Pease Read! Merricks’s or not?

[dbounds10]

I have never dealt with Merricks so I don’t know but I have one girl that I just noticed tonight has a wonky eye
(No idea how long it’s been this way) she is a cinnamon queen that I have had since day old from the feed store. She is 18 months old. None of my flock was vaccinated and 99% came from feed store. Zero other symptoms. Eating, drinking, running around like crazy and lays almost daily. Can anyone look at this eye and give me an opinion? I have separated her from the flock but no other birds have the eye thing or any symptoms for that matter. I have a pretty healthy flock. Also, I don’t allow people to visit my flock and always quarantine if I bring in a new bird. The last bird that was not a chick, I brought in was my breeding rooster 4 months ago and he was quarantined for 2 months in our shop while we finished the coop. I got 3 chicks from the feed store for my broody to raise and they are now 14 wks and show no signs. This first pic is of the normal eye. Could it be just an injury?
@Eggcessive @nuthatched @rosemarythyme

 

[rosemarythyme]

Sorry I have 0 experience with Marek's.

 

[coach723]

At this point it doesn't look like the Marek's eyes I have seen. Does she appear to have any vision in that eye? Does that eye react to light at all, or movement? Was the eye normal before, that you can remember? My guess is more that it may have been an injury of some kind, but I would keep an eye on it for any further changes. Marek's does not always follow the exact form that literature documents, sometimes it can be a bit different in individual birds depending one where exactly it settles and what it affects.

 

[dbounds10]

At this point it doesn't look like the Marek's eyes I have seen. Does she appear to have any vision in that eye? Does that eye react to light at all, or movement? Was the eye normal before, that you can remember? My guess is more that it may have been an injury of some kind, but I would keep an eye on it for any further changes. Marek's does not always follow the exact form that literature documents, sometimes it can be a bit different in individual birds depending one where exactly it settles and what it affects.

She does appear to have vision. She blinks when I put my hand in front of it. I really don’t remember if it was always like this or not. I always check feet, crops, wings booties but never thought to check eyes. I’m going to look through my pics. I am praying for an injury and not this! Thanks so much for your answer!

 

[coach723]

If it was like this always, then it could be a congenital defect. Something like coloboma (a defect present at birth) (it doesn't look exactly like that), if you search you will see pictures of what that looks like.
Scarring from injury can make it look deformed as well.
Does the pupil react to light, contracting and relaxing? Check that tomorrow. Sometimes it's easier to check at night with a small flashlight.
Some birds with Marek's will have significant greying of the iris.
I will put a picture of that below, as well as one of my birds that had occular Marek's, and how it looks that I generally see in mine. A slow shrinking of the pupil to a very small dot and a narrow grey line around it. There are also other color changes in the texture of the iris. Which I may be seeing in yours. But the other eye on your bird still looks normal, best I can tell, so that makes me think it may not be Marek's. Usually both eyes are involved, but they won't both look exactly the same.
I will tag another member who also has Marek's in their flock, to look at your pictures and see what she thinks, if it looks like what she's seen in hers. @microchick
In this image, left is normal, right is Marek's.

This, below, is usually what I see in my flock, I currently have one hen like this (the roo in the picture has passed), and she still has enough vision to function with the flock. As you can see below, both eyes are affected but they are not symmetrical on both sides. I have yet to have one develop the completely gray iris. The roo pictured eventually developed visceral tumors as well, and died. My birds that have developed occular symptoms have tended to live for years before any developed visceral tumors. A few have passed sooner. Some have not had occular symptoms at all, get sick, die, necropsy shows all the visceral tumors in organs. My choice to not cull for occular symptoms since my flock has already been exposed.
Hopefully your's is not Marek's, but if it is, many of us deal with it.

