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

[alibabba]

I doubt anyone remembers me from this thread, but I have mereks in my flock, and have having a nervous breakdown waiting to see if my new breeder ameraucanas will fail from it... I got 8 last year, and only two lived. The rest succumbed. I also have 18 hatched chicks, that im not worried about, simply because of how amazingly resistant the parents were to this disease... We'll see!

Best of Luck! What breed was the breed and history of the resistant parents?

 

[alibabba]

Dribbling I don't think will give her enough food. Casportpony had me buy that Kaytee baby bird food and mix with water (and meds) and pull it up in a syrimge, and I had a short piece of tubing on the end of it (the length of the way to the crop), and my 3 lb Polish took 60 ml three times a day. It's not hard. Eventually after 2 weeks it was sink or swim and I put her out in a private pen next to her flock. She eats and is almost to her regular weight. She had a broken leg.

Ditto, not enough going in.

My Bantam rooster started at 26.6 oz got 30 ml of kaytee 2x's per day to get him with normal droppings.

He has had three good self meals over the past 2 days, bed, breakfast, bed breakfast, but didn't eat tonight. I don't want to lose ground, So he will get a tube feeding.
Thought I might have been done with that for now.

*** Tubefeeding is not hard to do!!!! The trickiest thing for me is wrapping and holding them tight enough, I don't want to hurt them. But then it takes me a couple of tries to get the tube down, where if I was just firm from the beginning, it would be done.

...and you know they are getting plenty of the right thing. Easily digestible formula, with all the vitamins, minerals etc. The Kaytee even has probiotics, boom!

 

[saltandpepper2]

Best of Luck! What breed was the breed and history of the resistant parents?

Most of the surviving birds were Marans and buff orpingtons, I had the most issues with the EE and Ameraucanas. Ameraucanas, marans, and buff orpingtons all came from the same breeder, the other birds were hatcheries. Most of the chicks that hatched are marans, marans/ameraucana mix, two barred/marans mix ( only have one barred) and one bantam chick. Surprisingly, I haven't had any issues at all with the bantams.

Q: can ducks get Mareks? Is it of a different strain? Got 4 ducks this spring, and am curious.

 

[alibabba]

Me too, i feel now i should have chosen ducks instead of chickens.:/

Eta... Ducks seem to have less disease im general. Looks like it can happen that they get mareks if kept together, but more rare.

Im thinking of no more chicks....too chancey. Maybe acquire only older or showbirds ready for retirement

 

[ochochicas]

No water fowl for us. They are cute, but I don't like the mess. .

 

[seminolewind]

Me too, i feel now i should have chosen ducks instead of chickens.

Eta... Ducks seem to have less disease im general. Looks like it can happen that they get mareks if kept together, but more rare.

Im thinking of no more chicks....too chancey. Maybe acquire only older or showbirds ready for retirement

I had bought geese as day olds and now they are a year old. They're cute. But there not chickens. I don't know anything about the other fowl. The easiest way to get chicks is hatchery vaccinated day olds then quarantine them for at least 3 weeks (I try for 6). Yes, washing hands, putting a shirt over my clothes, and not handling as much as possible. Also not leaning over them (hair). Nothing is perfect, but every little bit helps.

I've had 3 batches of hatchery chicks, 21 total, and one recently died of Marek's at a year old. So it does work. I hate to lose even one but the rest are doing great.

 

[Nambroth]

I have looked quite a bit at if waterfowl can get or transmit Marek's and to date have never found anything that suggests that they can. If someone has literature that says differently please do share.

 

[saltandpepper2]

I have looked quite a bit at if waterfowl can get or transmit Marek's and to date have never found anything that suggests that they can. If someone has literature that says differently please do share.

No! Don't share! I like this opinion much better! They might be the only birds that I don't have mortalities with...

 

[lalaland]

update on the little legbar: she's still hanging in there. Definitely not healthy, but eating ok...at least I think. With the work schedule this week, I haven't been able to check her crop in the morning to see if she is actually digesting stuff or if it is hanging in her crop. She comes for treats, but hangs in the coop earlier than the others. She does, however, feel well enough to peck at the ees that get to close to her.

Course, now one of the ee's is suspect. I haven't sorted out whether she is one who hatched last year or the year before....got to get those leg rings on those girls.

 

[rebrascora]

Well I've got my new phone up and running and have taken a few pics today of my Marek's girls out enjoying the sun. Hoppity has real modelling potential I think. What you can't see from the angle is that she is just standing on one leg and the other foot is clenched and pulled up out of the way.... my good photography hiding her disability!!! She is very petite and light weight but happy and very vocal when she wants something and remarkably mobile!


This is my first ever photo posted on the internet. Hope it works!