- Thread starter
- #31
Airyaman
Songster
One of my oldest girls, a CCL (if you consider 35 weeks "old"), died last week. She had diarrhea for a week or more, and then she passed. I sent her off for a necroscopy and judging by what they've reported thus far, it seems she had the visceral form of Marek's. The report is not complete as they sent her off for further testing at the Auburn University lab, but what they reported looks pretty convincing:
For the last weeks of her life, she ate and drank but she became less active. The night before her death I saw she was breathing harder than usual.
Just today I had another death in a different flock. This time a 34 week old Barnevelder. She too started having diarrhea, so I can consider that one of the signs. Knock on wood, I don't have any others with diarrhea yet, but if I do...well, let's just say I'll know it could be just a matter of time.
I thought maybe this one was different. The CCL's diarrhea had alot of urates in it while the Barnevelder's did not. So I was hoping it was something else. I thought maybe she had crop issues, because it was not empty this morning, so I was going to treat her for that. When I got back from some errands and picking up some miconazole, I found her laying down and she started spasming as I got close. She died within 10 minutes after that.
I will send her off for a necroscopy to be sure, and so I know more about this awful disease that has ruined my chicken keeping experience.
I stated in post #26 that I was done with it. When all of these chickens were gone, I would be done. But even after this, I really like keeping them. So sucker that I am, I just recently got a shipment of chicks from Meyer's and of course I made sure they were vaccinated. None of my birds were because almost all were hatched from eggs and I never thought I'd have to deal with this disease. Time will tell if the vaccine is effective against the strain I have which seems to be quite nasty.
For the last weeks of her life, she ate and drank but she became less active. The night before her death I saw she was breathing harder than usual.
Just today I had another death in a different flock. This time a 34 week old Barnevelder. She too started having diarrhea, so I can consider that one of the signs. Knock on wood, I don't have any others with diarrhea yet, but if I do...well, let's just say I'll know it could be just a matter of time.
I thought maybe this one was different. The CCL's diarrhea had alot of urates in it while the Barnevelder's did not. So I was hoping it was something else. I thought maybe she had crop issues, because it was not empty this morning, so I was going to treat her for that. When I got back from some errands and picking up some miconazole, I found her laying down and she started spasming as I got close. She died within 10 minutes after that.
I will send her off for a necroscopy to be sure, and so I know more about this awful disease that has ruined my chicken keeping experience.
I stated in post #26 that I was done with it. When all of these chickens were gone, I would be done. But even after this, I really like keeping them. So sucker that I am, I just recently got a shipment of chicks from Meyer's and of course I made sure they were vaccinated. None of my birds were because almost all were hatched from eggs and I never thought I'd have to deal with this disease. Time will tell if the vaccine is effective against the strain I have which seems to be quite nasty.