 

[microchick]

If it was like this always, then it could be a congenital defect. Something like coloboma (a defect present at birth) (it doesn't look exactly like that), if you search you will see pictures of what that looks like.
Scarring from injury can make it look deformed as well.
Does the pupil react to light, contracting and relaxing? Check that tomorrow. Sometimes it's easier to check at night with a small flashlight.
Some birds with Marek's will have significant greying of the iris.
I will put a picture of that below, as well as one of my birds that had occular Marek's, and how it looks that I generally see in mine. A slow shrinking of the pupil to a very small dot and a narrow grey line around it. There are also other color changes in the texture of the iris. Which I may be seeing in yours. But the other eye on your bird still looks normal, best I can tell, so that makes me think it may not be Marek's. Usually both eyes are involved, but they won't both look exactly the same.
I will tag another member who also has Marek's in their flock, to look at your pictures and see what she thinks, if it looks like what she's seen in hers. @microchick
In this image, left is normal, right is Marek's.
View attachment 4222535
This, below, is usually what I see in my flock, I currently have one hen like this (the roo in the picture has passed), and she still has enough vision to function with the flock. As you can see below, both eyes are affected but they are not symmetrical on both sides. I have yet to have one develop the completely gray iris. The roo pictured eventually developed visceral tumors as well, and died. My birds that have developed occular symptoms have tended to live for years before any developed visceral tumors. A few have passed sooner. Some have not had occular symptoms at all, get sick, die, necropsy shows all the visceral tumors in organs. My choice to not cull for occular symptoms since my flock has already been exposed.
Hopefully your's is not Marek's, but if it is, many of us deal with it.
View attachment 4222536
View attachment 4222539

Thanks for the Tag, Coach and yes, I had 3 birds with ocular Marek's and they all looked like the classical pictures on line. All wanted to stay out of bright light (uveitis is VERY painful to both animals and humans) all had diminished vision and all died of progressive neuro symptoms and strokes.

Weird thing is that my birds with OMD all outlived my birds with other forms of Marek's.

After a lull of 7 years in losses, I have the painful duty of euthanizing a sweet little bantam hen who has suddenly developed neurological symptoms that look like Marek's disease to me.

The killer in the shadows rears it's ugly head again.

 

[coach723]

My birds with OMD also live a long time. Seems like when the disease goes there it's just somehow less virulent. I currently have one old bird who has had symptoms for a very, very long time, is completely blind and lives in her own enclosure. She's like the energizer bunny, just keeps going. I have one other bird with ocular symptoms, who happens to be a chick from the old one, she's about 4 years old now. So far, the last couple of years have been better here. I did lose a roo last year that could possibly have been Marek's, it was kind of sudden, but because of all the storms last year I just wasn't able to necropsy him to see. He was my last Fayomi roo, so did a panic egg set and hatch from his girls, and was lucky enough to get two more roo's out of him. He was a good boy. I know it can change at any time, nasty virus that it is.

 

[dbounds10]

Thanks for the Tag, Coach and yes, I had 3 birds with ocular Marek's and they all looked like the classical pictures on line. All wanted to stay out of bright light (uveitis is VERY painful to both animals and humans) all had diminished vision and all died of progressive neuro symptoms and strokes.

Weird thing is that my birds with OMD all outlived my birds with other forms of Marek's.

After a lull of 7 years in losses, I have the painful duty of euthanizing a sweet little bantam hen who has suddenly developed neurological symptoms that look like Marek's disease to me.

The killer in the shadows rears its ugly head again.

Thanks for the Tag, Coach and yes, I had 3 birds with ocular Marek's and they all looked like the classical pictures on line. All wanted to stay out of bright light (uveitis is VERY painful to both animals and humans) all had diminished vision and all died of progressive neuro symptoms and strokes.

Weird thing is that my birds with OMD all outlived my birds with other forms of Marek's.

After a lull of 7 years in losses, I have the painful duty of euthanizing a sweet little bantam hen who has suddenly developed neurological symptoms that look like Marek's disease to me.

The killer in the shadows rears it's ugly head again.

Thanks to you both! I tried the light in the eye thing with a flashlight and it moved a tiny bit. She appears to be able to see out of it and she is pissed about being caged lol. I got some better pics. @microchick does this look like mereks to you?

 

[Eggcessive]

I haven’t had Mareks in my flock before as Coach 723 and others have. I believe eye injuries can cause the irregular pinpoint pupil seen in your picture. I think the only way to know for sure about Mareks is to get a necropsy and testing after a death. A few labs around the country can do some testing on a blood sample for Mareks and other diseases. The 2 I know of are RAL lab (vetdna) and Zoologix.