Possible to examine a tumor for Marek's?

[Dudu]

I am just wondering - our cockerel that had weak legs (still has) and is unable to stand, has two tumors - one on the outside of his left leg (near the joint, in the feathered part) and one on the left side of his chest. Over the past few days they have become very hard, like a bone. Our vet to whom we took him did suspect Marek's, but I was not ready to have him put down.

I am just wondering if it's possible to find out it's Marek's without putting the bird down, by taking one of these tumors which seem to be completely unattached to anything (just under the skin).

I'm just clutching at straws, I'd feel horrible putting him down and finding out if was NOT Marek's but something that we could have treated.

 

[Dudu]

I'm going to bump up my own post, if you have any ideas, they're much appreciated...

 

[Erica]

Hi Dudu,

so sorry you're in this situation. I don't know much about Marek's as I've never really had it on my property, so please don't take anything I say as gospel.

My feeling though is that tumours are a bit of a death-knell in any case, and a bird that can't stand has probably reached a point where it's probably in quite a bit of pain. There will be more pain in removing a tumour for diagnosis, and it's hard to see that there could be a good outcome if vitamin and other TLC type treatments haven't helped so far.

That doesn't answer your original question, which is whether or not Marek's can be isolated from tumours. I'm sorry I don't know how these things work, but I would assume it's possible.

Whatever you do I can easily see it will be done out of kindness.

My sympathies,

Erica

 

[Dudu]

Erica, thanks a lot for your reply, I know this is NOT an easy thing to figure out (and so my vet told me also).

I'm going to ask him this question also, just thought maybe someone here had an idea or had it done maybe.

As of yesterday he's beginning to stand up more on both legs and also walk on his hocks, using his beak also to hold onto the crate. He doesn't show that he's in any great pain, he's mostly just relaxing. I massage his back and legs and do some 'physical therapy' (such as stretching his legs gently and releasing them, trying to get him to clutch my fingers etc.). I do this every other day, but this morning he was really getting around the crate by himself so I bypassed exercising him. (Since it makes him hot, he begins to pant after about 5 minutes.)

Other than that he's eating and pooping well, OH and we submitted a fecal sample from him also (along with some others) AND it came back as cocci, so now he's getting amprolium-based treatment in water (second day today).

 

[Dudu]

Just an update to this thread for the sake of sharing knowledge (as I have gained so much of it from this forum of ours), I had asked our vet about examining an tumour for Marek's taken from a live bird and he said it's possible but still the conclusive evidence must come from the brain tissue. However, since I was not ready for such a decision, he said if my bird is not suffering, we might as well leave him and see what happens.

I have updated also his progress on the original thread, "6 months old cockerel, suddenly weak legs" here: https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/post.php?tid=581984