Should have given more info in my last post. The first two birds to get sick both recovered within days. One relapsed within a week or so and did die. The other has been fine ever since (she was one of the oldest birds to get sick, but still a baby). The others all seemed to present symptoms in the same way. I would find a bird down in a brooder. Sprawled out on the side of the pen up against the wall or propped up back on its hocks....most moved on to a wry neck sort of paralysis, moving toward complete paralysis and dying within 1-2 days. The wry neck seemed to be the common factor. I still have no idea if it was some other sort of bug working its way through the birds, marek's, botulism, etc. I did do a good cleaning of the brooders midway through and still had a couple birds come up sick a week or two later. I had over 100 babies and so I don't know if it was marek's or not. I would have thought it would have taken out more birds if so.
I have not had any symptoms in weeks or possibly over a month. All babies have been moved out to the outdoor pens...I do have a single failure to thrive chick out there...a wheaten marans pullet. She is teeny tiny and only partially feathered but is doing fine and has no other symptoms. Everyone else is fine and dandy. I tried to find a connecting factor....but if affected brahmas from
TSC, a cochin from
TSC, wheaten marans I had purcashed from an individual.....etc....it affected birds in separate brooders. One bird in the garage brooder went down same day as a bird in the outside brooder pen. I did wonder if it may have been something missing in the food so went back and forth between the baby food and the flockraiser. I did not have a single d'uccle come down with symptoms, even when they were in the same brooder with one of the down birds.
It was very strange. I assumed marek's....however because it has not spread, I don't know if that is right. I have broody babies that were fine and dandy even once exposed to the brooder babies. Maybe it was something in the shavings? That could be a connecting factor. I haven't added any new shavings to the big coop (where the broody babies are) in forever. All brooders had the same 'batch' of shavings.
Really hard to say. It was incredibly frustrating when it was happening and surprising that it suddenly stopped and everyone is perfectly fine. The last bird to show any sort of symptom was a Wheaten Marans cockerel....who started "drooping"....it was like he couldn't hold his head up. I hadn't had any new "sick" birds in a week or two and was frustrated to see him 'drooping". I would find him standing with his neck hanging straight down.....I left him in that brooder and notcied him laying on the far side with his head propped up on a board in there. Within 2-3 days I noticed there were no longer any "droopy" birds in there. I cleaned that brooder out well looking for a body, and turns out he was back to normal and healthy. Was it an injury? A deficiency that corrected itself? He is still absolutely fine and well.
Every single chicken on my property not in the brooders has been fine all along. Every single chick or chicken on my property as of right now is fine and dandy (other than that failure to thrive chick who is small and scrawny looking but acts fine). Very very strange. I had held off on selling any birds while this was going on and have just started moving birds out again. Either everyone now has a great resistance to marek's (doubtful) or it was some other thing running through that has since run its course. No relapses, no symptoms, nothing. Everyone seems fine now.
Isn't wry neck something related to a vitamin or feed deficiency? after the first two that recovered, every chick that died had wry neck. It mostly affected the brahma boys, so I tended to think it may have been some sort of congenital defect. However, I have plenty of brahma boys who did not every show any symptoms and are fine.
