Rooster can no longer walk

[clayb226]

The picture above is what my rooster was doing at first, but I am thinking it is marek's now, as he is not moving much, and is getting really thin. I plan on putting him down this week, and sending him to the university for further testing. This has me concerned, as I am not sure how my chickens got infected. Could it be some of the Guinea or Peacocks that roam freely around town? I think the guy at the university was trying to get me to work on growing a resistant flock. I am still unsure on where to go from here, as this is a project I was really wanting to do with my 4 very young children to help teach responsibility and work ethics. I would like to thank everyone who helped. If anyone has experience in overcoming such a thing, and has got it all straightened back out please feel free to post here, or send me a message. My kids are pretty sad over the whole deal, and we would all like to move on into the next phase of our plan if anyway possible. But we do not want to spread anything anywhere either. I will keep you all posted as I hear from the university. Thanks.

 

[seminolewind]

Hi Clay. Marek's is sad and devastating, esp when your children get involved. Seeing something happen that nothing can be done on. My method for resistant flocks would be to take my own eggs from exposed chickens and let exposed chickens hatch them. My silkies did this with great success. It does not work if your affected birds hatch eggs from other people's hens that have never been exposed.

You may still lose one or two with hatching your own eggs, but you will have resistant birds to work with. Even if a vaccinated hen hatches eggs from your flock, you will get a high number of resistant chicks because vaccinated or not, the hens have been exposed and carry the virus. If you want to sell eggs or hatch chicks, the eggs are fine and the chicks if you hatch or sell will have to be under strict quarantine , no contamination, and hatched in an incubator. Don't cross contaminate and sell them quickly.

If you have any chicks/chickens that have been exposed to other chickens outside your own, they can carry the virus. It's very rare that a wild bird affect your flock unless the other flock is very close to where you live.

Vaccinated hatchery chicks that are sent as vaccinated day olds you will quarantine for 2-6 weeks before you add them to your flock. Those hens will be exposed and carry the virus, and lay and hatch resistant chicks that will be exposed but have mother's resistance already. You may lose a small number of those, maybe. I haven't yet. I've had exposed silkie hens have 3 hatches of chickens that are now 2 years old,

Hope this helps and I'm not too confusing!

 

[clayb226]

Hi Clay. Marek's is sad and devastating, esp when your children get involved. Seeing something happen that nothing can be done on. My method for resistant flocks would be to take my own eggs from exposed chickens and let exposed chickens hatch them. My silkies did this with great success. It does not work if your affected birds hatch eggs from other people's hens that have never been exposed.

You may still lose one or two with hatching your own eggs, but you will have resistant birds to work with. Even if a vaccinated hen hatches eggs from your flock, you will get a high number of resistant chicks because vaccinated or not, the hens have been exposed and carry the virus. If you want to sell eggs or hatch chicks, the eggs are fine and the chicks if you hatch or sell will have to be under strict quarantine , no contamination, and hatched in an incubator. Don't cross contaminate and sell them quickly.

If you have any chicks/chickens that have been exposed to other chickens outside your own, they can carry the virus. It's very rare that a wild bird affect your flock unless the other flock is very close to where you live.

Vaccinated hatchery chicks that are sent as vaccinated day olds you will quarantine for 2-6 weeks before you add them to your flock. Those hens will be exposed and carry the virus, and lay and hatch resistant chicks that will be exposed but have mother's resistance already. You may lose a small number of those, maybe. I haven't yet. I've had exposed silkie hens have 3 hatches of chickens that are now 2 years old,

Hope this helps and I'm not too confusing!

Thanks, I understand what you are saying, and welcome your replies. I found a very informative post on a different forum, by someone with a very similar name, may of been you, and t it really helped to break it down for me also. The problem, now, is that Dave is going to be put down this week to be sent to the university. I am not sure that they will be fertile when they start laying again. I will take your advise, and start building a disease resistant flock, and let them sale hatching eggs at first. Will the resistant chicks carry the disease if I let them hatch from the hens with the hens, or will they be resistant enough to fight the disease off to actually be immune to it? I would like to work on a resistant flock, but if it could still spread the disease , how resistant would that really be? Maybe, just maybe we could breed for immunity, instead of resistance, if it is possible. I will let you all know how it turns out. Now, does anyone have a marek's resistant BLRW rooster, since Dave is on his way out of town??

