Ocular Marek's? (tiny squarish pupil) PICS

[rachel]

Here is my 15 month old SLW. She has never molted, and I was looking over some of her scraggly feathers and noticed her eyes are wonky.

I lost a polish to what I believe to be regular Marek's (couldn't have a necropsy done to confirm, they cost a fortune here--- as in hundreds of $$) about 8 months ago. If this is indeed ocular Marek's, I've read that sometimes chickens that have survived regular Marek's wind up with this? If so, I would assume then that the 3 month old birds I have in a small pen within the larger pen have been exposed, I wonder what to expect with that? I've always read that Marek's can be a real flock devastator, but if I had a dozen birds that have been exposed to it and only one of them died maybe it's not as much of a death sentence as I've been lead to believe?

Her regular eye:

and the one with the tiny misshapen pupil:

 

[Smoky73]

No, I read that Ocular Mareks looks a lot like a cataract, it is a whitish film that covers the pupil of the eye. Its a "cloudiness". I have a hen that is blind in one eye (due to age) and hers looks something like yours.

 

[mypicklebird]

The eye certainly looks unusual, and the pupil and iris look misshapen. Can you catch the hen, and post a close-up digital photo? Need to see the eye closer. Ocular marek's is just one form of the viral disease. There are many presentations. If your flock was exposed to the disease as older birds, they may not get ill.

 

[AHappychick]

looks like it to me. I have one of my older hens that has that too. Mareks can be really deadly but it depends on the strain. I know I have had Mareks run through my flock and figure she was strong enough to deal with it. Otherwise she is very healthy and productive. If it really concerns you, you can always vaccinate your new chicks.

 

[rachel]

Here are some closer images. I can't find anything else that it could be other than ocular Marek's...

 

[ArizonaDesertChicks]

I'm not sure whether that is Marek's or not. I have a pullet that has had strange looking pupils since she was about 8-10 weeks (at least that's when I noticed), but I think she just has misshapen pupils, not Marek's disease. She is now almost 7 months old, laying eggs, and seems very happy and healthy.

These are her eyes at 12 weeks of age:

This is her about a month ago - I don't think the eyes have changed any.

Here's a few good links (in case you haven't already found them) for pictures of ocular marek's:

http://partnersah.vet.cornell.edu/avian-atlas/search/lesion/464

http://partnersah.vet.cornell.edu/avian-atlas/search/lesion/464

http://partnersah.vet.cornell.edu/avian-atlas/search/lesion/464

Near the bottom of this thread are a couple more chickens with ocular Marek's
http://images.google.com/imgres?img...I7GGLF_en&sa=N&um=1&ei=NRZAS4ffDYPutAO1vLnTAw

Even if your hen does have ocular marek's, I'm pretty sure that doesn't mean a death sentence - most likely, she'll be fine.

 

[mypicklebird]

This could be Marek's. In the eye, it distorts the pupil by distorting the iris with infiltrates. Marek's causes disease by causing tumors, in ocular Marek's- that is just where the material is visible. If you want to know for sure, you will need to send the bird in for necropsy and have the tissue looked at microscopically.


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[rachel]

Thanks. I'm not going to do the necropsy thing for awhile (hopefully) as she is doing just fine aside from the weird eye. I really appreciate everyone's input so far.

 

[keechoo]

I realize this is a really old topic but I'm hoping someone now knows more. First of all, my hen was born with the very small pupils. She is now 3 years old and has suddenly become blind in one eye. Food and water are kept in the same place and she tries to eat and drink but her perception is so far off she doesn't get it. She walks the fence (not on it but follows it) and bumps into things. About a week ago I had noticed she was acting weirder than normal when she wouldn't come out of the coop on overcast/rainy days and the other chickens started picking on her. She used to fly to the highest branch to roost but last night, slept in the nesting box on the floor. Any ideas as to what it is? What I can do to help her perception? She has never been that friendly but since she can't see out of one eye she started becoming tolerant to my touch (today anyways).

Now, I have 2 handicapped birds, her and her sister. Her sister had her hip broken 2 years ago when a car purposely hit her. She has learned to get around with the use of one leg and has become my baby.

 

[safayr3]

I have a hen that has one pupil like that! The weird thing is, she can still see out of it. It's been like that since we got her and I don't really know how old she is. I guess I never thought much about until I ran across your picture.