St. John's Wort and Mereks Disease

[bizzynik]

Hey everybody. This is a non emergency post, a sharing of what I have experienced this past week. This past Tuesday when I went to let my flock out, I had one that looked odd to me. Once I got closer, I realized that she couldn't stand up. I immediately thought Merecks disease and separated her from everyone else. I ran back inside to get the St. John's Wort( liquid form) from my chicken first aid kit, and gave her two half full dropper doses. I left her with food and water and got off to my appointment. When I got home that afternoon I checked on her. She was still alive so I have her another half dropper dose. I continued to check on her every couple of hours and kept dosing her. Wednesday she was standing and moving pretty well. We tried to reintroduce her, but she wasn't quite ready yet. So I was able to spend sometime out in the chicken yard on Thursday afternoon, so I let her out of quarantine then. She walked right out like a champ and merged back into the flock. I dosed her twice on Thursday and twice on Friday. Today, Saturday, she has had no medicine, and I have to look really hard to find her in the flock.
Now I'm a new chicken mom, roughly 8 months, and I'm not 100% sure, but earlier thus spring I lost two birds to what I believe is Mereks. I didn't have them necropsied. At the time I didn't even think about it. Buy they both exhibited typical symptoms. After that is when I read about St. John's Wort and Mereks Disease. I know it's not a proven cure, but it seems to have worked for me. I'm just hoping this might help give anyone some more insight on options to help keep their flock healthy.

This is her, Stumblena as she's been named.

 

[Farmgirl47]

What a great story! I just recently lost my Brown Leghorn hen to what appeared to be Merek's disease, and have lost others to it in the past. It breaks my heart not being able to do anything for them, and having watching them suffer (or put them down).
I will for sure have to look up this St. John's Wort stuff!!

 

[Farmgirl47]

If you don't mind my asking, what brand of St. John's Wort do you have?

 

[bizzynik]

This is what I use. I bought it off Amazon for around $15, I think. It's Hawaii Pharm brand.

 

[Mama Runner]

I'm always excited to see people using all natural herbal remedies!

 

[janicew1290]

How do i dose my tiny serana who has Marek's, please? I worry about overdosing. She weighs about a half a pound.

 

[Climbingalbatross]

I cured one of my frizzled satins with st johns wort. I am now working on a silkie with .5 ml of 300 mg st johns wort mixed with 6 tablespoons. I just started last night, so I can't say yet if it will help her. Usually Meraks is deadly to silkies. Satins are a mix of silkie and bantam cochin that look like silkies with smooth feathers. So far they seem to be responsive to st johns wort. I hope it works for silkies too.

 

[mrskenmore]

I cured one of my frizzled satins with st johns wort. I am now working on a silkie with .5 ml of 300 mg st johns wort mixed with 6 tablespoons. I just started last night, so I can't say yet if it will help her. Usually Meraks is deadly to silkies. Satins are a mix of silkie and bantam cochin that look like silkies with smooth feathers. So far they seem to be responsive to st johns wort. I hope it works for silkies too.

How is your silkie doing?

 

[mayomutt2]

I cured one of my frizzled satins with st johns wort. I am now working on a silkie with .5 ml of 300 mg st johns wort mixed with 6 tablespoons. I just started last night, so I can't say yet if it will help her. Usually Meraks is deadly to silkies. Satins are a mix of silkie and bantam cochin that look like silkies with smooth feathers. So far they seem to be responsive to st johns wort. I hope it works for silkies too.

I ORDERED St Johns Wort liquid extract 2 ounce bottle today. Sick rooster & hen acting odd. Roo will not eat or drink. Walks slow but okay,. Acts like he has forgot how to be a chicken. A hen died 2 weeks ago possible Mareks. When u give liquid st johns... do u give straight out of bottle? he weighs 2 pounds.

 

[Climbingalbatross]

Used 1 tbsp of water with one pill in a bottle. Give 20 drops of the solution to the infected bird. Repeat every 12 hours until symptoms subside.

Most chickens don't like the taste of the pure form. Try 50% St. Johns Wort and 50% water in another bottle. Ten drops of pure St. Johns Wort should help. I find that a higher dose will have more impact if given at the beginning of an illness.