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[Rudies Roost]

Here's the little boy I'm referring to in the above post:

Hopefully you can see the blueish, bruise type mark above the eye, it's on both sides...may be irrelevant but none of my other birds seem to have marks like that. He can open both eyes but chooses to sit around like this all day until he hears our voices, then he comes running to be picked up!

 

[rebrascora]

Hi Sasha

So sorry to hear of your loss.

I know I have a tendency to bang on about Marek's disease but it is an extremely widespread and easily contracted virus and the symptoms can be so varied that it's easy to believe it's something else and most people don't want to accept they have it in their flock. If the Speckledy had Marek's, then there's every chance that these other birds that are having problems are Marek's related too. You say the BO was thin even though she ate well...classic Marek's wasting. The young pullet with wry neck, could well be Marek's... it doesn't just affect limbs but can cause wry neck and wry tail too.. The Thuringian with sight problems...possibly ocular Marek's.

I would be inclined to open the BO up and see if there are any tumours, but I know it's emotionally difficult and not something everyone can face.

Good luck with the rest of your flock.

Best wishes

Barbara

 

[Gge23]

Well, today was not a great one....went to do chucks & ducks this morning and found my lovely Buff Orpington dead. She had very little weight on her for a big buxom bird despite the fact that I've seen her eating fine. I have no idea why she passed, she was quiet yesterday but she always was a timid girl. Hate it when they just drop...I hope she didn't suffer :-(

I'm sorry for your loss
I know how you feel, we lost a silver laced wyandotte last night...she kept sneezing, went off her food, and her comb went very pale. I thought it was just a cold, but then my Dad said she passed this morning during her sleep. I am currently down in Bristol away from them so I couldn't help, but my dad gave her vitamins and electrolytes in the hope she might get better, but sadly not to be. I'm not sure what is it that she had, my dad said she had orange liquid coming from her beak when he went to sort her out this morning, but that could've just been the vitamins.

 

[Rudies Roost]

Hi Sasha

So sorry to hear of your loss. 

I know I have a tendency to bang on about Marek's disease but it is an extremely widespread and easily contracted virus and the symptoms can be so varied that it's easy to believe it's something else and most people don't want to accept they have it in their flock. If the Speckledy had Marek's, then there's every chance that these other birds that are having problems are Marek's related too. You say the BO was thin even though she ate well...classic Marek's wasting.  The young pullet with wry neck, could well be Marek's... it doesn't just affect limbs but can cause wry neck and wry tail too.. The Thuringian with sight problems...possibly ocular Marek's.

I would be inclined to open the BO up and see if there are any tumours, but I know it's emotionally difficult and not something everyone can face.

Good luck with the rest of your flock.

Best wishes

Barbara

Hi Barbara, I did wonder about the Mareks, neither the chick nor the BO came in to contact with my Speckeldy with the Mareks but I guess it's just in the flock now and some are avoiding it and some are getting it....where on earth it originally came from, I'll never know. The corpse of the BO has gone now so I'm unable to do a PM...I did arrange one on a duck we lost a while back but that was a nail she ingested that pierced her stomach so no definitive answers to the chickens demise there....we've lost about 7 in the last 3/4 months so I fear you are right....not sure what I can do really. I'll google the ocular Mareks, sounds like that is what my little boy has...any treatment you know of??? Many thanks for the continued support x

 

[Rudies Roost]

I'm sorry for your loss
I know how you feel, we lost a silver laced wyandotte last night...she kept sneezing, went off her food, and her comb went very pale. I thought it was just a cold, but then my Dad said she passed this morning during her sleep. I am currently down in Bristol away from them so I couldn't help, but my dad gave her vitamins and electrolytes in the hope she might get better, but sadly not to be. I'm not sure what is it that she had, my dad said she had orange liquid coming from her beak when he went to sort her out this morning, but that could've just been the vitamins.

Thank you and sorry for your loss too....Aarrghh, how awful to lose a lovely Silver Lace Wyandotte, I'm desperate for one myself! I have lost a few the last 3 months or so with exactly the same symptoms as you describe....mine lost all comb colour, drank loads and loads then sneezed and were dead within 48 hours. My Orpington was fine other than a little quiet y'day so to find her dead was quite a shock. As @rebrascora said, I've had Mareks issues so her weight loss is prob due to this disease. I'm getting a bit fed up of the chicken keeping recently with all my losses.....not sure where to go from here

 

[Tandia]

Hi - I haven't posted for a while, and I'm sorry to come back with sad news, especially as it seems a number of you have had losses recently. My lovely girl who had a prolapse a short while ago (Georgia) seemed to recover, but she had another prolapse a week ago and didn't make it this time

I was really upset, although relieved that the kids didn't find it too distressing. They even chose to see her body and say their goodbyes.

The others didn't seem quite right without her for a few days, but I think they are getting back to normal now. I guess the kids going back to school and them having the routine of just me at home working 3 days a week probably helps too. They spend a good chunk of the day with me in my office!

I've managed to persuade my husband that we should get some more, and as we currently have 3 hybrids we are going to get pure breeds to try to balance out the egg production a bit. We don't want to end up with 6 birds that don't lay in a couple of years and not really have room for any more! I'm finding out tomorrow what is available from our local place. It is helping to get over the loss, but I found one of Georgia's feathers this weekend, and that made me sad all over again. I think new girls is what is needed.

