Study about MAREKS/ treatment with hypericum

Do you have updates on what you've tried, especially with giving the vaccine to already sick birds? I have a boy we're treating with Acyclovir for Mareks. It's of course not a standard treatment, but there was a study done on its effects on Mareks. He's also getting pain reliever with gabapentin and and antiinflammatory. It's been about a month since onset of symptoms and he's still alive. It seems like he's slowly improving, but we are near the end of week one of the Acyclovir. I'd like to try the vaccine once done with this if in fact your birds saw improvement
Yes! She made a full recovery! No limping and full appetite and happy after the vaccine. It took about a week or so to see improvements and it will only work if given early enough. I tried on one that was to far gone and didn’t work. I ordered the vaccine on Valleyvet. She was good for awhile and even hatched out some babies but I messed up and tried to change the coops up and it stressed her out(stress brings out mareks). So overall the vaccine completely got rid of symptoms and she was happy and healthy but as in any case a carrier of mareks will always be a carrier and stress is a huge trigger. The stress caused another outbreak with her and she started going downhill again.
 
What is your definition of early enough? I'm a 1st time silkie own of one. She is a house pet and sits on my lap all day prior to her not walking on my lap during my teams meetings.

Doctors supsect she has mareks because after being outside in chapel hill for a tennis tournament my son was in. Two weeks later she was limping neck got twisted and just flopping over. I took her to the vet they gave her 1st time an anti inflammatory and a chelating Mrs bc they thought if was heavy metal poisoning. After a week on it she turned was walking following me around then flopped took her back to the vet . Kept her on the same meds even though they said not heavy metal poisoning because she had no traces of cadium or zinc but now added antibiotic to the mix. She still can't stand but I asked the vet what can I do.. said put her down. But she still can eat and drink and poop and still perks up when u talk to her. This all happened in March but since then I have put her back on her chick food, vit E (no twisted neck) b12, b6 and a vit D she is able to balance and she feels he legs and they move. Plus the doctors just assumed mareks.

What do you all think?
What else can I do?
I'll try anything.. she still sits on my lap during teams meeting

Should I try the vaccine?

Also her one leg joint looks a little weird just looks thicker

I'll take any help I can get.

Also how do you know how much vaccine to use etc?
 
Hello my people. I have a 10 month buff that presented with a wobbly/ Lame-ish right leg last night. She is 1 of 4 beautiful ladies that I had since day old. They wet all vaccinated for Maericks when I picked them up from a reputable breeder.
All Has been good with no issues of egg laying, eating, foraging or poops throughout the flock…until last night. I immediately separated her from the flock and gave her .2mls Bcomplex injection in her breast. I read that somewhere but can’t find the source again. I am hoping it is not Maerck.
She is able to stand this morning and has taken some water and a little food.
Does anyone know what the dosage and frequency of vit B inj would be the correct treatment if it is a vit deficiency?
It also does not help that we are packing to move and we are all stressed -
Any thoughts and help on next steps? I’m a first time chicken mamma and I sure do love my feathered kids
 

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I thought I would post this information to hopefully help somebody that is going through the same thing as I am. When I suspected mareks I searched the internet for hours hoping to find anything I could to help my poor baby. I started a study with my mareks flock and here are the results. I had silkie chicks that were about three months old.

Chick number 1:
Limping for days
Right leg extended
Separated from flock
Got depressed
Loss in appetite
Eventually couldnt walk
One leg forward one back
Normal poop
Couldn’t feel crop
Loss in eyesight

Treatment for chick number 1:
Before I knew it was mareks for sure I did a molasses flush for any worms/parasites. I gave vitamin E and selenium and vitamin B complex with no improvement. Symptom onset until the time I choose to end suffering was 2 weeks.

Chick number 2:
Started limping
Left leg extended
Normal poop
Collapsed crop
I separated from flock but remained outside to help with depression.
Slowly losing eyesight
Legs stuck in “split” position
Couldn’t stand

Treatment for chick number 2:
I immediately started vitamins. I read on here about hypericum/St. John’s wort to help with mareks. I bought 6c. Of hypericum(lowest dose) and started treatment for that right away. 2x a day every 12 hours. I mixed it in plastic with distilled water. I Still wasn’t positive it was mareks but ruled out lice/mites/worms/parasites. I stopped vitamins and treated with Corrid. Things didn’t seem to be getting better or worse. Another chicken tried to get through the fence and scared her and that made her decline very fast. This time the chick made it to 3 weeks since symptoms started.

Chick number 3:
Started limping
Left leg extended
Losing balance
Started to isolate

Treatment for chick number 3:
I ruled out everything else it could be and based on symptoms I knew it was mareks. I got these chicks from a back yard breeder that did not vaccinate for mareks. I spoke with a vet that recommended giving the mareks vaccine to the rest of my flock as well as my one showing symptoms. Yes I am aware you are supposed to give the vaccine to day old chicks and once they show symptoms it’s apparently to late. This vet said they had seen first hand the vaccine shrink the tumors that were starting to form. I had nothing else to lose so I tried it. I got the vaccine and administered it to my only chick showing symptoms as well as my healthy ones. So far it has been two and a half weeks and the foot is not extended anymore and the limping is slowly going away. I still need time to see the final results but my other two were paralyzed by 2 weeks and couldn’t stand so I’m very hopeful this will work. I am posting this to give anyone hope that is searching the internet to find anything that might help about mareks.
What was the name of the vaccine and where did you purchase it from
 
I have not used Hyericum Perforatum for years., because we've had very little problems with neuro symptoms in our flock, and In the past we've had mixed results, one hen that I remember did recover...or seemed to..but then died from something undetermined a couple of months later. The second did not improve. It's a lot of work for a chance at good results, plus, even if the bird seems to recover, it does not mean that they are not still a carrier and therefore would be adding to the potential for others to contract it. In the case of this pullet, I'm considering trying it again. I'm very worried it might be heavy metal poisoning, but of course, who knows, it could be lots of things. Even if you can't see it, the ground is probably tainted with metal; there's lots of it out there. There is testing for heavy metal poisoning but it is not cheap. We've had some sudden severe weather over the past couple of weeks, followed by mild weather, followed by more severe weather. So I'm sure this is difficult for the young ones to deal with, and their immune systems suffer because of conditions like that.
Just rambling to point out some of my own observations as I try to decide what to do with this pullet. There are so many causes of neuro or lameness issues in chickens including Marek's, Lymphoid Leukosis, vitamin deficiencies, metal poisoning, Mycoplasma Synoviae, Avian TB, injury, etc. and most of them you're left mystified because the symptoms are so similar and there's just nothing to differentiate. It's true that vets tend to use "Marek's" as a sort of catchall term. Based on my personal experiences and observations over the past couple of decades, I would just caution that you should not expect long term miraculous results from Hypericum P, although of course there are exceptions to every rule. I've been trying for years to coach myself not to become too attached to these birds...especially some of them. I never seem to learn though.
 

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