 

[seminolewind]

The eggs you sell do not carry the virus. The hen just passes on some kind of resistance.
I also have some good reading at the bottom of my posts (not the Nancy ones)
There are also other members that have been battling Marek's and I hope they see this thread. I know Casportpony is following it.

 

[casportpony]

I have another in my living room right now. A few days ago I noticed that she wasn't on her perch and was hiding in the bushes, but could still run away from me. I weighed her, wormed her and dusted for bugs. While doing this, I noticed some ocular changes, so I knew I'd be where we are now, which is unable to stand. So I'm going to keep her inside a provide supportive care (tube feeding) and see if she recovers, but I doubt she will. These pictures were taken on 2-9 when she could still run away from me. Two days later she could not stand.

Good eye.


Bad eye

 

[clayb226]

I have another in my living room right now. A few days ago I noticed that she wasn't on her perch and was hiding in the bushes, but could still run away from me. I weighed her, wormed her and dusted for bugs. While doing this, I noticed some ocular changes, so I knew I'd be where we are now, which is unable to stand. So I'm going to keep her inside a provide supportive care (tube feeding) and see if she recovers, but I doubt she will. These pictures were taken on 2-9 when she could still run away from me. Two days later she could not stand.

Good eye.


Bad eye

Looks like there may be several that are facing this issue. The bad eye picture, almost, looks like chicky glockoma. I am going to try to move forward with the plans the kids and I had, but still uncertain if the resistant chickens will carry the virus. If so, the kids would not be able to show any birds, as they may infect other peoples birds, this = no good for us. I sure apprieciate all the replies, and looking forward to helping get things like this resolved. I am confident that if enough, knowledgeable, people come together, we will be able to overcome this disease one way or another. Maybe we should start a group, called the Marek's Mofia, and vow to bring Marek's disease to its knees!! Great, see what happens when you get hooked on chickens, one starts to go a little coocoo, and maybe even think a little unrationally when their flock in jeopardized!!

 

[casportpony]

FWIW, the avian pathologist that I work with said that Merek's is one of the most common causes of death that they see at the UC Davis lab. I'll be sending my pictures to him since he seems to enjoy helping people this way. He also uses them for teaching purposes.

 

[casportpony]

I like your Merek's Mofia idea, lol and I think there are many others that would, too.

 

[seminolewind]

FWIW, the avian pathologist that I work with said that Merek's is one of the most common causes of death that they see at the UC Davis lab. I'll be sending my pictures to him since he seems to enjoy helping people this way. He also uses them for teaching purposes.

I agree with you. It just presents itself in so many ways that it's hard to say it's Marek's. I had a roo with an eye like that. Then I had another roo who just presented an oval pupil. Then he wasted away.

Odd story. A few months ago, my 5 year old silkie died. She was one of the first ones to be exposed to Marek's by way of a purchased hen 3.5 years ago. She wasted away, but held on a long time, and ate and drank. I put one of her 2 yr old hens with her. I picked her up one day and she vomited and died. The 2 year old was a daughter, and the next day became "catatonic". Acted like she was blind. She stayed in the same place all day and couldn't find the food and water. If I pushed her over she just stayed that way. I euthanized her.

It seems so far from Marek's symptoms. I could swear it wasn't Marek's. But then there's the flock history. And it most likely was Marek's. I still have a 5 year old roo and a 2 year old daughter who look happy and healthy and lived thru everything the others did.

Casportpony, How interesting and lucky that you have an avian pathologist that you communicate with. And that eye you posted leaves no doubt, does it.

 

[tdgill]

I lost a 2yr. old rooster to apparent Marek's symptoms. Have not had another bird show symptoms since and thats been over a year or more. I think it comes down to marek's being a virus and in the environment - some birds will be affected and show symptoms. Others will not. I was not careful about quarantine etc, my roo was around his girls for quite some time after the start of his symptoms. I also kept him for weeks and pampered him and held him and fed him when he couldn't get around anymore. No other chickens have showed any sign of "catching" the illness from him. Not to say that it can't happen that way, but I think of it as a prevalent and common virus. Some birds will show symptoms others will not.

Back in the day, it used to be called "range paralysis" or "down in the leg" and birds usually died from being unable to feed and drink. I read somewhere that Marek's has given new insight in cancer research regarding the vaccine etc....