The Legbar Thread!

[Flaming Chicken]

I'm a dad

 

[ChicKat]

Hi, I've been lurking on this thread pondering the purchase of some Cream Legbars. I recently culled my entire flock and started over due to disease. My advice would be to get that hen to a avian or poultry vet with access to a diagnostic lab. After you get a diagnosis, you'll be able to make better treatment decisions. Before I got my flock diagnosis I spent probably $60 on treatments that had no hope of helping and may have been detrimental. I had two options, the state lab which is free but sacrifices your bird, or a private vet. I used the state lab on the sickest hen to get a diagnosis, then I spent $127 on the private vet to provide initial treatment for the rest of the flock. The treated birds recovered but because my flock had a difficult to eradicate issue (M.S.) I eventually culled the lot of them to put an end to the cycle of misery.(New birds that I brought in got sick from the treated birds, and birds that never showed symptoms who were carriers.) Hopefully your issue is more treatable, but you won't know until you have a diagnosis. Diagnosis based on signs and symptoms alone is difficult because many issues can have similiar presentation, and the same illness can present quite differently from flock to flock, and bird to bird. Just my two cents based on a rough experience. I hope you keep us posted on the outcome. Good luck tracking it down.

Hey Dirt Farmer---

did you Really get your chicken to wear a santa hat for your avatar, or is that a photoshop? LOL--- it's cute.

IMO...If you are thinking about getting cream legbars, get 'em! They are amazing chickens.

For Madamwlf - so very sorry to hear that your chickens are having health problems. From the symptoms, I wonder about Marek's too. The original necropsy on my pullet that died from Mareks didn't reveal the disease. It took the secondary examinations of tissue cultures to confirm Mareks. Had they not done that...(had I not paid for analysis..in other words) I would have had it, and not have it confirmed. Unfortunately, I think Mareks is ubiquitous, and everyone who has chickens has either the type that is carried by vaccinated birds or they type that unvaccinated birds carry. When it claims a bird it is heartbreaking....

For everyone on the cream Legbar thread.... Has anyone heard that there are some chickens that are more resistant than others to Mareks? Some breeds (leghorns for example) seem to die of Mareks less often than other breeds (RIR breeds and hybrids). Also, the Mareks vaccine has a 90% effective rate which means a vaccinated bird could still contract Mareks. Is anyone who is raising Cream Legbars also working on flocks that are resistant to Mareks?

 

[ChicKat]

I'm a dad

Love that photo---- be sure to submit to the BYC calendar----or hmmmmm maybe people on this thread should make a legbar calendar.... Just think...12 months of beautiful pictures like this one for 2013... ;O)

 

[madamwlf]

I would think if it was Marek's my non-vaccinated birds would get it quicker but I've had no problems out of them at all. Just the Legbars and they have been vaccinated. We will probably put this hen down since she isn't improving. I'll take her up to the lab and see if they can do all tests possible. I'm going to ask if they test for Mareks as a standard or if I have to ask for it.

 

[madamwlf]

So if this is Mareks, what is recommended? I know the whole flock will be put down. It will break my heart to do it but I have no choice. What about the coop and pen??? It will need a thorough cleaning but how long should it stay empty? I'm still amazed no one else has caught it. I have 2 other pens within at least 2 feet of this pen.

 

[madamwlf]

I just looked through the findings of the necropsy again and it's not MS. They did test for that.

Possibly MS.......Mycoplama Synoviae
You could try treating with Denegard (tiamulin)
Quote:

 

[Dirt Farmer]

Hey Dirt Farmer---

did you Really get your chicken to wear a santa hat for your avatar, or is that a photoshop? LOL--- it's cute.

IMO...If you are thinking about getting cream legbars, get 'em! They are amazing chickens.

For Madamwlf - so very sorry to hear that your chickens are having health problems. From the symptoms, I wonder about Marek's too. The original necropsy on my pullet that died from Mareks didn't reveal the disease. It took the secondary examinations of tissue cultures to confirm Mareks. Had they not done that...(had I not paid for analysis..in other words) I would have had it, and not have it confirmed. Unfortunately, I think Mareks is ubiquitous, and everyone who has chickens has either the type that is carried by vaccinated birds or they type that unvaccinated birds carry. When it claims a bird it is heartbreaking....

For everyone on the cream Legbar thread.... Has anyone heard that there are some chickens that are more resistant than others to Mareks? Some breeds (leghorns for example) seem to die of Mareks less often than other breeds (RIR breeds and hybrids). Also, the Mareks vaccine has a 90% effective rate which means a vaccinated bird could still contract Mareks. Is anyone who is raising Cream Legbars also working on flocks that are resistant to Mareks?

That's a real picture. "Brahms" was the most personable chicken I've ever had. He had short but memorable life. I had to cull him at 10 months; was hit pretty hard with the M.S.
I ordered two pair of cream legbar from Jordan Farm. Should have them by the end of June.
As far as Marek's resistance. I think bantams are less affected than large breeds. There is a resistance factor that some birds carry and this can be bred for selectively, but I think you need to blood test to see which chickens are carrying it.

 

[ChicKat]

So if this is Mareks, what is recommended? I know the whole flock will be put down. It will break my heart to do it but I have no choice. What about the coop and pen??? It will need a thorough cleaning but how long should it stay empty? I'm still amazed no one else has caught it. I have 2 other pens within at least 2 feet of this pen.

There are a lot of unknowns with Marek's. 1. Some would say you have to cull your entire flock--and many would say that you not only wouldn't have to, but that you shouldn't. 2. I guess too, that unless there is real proof that's what the problem is, there is no way to know for certain. 3. There definitely ARE birds that are resistant to Mareks. (if there weren't, because it is so prevalent (from what I understand - air borne, long-lived, etc.) then the entire species would have died out). Deep discussion of Marek's probably should be a different thread than this, but there is someone in the Netherlands that was remarking that vaccination, and subsequent exposure to Marek's makes birds "carriers". Then if those birds come in contact with non-vaccinated birds, they will become infected. My understanding too is that the vaccinated birds will not die of Marek's but can catch it. There was a movement to breed birds that are resistant.

Here is a link to a thread I started Last November....
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/598053/genetic-experts-any-info-on-b21-gene

If I find any other links that may be of value---I will come back to post.

 

[madamwlf]

I do plan to find out of the lab will test for Mareks. If they do, this legbar hen will be put down. I do believe her one leg is paralyzed. She can't use it at all.

 

[Flaming Chicken]

That's a real picture. "Brahms" was the most personable chicken I've ever had. He had short but memorable life. I had to cull him at 10 months; was hit pretty hard with the M.S.
I ordered two pair of cream legbar from Jordan Farm. Should have them by the end of June.
As far as Marek's resistance. I think bantams are less affected than large breeds. There is a resistance factor that some birds carry and this can be bred for selectively, but I think you need to blood test to see which chickens are carrying it.

My cream legbar came from Jordan farm. I ordered 2 pair and got 3 so be ready for extra. They are a nice variety. The girls are different colors and the boys have a variety of comb sizes and are maturing at different rates. I treated the girls when they arrived with antibiotics, they had an overgrowth of fecal bacteria probably because of the stress of shipping but then they have been healthy since.