Spray. I'd rather kill 99.9% of the germs and viruses than just tell them they can't be fruitful and multiply right here on this surface.

Phenols are effective, but can't be used on or around birds present, or in drinkers. Oxine is way more powerful than bleach but very safe, unlike bleach. Unlike the longstanding residuals of many disinfectants like Phenols, Oxine dries to a harmless salt. I use phenols for cleaning tools, but not for disinfecting troughs and drinkers.