Single survivor after Marek's - what to do

[DaniCK]

Hi everyone; I'm a long-time lurker and first-time poster. I started out raising chickens a few years ago and before long started getting mysterious illness and deaths. I was baffled until one of the hens started showing classic leg paralysis symptoms. Further deaths and analysis confirmed: it was Marek's, the thing I had paid extra to have all my chicks vaccinated against. Great. The survivors were still laying, so I just settled for a small flock.

Fast forward to today: the second-to-last member of my flock finally passed away and now I only have one chicken left. She has never shown symptoms and is active and healthy. But she is undoubtedly a carrier. With her around, I don't think I could ever begin to sterilize my coop area. I've read 6 months to a year before it's safe to bring new birds into an area after an outbreak.

I don't want her to live alone as I've heard this is a horribly cruel thing to do to a flock animal. But I also do not want to add replacement chickens to an active biohazard area. I'd normally think "oh, just add vaccinated birds!"... but all my birds were vaccinated, and they died because it turns out the "vaccine" is hit-or-miss at best. Has anyone else encountered an issue like this? Are there Marek's-immune animals that could act as a social replacement for a flock? The only options I can see right now are "find other Marek's-infected birds and deal with the stress of managing a diseased flock indefinitely," "solitary confinement for life," or "cull her for the crime of being a healthy survivor." Is there a non-awful solution I'm missing?

 

[casportpony]

Hi everyone; I'm a long-time lurker and first-time poster. I started out raising chickens a few years ago and before long started getting mysterious illness and deaths. I was baffled until one of the hens started showing classic leg paralysis symptoms. Further deaths and analysis confirmed: it was Marek's, the thing I had paid extra to have all my chicks vaccinated against. Great. The survivors were still laying, so I just settled for a small flock.

Fast forward to today: the second-to-last member of my flock finally passed away and now I only have one chicken left. She has never shown symptoms and is active and healthy. But she is undoubtedly a carrier. With her around, I don't think I could ever begin to sterilize my coop area. I've read 6 months to a year before it's safe to bring new birds into an area after an outbreak.

I don't want her to live alone as I've heard this is a horribly cruel thing to do to a flock animal. But I also do not want to add replacement chickens to an active biohazard area. I'd normally think "oh, just add vaccinated birds!"... but all my birds were vaccinated, and they died because it turns out the "vaccine" is hit-or-miss at best. Has anyone else encountered an issue like this? Are there Marek's-immune animals that could act as a social replacement for a flock? The only options I can see right now are "find other Marek's-infected birds and deal with the stress of managing a diseased flock indefinitely," "solitary confinement for life," or "cull her for the crime of being a healthy survivor." Is there a non-awful solution I'm missing?

Welcome to BYC. So sorry you've had to deal with Marek's and for all of your losses.

What hatcheries did you get vaccinated chicks from? I've had good luck with chicks from Hoover's and Belt. And by good luck, I mean no paralysis and no mysterious deaths.

 

[DaniCK]

Welcome to BYC. So sorry you've had to deal with Marek's and for all of your losses.

What hatcheries did you get vaccinated chicks from? I've had good luck with chicks from Hoover's and Belt. And by good luck, I mean no paralysis and no mysterious deaths.

Thank you for the e-hugs, they are appreciated. Very glad to hear you've had good success, too. I got my chicks from MyPetChicken after hearing other people's good experiences with them. I got a variety of different breeds, which might have increased my likelihood of ending up with an infected chick, though it also might just have been that some wild sparrow brought it into my yard. Really hard to know.

 

[casportpony]

Thank you for the e-hugs, they are appreciated. Very glad to hear you've had good success, too. I got my chicks from MyPetChicken after hearing other people's good experiences with them. I got a variety of different breeds, which might have increased my likelihood of ending up with an infected chick, though it also might just have been that some wild sparrow brought it into my yard. Really hard to know.

I've heard good things about MyPetChicken, and I won some chicks from them and overall, I was very happy with the experience.

What I learned about them is that they are not a hatchery (they weren't when I got mine, and that might have changed), they are a "middleman". They buy from hatcheries and sell them on.

So what about getting some from a well-known large hatchery like Ideal, Hoover's, or McMurray?

What state do you live in?

 

[Yardmom]

Occasionally we end up with a duck in one of our chicken coops. Sometimes those ducks would rather hang out with chickens than other ducks. Ducks are not susceptible to Marek's, so could work as a cross species companion. (Make sure the duck is female.)