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

[ochochicas]

Optimistically I posted last week that the last of my Marek's hatch that was sick died. Now one of the chicks from my broody raised batch is very ill. They just turned 20 weeks and I was hoping they were out of the woods. Her crop is full and squishy. She is breathing very rapidly and heavily. No signs of respiratory infection, sneezing or nasal discharge. Has any one had this kind of thing happen with their Marek's birds? She's been a little slower than normal the last couple of days. She was eating a little bit yesterday but not anything today that I've witnessed.

ETA: I tubed her with my cocktail of tylan and oxytetracycline. I didn't mix in much water since her crop already has a lot of fluid in it. Not much I can do until tomorrow - will wait and see if she looks better or worse. Unfortunately I have to be at work at 5 a.m. tomorrow.

 

[seminolewind]

Quote:
Interesting. But I'll bet that some of those wound treating honey users are the same people that tell people not to use Hydrogen Peroxide because it kills healthy tissue!!!!! Kind of contradicting.

But I do like the way honey cleans up by way of Osmosis.

 

[seminolewind]

Optimistically I posted last week that the last of my Marek's hatch that was sick died. Now one of the chicks from my broody raised batch is very ill. They just turned 20 weeks and I was hoping they were out of the woods. Her crop is full and squishy. She is breathing very rapidly and heavily. No signs of respiratory infection, sneezing or nasal discharge. Has any one had this kind of thing happen with their Marek's birds? She's been a little slower than normal the last couple of days. She was eating a little bit yesterday but not anything today that I've witnessed.

ETA: I tubed her with my cocktail of tylan and oxytetracycline. I didn't mix in much water since her crop already has a lot of fluid in it. Not much I can do until tomorrow - will wait and see if she looks better or worse. Unfortunately I have to be at work at 5 a.m. tomorrow.

You may also want to include Aspergillosis to the list of Marek's loving nasty bugs. It can cause some breathing issues, or none at all. My last 2 roos that were brooded died at 8 months old. The last pullet lasted a year then died most likely of some opportunistic ailment.

I did get Nystatin powder cheap somewhere, probably for pigeons. I had 2 older hens that would gasp and turn purplish only when resting. I gave them each a cube of bread dipped in the powder daily , and what do you know! They stopped doing it. It's been way over a year. If you pm me your address, I can send you some. I can never use all that in even a few years. .

 

[rides2far]

That is a nasty fungus. My dad actually passed away from Aspergillosis. It works its way through the lungs spreading out with tendrils. Very bad. Whenever I peel an onion with the black fungus, I turn my head & hold my breath. I know it can't hurt me, my immune system is fine, but I can't help it. What medication can you give poultry to treat this fungus?

 

[ochochicas]

It wouldn't surprise me if it is some kind of fungus. All my broody raised Marek's pullets (except the very first one that died in February) have had respiratory problems but no respiratory infection I could detect. They cough when they eat and open mouth breath sometimes. Today the rooster mounted one of them and she coughed non-stop for about 10 minutes. I suppose I should send one of them in for necropsy. Is there something I can get locally for fungus?

 

[Akrnaf2]

Interesting.  But I'll bet that some of those wound treating honey users are the same people that tell people not to use Hydrogen Peroxide because it kills healthy tissue!!!!!  Kind of contradicting.

But I do like the way honey cleans up by way of Osmosis.

Hydrogen peroxide is a disinfectant, and disinfectant don't discriminate between your cells or bacteria cells, and that is the reasons that all disinfectant use is externally only! Antibiotics on the other hand ( thous that are safe to human use!) do differ between Prokaryotic cells(bacteria ect.)and Eukaryotic cell (human,fungi plant,animal ect.). because the metabolism pathways between the two groups is different, and because antibiotics disrupt metabolic processes in the cell, it is safe to use antibiotics also internally.
About osmosis of honey if that was the only reason you could use jam, sugar,salt and any material that dissolve in water and not only Honey!

