Please help for Marek's and/or coccidia

[member 158781]

Hi,
Someone gave me 4 little golden polish hens. They are my favorite breed.
Well, first two of the hens turned out to be roosters. Then I found them all to be snotty at arrival so I had to nurse them back to health.
One of the little hens was killed by an "overzealous" boy. But that is a different story that I will tell another time.
Now, a couple of weeks later, I found that the two little roosters suffer from half-sided paralysis. I suspect Marek's disease and have isolated them from my other chickens again. Of course my chickens were exposed but since they were from reputable breeders, they may have been vaccinated when hatched. So far, none have shown any signs of the disease.
Other people tell me that they might suffer from worms and/or coccidia and that the paralyses is not necessarily Marek's.
All these youngsters have now been dewormed. The little hen doesn't show any signs of Marek's (Yet??)
One of the little roosters seemed worse yesterday than today. The other little rooster seemed worse today.
I did put antibiotics in the drinking water. They do still have an appetite except for the worst little rooster.
I feed him an egg with a little bit more antibiotics.
Just to make sure now that it is not coccidia, I want to put some Corid in the water.
I have a bovine Corid solution of 96mg per 1ml or cc.
Several questions:

1. Do I need to give them Corid and if so, how much of that solution do I put in one US gallon of water?
2. What do you think? Is the paralysis always Marek's or can it be the worms and or coccidia?

These youngsters have been free-ranging for the past couple of weeks since the end of their quarantine.

Important: I found that they spent a lot of time in the horse barn, trying to stay out of the heat. They may have been drinking water from a drain that will also hold horse feces and/or urine. They may have gotten their little chicken paws on some medicated goat food. They have also been picking through the horse manure. (But then again, all my chickens always do that. It's what chickens do.

Please share your thoughts with me.
Ellen

 

[Hockeychick]

Sorry to hear that they are so sick. My chicks had coccidiosis a few years ago, but they recovered. There was no paralysis with my birds. I am just learning about Mareks myself, and paralysis is one of the symptoms. Sadly there is no treatment. I hope your birds have something treatable. Just search the forum for info on Corid dosage...I have seen it in several threads, and I don't remember anymore...sorry. I hope your birds are ok. I know how frustrating it is to know that your birds are sick, but unsure of the cause. Hang in there.

 

[member 158781]

Just an update on our chickens. All the young chickens that Deb Silver gave us are dead. They did indeed have Marek's. I understand from someone at the feed store that several flocks of chickens had been pretty much eradicated by getting the disease through the same chicken provider.
My own older chickens were apparently not vaccinated either. They all got the disease but I managed to save most of them by vaccinating them with a doses of the vaccine that was 5 times bigger than the doses that is used for newborn chicks. I also force fed them because they lost their appetite and I gave them curcumin. Some of them went through a light case of paralysis but they recovered. I figured that if they were going to die anyhow, I might just as well try this. I had five adult chickens. 4 survived.
Now I'm waiting for 6 chicks that have been vaccinated for Marek's. I have ordered them over the internet.
My flock will be back to ten.