Someone please help me asap.

no one wants to hear my opinion. Put the bird down and clean all cages, waterers and coop with disinfectant which will kill Marek's. Better safe than sorry. The longer this bird is around, the higher the chances of making the other birds sick. At condition 1 or 2 above, it is never going to get better. Yes, I have read this entire thread. I am so sorry for your bird.
Sadly,
Karen
 
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If this appears to be Mareks then cull him. I have battled it multiple times. Better than 2/3's never walk properly. Of those that get back on their feet, I have yet to get one to last another year. Hens do not lay as well and tend to fail when stressed by being broody. Variant I have dealt with is not all that infectious.
 
If the bird has Marek's, then yes, euthanasia is the probably the right answer, but do any of us know for sure that it is Marek's? I've seen peafowl with similar symptoms, including ocular changes, make complete recoveries with intensive supportive care and medication.

-Kathy
 
Thank you everyone for all opinions, I appreciate them all. I have talked to my dad about what he thinks would be best for the bird, and he thinks to cull him would be the right thing to do. As of right now all I know is something is really wrong with him and that he has not gotten better over the last 4 days, but has gotten worse. It is absolutely heartbreaking to go in there and see him this way.. He was such a big proud rooster over his hens. He is not living a happy life right now guys. He can't walk and just sits in a box all day not eating. I think I will give him until the end of this week ( Saturday ) and if I do not see improvements, we will cull him. I feel at that point it's the humane thing to do. Until then, I will give him all of the care he needs. Continue to try and feed him things, anything he might take and putting some ACV into his water because it could possibly help. Thank you all so much and I will continue to keep you guys updated.
 
no one wants to hear my opinion. Put the bird down and clean all cages, waterers and coop with disinfectant which will kill Marek's. Better safe than sorry. The longer this bird is around, the higher the chances of making the other birds sick. At condition 1 or 2 above, it is never going to get better. Yes, I have read this entire thread. I am so sorry for your bird.
Sadly,
Karen
I agree that birds with a body score of 1 rarely survive, but a small percentage will with the proper supportive care. A score of two is just a thin bird, so completely treatable is it doesn't have an underlying terminal disease.

-Kathy
 
Thank you everyone for all opinions, I appreciate them all. I have talked to my dad about what he thinks would be best for the bird, and he thinks to cull him would be the right thing to do. As of right now all I know is something is really wrong with him and that he has not gotten better over the last 4 days, but has gotten worse. It is absolutely heartbreaking to go in there and see him this way.. He was such a big proud rooster over his hens. He is not living a happy life right now guys. He can't walk and just sits in a box all day not eating. I think I will give him until the end of this week ( Saturday ) and if I do not see improvements, we will cull him. I feel at that point it's the humane thing to do. Until then, I will give him all of the care he needs. Continue to try and feed him things, anything he might take and putting some ACV into his water because it could possibly help. Thank you all so much and I will continue to keep you guys updated.
One week without eating is too long to wait, so unless you are going to provide supportive care, like tube feeding food and fluids, I think it would be best to euthanize sooner rather than later. Think of it this way... If he were a dog or cat that couldn't walk, wasn't eating, was losing weight, what would you do? Would you just put food and water in front of it and watch it for a week?

-Kathy
 
I understand.. and you're right. Just wanted to give him some time so I didn't feel as bad when we had to do it.. Thank you and I'll update if and when it happens. So sad this happened.
 
I understand.. and you're right. Just wanted to give him some time so I didn't feel as bad when we had to do it.. Thank you and I'll update if and when it happens. So sad this happened.


I know it's hard to do, and I think many us put off euthanasia because of our feelings, but what we have to do is think about the bird and *their* quality of life. It's not fair to him to leave him sitting there sitting in his poop to start dying of dehydration and starvation, so if he's not drinking enough, and eating, I think you need to either treat him aggressively with supportive care, vitamins, medications, etc, or euthanize him. This is on of the reasons I suggested that you weigh him daily as I suspect he is losing weight daily. Daily weight loss = bird that needs aggressive treatment or euthanasia.

-Kathy
 
We just don't want the materials to do that. I got him to eat like 3 little pieces of bread today, do you think this is something that should have me rethink culling?? Still can't walk, I believe he is drinking.
 
We just don't want the materials to do that. I got him to eat like 3 little pieces of bread today, do you think this is something that should have me rethink culling?? Still can't walk, I believe he is drinking.


Three little bits of bread is nothing... A five pound bird would normally drink no less than 4 ounces of water per day and eat about 4 ounces of food each day. Can you take him to a vet?

-Kathy
 

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