 

[Akrnaf2]

It wouldn't surprise me if it is some kind of fungus.  All my broody raised Marek's pullets (except the very first one that died in February) have had respiratory problems but no respiratory infection I could detect.  They cough when they eat and open mouth breath sometimes. Today the rooster mounted one of them and she coughed non-stop for about 10 minutes.  I suppose I should send one of them in for necropsy.  Is there something I can get locally for fungus?  

0.5 gram of Acidified Copper Sulfate for 1 liter of drinking water (1 gram/2liter) 5-7 days.
I have read that the use of women anti- fungal,intimate cream makes a great treatment against fungal infection in chickens..........

 

[ochochicas]

Optimistically I posted last week that the last of my Marek's hatch that was sick died. Now one of the chicks from my broody raised batch is very ill. They just turned 20 weeks and I was hoping they were out of the woods. Her crop is full and squishy. She is breathing very rapidly and heavily. No signs of respiratory infection, sneezing or nasal discharge. Has any one had this kind of thing happen with their Marek's birds? She's been a little slower than normal the last couple of days. She was eating a little bit yesterday but not anything today that I've witnessed.

ETA: I tubed her with my cocktail of tylan and oxytetracycline. I didn't mix in much water since her crop already has a lot of fluid in it. Not much I can do until tomorrow - will wait and see if she looks better or worse. Unfortunately I have to be at work at 5 a.m. tomorrow.

As I expected, the pullet didn't make it through the night. From the way she was breathing yesterday, I suspected she wouldn't get better. I always want to give them a chance though.

Ironically, she has always been my biggest, strongest chick. She was a huge bird all along. Her dad was a little legbar and her mom was a medium sized sussex, so I didn't expect her to be large. However, she grew quickly and always seemed strong. When she got sick, she went down hill quickly.

From the Marek's hatch I had one cockerel that was also very large and even aggressive. He was so much bigger than is brothers that I also thought he would be stronger and superior. He was the first cockerel to get sick from Marek's. He started open mouth breathing and his comb turned purple. Two days later he had a seizure and died. I guess bigger isn't always better.

I'm just about out of unvaccinated chicks. There are two australorps, one little redstar cross, and the sister to the pullet that died last night. It is hard to believe that a couple of months ago I had almost 40 chickens and now I have 20 plus two 11 week old pullets. The younger ones are all double vaccinated. If they get sick I'm throwing in the towel!

 

[lalaland]

ochochicas, I'm so sorry about your pullet.

I'm dosing the legbar hen (11 month old) with sulfadimoxine (sp?) - Seminolewind gave me the doseage she uses which is 1 tsp powder per gallon of water. I almost expected to see her gone when I got home last night, but she was still standing. I have her in the broody breaker cage. She isn't too interested in eating but the act to tossing scratch seems to trigger her to eat, as does the sight of the rest of the flock nearby eating.

I got a teensy bit of medicated water into her last night, she happily went to the roost. This morning, she ate maybe a tsp of egg white from a hardboiled egg I offered her. We'll see how she is doing tonight. I will be home after dark....and she's going to be upset about being in the cage and not being able to get to the roost. But wed I work from home so will be able to help her more.

So far, none of the broody hatched babies that are the same age as the legbar have succumbed to the disease...keeping my fingers crossed.

 

[ochochicas]

I'm dosing the legbar hen (11 month old) with sulfadimoxine (sp?) - Seminolewind gave me the doseage she uses which is 1 tsp powder per gallon of water. I almost expected to see her gone when I got home last night, but she was still standing. I have her in the broody breaker cage. She isn't too interested in eating but the act to tossing scratch seems to trigger her to eat, as does the sight of the rest of the flock nearby eating.

I got a teensy bit of medicated water into her last night, she happily went to the roost. This morning, she ate maybe a tsp of egg white from a hardboiled egg I offered her. We'll see how she is doing tonight. I will be home after dark....and she's going to be upset about being in the cage and not being able to get to the roost. But wed I work from home so will be able to help her more.

So far, none of the broody hatched babies that are the same age as the legbar have succumbed to the disease...keeping my fingers crossed.

Sorry she is sick. It seems like my broody raised babies are actually a bit healthier and live longer than the ones that hatched in an incubator. I wonder if anyone has done any studies on it.