She's going to die..

[airmom1c05]

MNkris, now I am breathing easier, even though I got my first purchased birds from Dixiebirds. I will contact the owner to see what they use since Brandy was found in a park, so there's no way to know if she was vaccinated or not! I know the owner knew the whole story of Brandy, so I'm hoping he would have advised me to keep the birds separated if there was a possibility of them giving Mareks to her. The good news is that none of my birds are sickly (at the moment!).

 

[Stormhorse23]

guys...all my birds are vaccinated expect one. she was the first and the oldest and has been living with my other birds for about 7 months. nothing. shes fine!

 

[horsejody]

My chickens never showed any signs of disease. It is what most people would call a "closed" flock. I have a good friend with a "closed" backyard flock also. She had never had a case of the disease either. She gave me a few of her birds. After hers were quarantined a while, I added them to mine. Then a hen came down with Mareks. The disease was triggered by the stress of being in a new flock. I then learned from a poultry vet that 99.9 percent of all birds have it latent in their system. It can be triggered by stress. The disease will never be activated in most birds even under stress, but it does happen. The virus is so prevailent in the environment that you would have to raise and keep your chickens in a sterilized plastic bubble to prevent exposure. Most chickens won't ever have the disease activated, but if one of yours does come down with it, Murphy's Law will ensure that it is your favorite one that gets it.

 

[Stormhorse23]

Quote:
It touches my Star, and Ill kill it....maybe?

 

[verthandi]

You guys may have put some of the pieces together of this puzzle. Fort Dodge was the maker of the modified live vaccine that was causing problems in horses last year. Modified live has shown in studies to have a better protection rate, but also a higher reaction rate in animals vaccinated. Then the carrier problem occurred. The horses had reactions from local swelling of one or all limbs, manic behaviors, or severe colic.

Just a shot in the dark here, but there must be some connection between all these chicks getting sick at once. If it isn't the vaccine, or cold shipping tempertures, what could some of the other factors be?

 

[ruth]

I'm usually the "odd egg" on here regarding raising baby chicks and I am, by no means, an expert. But I have raised 4 small batches of babies and I believe they need to be raised as close to normal/natural as possible.

My newest babies were only one week old when the weather here finally hit 70 and sunny the other day. Out they went into their little baby pen in the sun. They had so much fun running and jumping and flying all over that pen. They never appeared cold or even took a nap. That night they slept like dead things - flat out on brooder floor with head/neck stretched straight out - face down. They were so tired from their day of playing.

Point is - we too would get sick and die if you took a bunch of us and packed us in a crowded box (plane/train) and shipped us for 2-3 days across country and varying temps and then placed us in a hot box under a hot light with little or no fresh air and sunshine and fed us commercially packaged food. YET that's what happens to most chicks and we wonder why they get sick and die and have so many illnesses and sudden death.

Put them out in sunshine and fresh air - feed them fresh foods (I feed my babies scrambled egg twice a day). Add some Poly-ViSol (liquid baby vitamins) to their water. Sunshine and fresh air, even in winter, is better than being cooped up in hot box. I know most of you don't agree with that but take a look at all of the threads/posts from people whose chicks are suddenly dying.