Rooster can no longer walk

[clayb226]

Oh, and one more thing, I do not know if it is significant or not, but not long before he started this I noticed a single black dot on his comb. I know it was not there before, and thought is may of been a little frostbite or something. I hope this can help point in a direction other than marek's.

 

[seminolewind]

You can still do it. Hatching eggs do not carry Marek's. In fact, the hen layers give the chicks a tiny bit of resistance. You can sell chicks, but I would advise you to be extremely careful about cross contamination. I mean really careful. Some people I know actually have their outside clothes and inside clothes, not to mention covering your hair, leaving shoes outside, and washing hands. It may be better to hatch chicks at a friend's house.

Many chicken owners go thru all this to sell chicks. It's not the end of the world, but seems like it!
If you keep chicks , you need to vaccinated them at day one and keep them quarantined for at least 3 weeks before putting them outside. I do 6 weeks.

Another thing is that I am reluctant to say it's Marek's unless you have one or two more chickens that have the same symptoms , or you find that even with eating, they are wasting away. So let's hope he has some neuro disorder that can't be shared.

 

[seminolewind]

Your vet might be able to take some blood and send it to some Texas university that does testing for Marek's. The cost is small, and a lot smaller than sending a body. I'll get the link

 

[seminolewind]

Here's the link: http://tvmdl.tamu.edu/tests_services/test_info.php?test=Marek%27s-Disease-(PCR)&unit_id=1349&unit_effdt=02-JUN-10

 

[Michael Apple]

Oh, and one more thing, I do not know if it is significant or not, but not long before he started this I noticed a single black dot on his comb. I know it was not there before, and thought is may of been a little frostbite or something. I hope this can help point in a direction other than marek's.

You know, it could have just been a ding on his comb or he got pecked. That likely doesn't have anything to do with his lameness. I just lost a very special 3 year old rooster to progressive leg weakness. No other birds exhibited or now exhibit his symptoms. No bumblefoot or joint injury was obvious on him. I treated him for a few months. First with a run of Enfloxil (Baytril) injections for 5 days with little improvement. I supplemented his diet with vitamins and probiotics during this time and gave him a break. Thinking it was either infectious arthritis or Mareks (both of which there is no cure), I treated him with a series of injections of Lincomycin which can be used for Mycoplasma and infectious arthritis. It did nothing, and I know that if I see no improvement in 3 days, I'm using the wrong medication. That was a last resort. I kept him comfortable and helped him along until I saw he wasn't enjoying life anymore and had to put him down. I hope you can cure what ails your boy, and if you can't, It would be a good idea to get a necropsy done if he was vaccinated for Mareks and has this problem. I concluded that since my rooster was not vaccinated for Mareks, that's likely what it was.

 

[clayb226]

Here's the link: http://tvmdl.tamu.edu/tests_services/test_info.php?test=Marek%27s-Disease-(PCR)&unit_id=1349&unit_effdt=02-JUN-10

Awesome, thanks. I went out last night again to see how he was doing, he does OK with standing on one leg and eating, but loses his balance a little, because he will try to put weight on it. Not gasping for air, he does seem just a little under weight though. I called my local vet clinic, and they said they have not heard of Marek's, so I am guessing that it is not common around here. I will keep you all updated. Thanks for all the help so far, if he gets any worse, I may just kill him and do an autopsy myself to look for the tumors. I am for sure wanting to continue with my breeding program, and this year, so I will have to vaccinate my chicks, and breed for resistance. I will probably start all over with a whole new batch of chicks, and see how things go. If they are vaccinated, will they still catch it, and be carriers of the disease? I am still not sure where it came from, as all my chickens are 18-24 months or older. I did have some chicks die suddenly last year though. One was 5 weeks, the other was 2 weeks old. Hatched by a broody hen, and left with her.

 

[clayb226]

I found another possibility, but unsure how to diagnose which issue I am dealing with. Upon doing some research, I found that botulism has very similar symptoms. Does anyone think this could be a possible solution, and if so, how can I figure out which ailment I am facing? Does anyone know of a treatment for botulism, that I could administer to see if this could be the problem??

 

[clayb226]

OK, I checked on him again, no better. I did notice this time, that he is starting to get rd streaks on the leg he can not move? I will bug my vet again tomorrow to see if they had a chance to look into my issue. I may just have to start all over next year.

 

[seminolewind]

I found another possibility, but unsure how to diagnose which issue I am dealing with. Upon doing some research, I found that botulism has very similar symptoms. Does anyone think this could be a possible solution, and if so, how can I figure out which ailment I am facing? Does anyone know of a treatment for botulism, that I could administer to see if this could be the problem??

If it's botulism he would have died in a few days.
If you do a necropsy, just know that with the paralysis, you may not see tumors, just enlarged nerves.
Whether you start over or not isn't going to solve the problem should it be Marek's. The best you can do is vaccinate any day olds and quarantine them for 3-6 weeks to let the vaccine work. Vaccinated chicks/chickens can get and carry Marek's and give it to others. They just won't die from the symptoms (90%).

If you got chickens that were older, they could have carried it in. Then the chicks would have died weeks after being exposed to the older chickens.

 

[Michael Apple]

I found another possibility, but unsure how to diagnose which issue I am dealing with. Upon doing some research, I found that botulism has very similar symptoms. Does anyone think this could be a possible solution, and if so, how can I figure out which ailment I am facing? Does anyone know of a treatment for botulism, that I could administer to see if this could be the problem??

1 tablespoon of Epson Salts in a 1/2 cup of water. I used a soft piece of aquarium hose attached to a large syringe to easily get the solution down the birds throat and into the crop. Doing this 1-2 times a day usually gets the bird back on it's feet. When it isn't treated they eventually suffer from paralysis. Feeding table scraps that are allowed to spoil can cause this. The yard needs to be maintained to be free of rotten or toxic materials