Please help

[famerzellman]

That looks more like shed intestinal lining to me.... it is flesh coloured rather than blood red.
If it is Marek's disease, you have it for the long term..... essentially survivors must be assumed carriers for life and the virus can survive for months in the ground and buildings. It can also be carried on clothing,shoes and even the wind. It is spread via dander dust from infected birds which is inhaled to infect new birds. It is advisable to operate a closed flock as even healthy birds could carry the virus to a new home if you sell them. I breed from survivors in my flock and broody rear the chicks within the flock so that they are exposed to the virus from day one. After the iniial outbreak it has been my experience that the virus settles down and you just have the odd outbreak every now and then. I bred 56 chicks last year and only 3 of them developed symptoms of which I lost 2 (pullets of course) and the cockerel that was destined to be culled, made a miraculous recovery and was healthy for several months before a fox picked him off!..... not much meat on him though. Then I had a 2 year old hen go down with it over winter. She battled it valliantly for 4 months before it took her. I have had no more victims to it in the past 5 months but it will rear it's ugly head again sooner or later, but not nearly as bad as that initial outbreak.

Thank you so much I feel like there's a little bit of hope! Hopefully I can get their immune systems healthy enough to keep the diease dormant. Should I just get them their own pen and coop and just forget about putting them together? I have a feeling that the big birds have already been exposed to it since I had their grow out pen in their run but I'm not fully sure if that is how it works.
I really do appreciate all of your help!

 

[rebrascora]

The older birds will generally have more immunity to contracting the disease, it mostly infects juvenile birds, particularly during adolescence when their bodies are stressed due to hormones surging. Those that survive may have outbreaks later in life though, so older birds dying of it, whilst less likely, is not impossible. At the moment assuming it is Marek's, and because you are having an outbreak amongst the youngsters, you need to keep them as stress free as possible. That means improving their living conditions whilst not changing things too much. If you have pullets and cockerels together, I would recommend you remove the cockerels... either cull or put them in a bachelor pad. My experience is that young males with their raging hormones, harass the life out of young pullets and that puts them at greater risk of a Marek's outbreak. Males usually reach sexual maturity before the females and they rarely have any gentlemanly restraint. It may stress the males to be removed from the pullets, but I see surplus cockerels as chicken dinners rather than flock members, especially once they start raping and pillaging, so I have less concern about their long term welfare!
Once this outbreak settles down, if it is indeed Marek's, then you may want to start integrating the two flocks by letting them free range on neutral ground or in a large new pen together where neither has territorial rights, but I would wait at least a few months from your last outbreak before trying it.

 

[famerzellman]

The older birds will generally have more immunity to contracting the disease, it mostly infects juvenile birds, particularly during adolescence when their bodies are stressed due to hormones surging. Those that survive may have outbreaks later in life though, so older birds dying of it, whilst less likely, is not impossible. At the moment assuming it is Marek's, and because you are having an outbreak amongst the youngsters, you need to keep them as stress free as possible. That means improving their living conditions whilst not changing things too much. If you have pullets and cockerels together, I would recommend you remove the cockerels... either cull or put them in a bachelor pad. My experience is that young males with their raging hormones, harass the life out of young pullets and that puts them at greater risk of a Marek's outbreak. Males usually reach sexual maturity before the females and they rarely have any gentlemanly restraint. It may stress the males to be removed from the pullets, but I see surplus cockerels as chicken dinners rather than flock members, especially once they start raping and pillaging, so I have less concern about their long term welfare!
Once this outbreak settles down, if it is indeed Marek's, then you may want to start integrating the two flocks by letting them free range on neutral ground or in a large new pen together where neither has territorial rights, but I would wait at least a few months from your last outbreak before trying it.

Thank you so much!