 

[timon]

Sorry to hear about your losses. We really are all in it together.

One thing that I'm beginning to understand, and thank you to whoever posted about it recently... is how important it is that we give our girls(and boys) a happy home to live in and that these animals are cared for as best we can. We may have these fluffy cuties in our care for a short while or a long time, there sometimes isn't anything we can do if they take fright, catch an illness, get cancer...

After only having chickens for 6 months or so, these sometimes robust and other-times fragile bundles of joy are to be cared for to the best of our knowledge. All I can do is provide food, water and shelter to the best standard I can manage, and hopefully my flock will live happy and as natural as possible lives.
I am rewarded daily with delicious fresh eggs to eat and it truly is a wonderful thank you from my girls. I wouldn't have started keeping chickens without the thought of fresh eggs, but now I realise happy&healthy birds is my priority, and any egg I eat is a welcome treat and a delight, not the object of my focus I thought it would be when I started this journey.

 

[philyc]

Timons post seconded. Despite me now having branched out to dual purpose birds for eating they still deserve the best. One of the reasons why I don't want specific meat birds is that I don't feel like processing them at a young age. My brahma will be 6 months, the Sussex a bit older.

Just checked my broody and one of her eggs has now pipped so well see what the progress is later... My Mrs still can't remember what breed they are though!

 

[Psychochick]

Hey guys and girls,

Has anyone else found that their hens have gone right off lay at the minute? Since the last time I posted egg production has dropped like a stone. So much so that I kept them all (apart from Hannibal, who sneaked out behind me, cheeky mare) locked in the run yesterday to see if they are still hiding them. It appears not. Out of 17 hens in the run I got 3, yes 3 eggs. Hannibal laid outside but I always know where to find hers, it's behind the apple tree. Predictable

. I checked for lice and mites, went on a rat hunt, I've cleaned the coop more in one week than it usually gets in 2. I know that predators can stress them out so I closed the vent half way in case they're getting evening foxes outside the run. Nothing doing. It's just going down and down. There's only about 4 or 5 that are moulting and I will let the new girls off, they wouldn't be the first to look at a new life and put their feet up! I'm not extremely bothered about the eggs, but I would like to know if there's something I missed checking.

It has been suggested that yesterday's pathetic 3 was a temper tantrum because of illegal imprisonment in their spacious run and lack of access to my mum's strawberry plants, but unless they're crossing their little legs I think I missed something. I think I should be getting at least 2 or 3 more than that even if Kelloggs, Modez and Esmerelda, my oldest, have given up.

 

[rebrascora]

@Psychochick

It's the time of year. The days are getting notably shorter now.. Whichever girls are over a year old will be moulting or starting to moult very soon. It might look like you only have 4 or 5 moulting now but my guess would be that you will notice more in the next few days. Some may start up again before next year, but it's probably going to be a lean few months egg wise unless you have some young pullets just approaching lay.
The past couple of days I've seen a marked drop too.

@Rudies Roost

Hi Sasha

Marek's can be carried on clothing shoes and even hair and skin and of course the wind, so unless you practiced very strict biosecurity between flocks, it's not surprising at all that it has transferred. It's more of a wonder how everyone doesn't have it although I think many more people do have it than will acknowledge it.
I have two with it at the moment and the one that I culled a couple of weeks ago. These two are holding their own, so I'm hopeful they will survive this first attack at least. I have been putting them out in a 5 ft pen during the day and scattering feed in and around it for them and the rest of the flock to come and forage together. A bit of sunshine and grass and competition for food, even if it is only perceived competition and having to move around but without the worry of being picked on, really seems to help build them back up. Confidence is a big thing with Marek's. Once they lose confidence they get picked on and then panic and flounder. You might want to try St John's Wort again since you had some success with it last time, although my gut feeling is that the disease ebbs and wanes naturally and it is just a perceived improvement due to the treatment rather than just the actual course of the disease itself. I have had enough birds miraculously improve without treatment to be sceptical of people claiming treatment has worked. Keeping the birds safe and happy and eating and getting a bit of exercise seems to be most effective. Mine are getting far more soaked mixed corn than they should at the moment because that's what they are keen to eat. They will get some scrambled egg today which no doubt will go down well! Interestingly the little cockerel, who is more debilitated with it than the pullet manages to get out of the cage before I go to put them away for the night and finds his way back across the yard and into the hen house to roost. The first couple of days he could barely stand up and was supporting himself upright with both wings, so he is making some progress..

I'm afraid I don't have any experience of ocular Marek's and usually it initially exhibits as irregular shaped pupils. I didn't see your photos until after I posted but is it possible the others have been pecking at his eyes and caused bruising or perhaps he has got bruised by bashing into things.... Do you have a hanging feeder? I know mine can swing about when they are all feeding at it and if he is not seeing well he may have got caught by it. Another possibility is a tumour....which of course Marek's can cause. Poor little lad! He doesn't look good.

There is a lot of joy in chicken keeping, but some heartbreak too. This is a bad time of year for the latter it seems but it will pass and as @timon .so eloquently put it in his post above, all we can do is make their little lives as happy and comfortable as we can for whatever length of life they have.

Very best wishes

Barbara