Update to my hen just sitting around, posted Nov 11th

[mystori]

Well, unfortunately my chicken passed away a few days after my post. I had to go out of town for a week, so I showed my boyfriend what to do and how to give the corid, and feed, clean her separate enclosure, etc. But the day after I left, he came home from work and she was dead. I had him call the Colorado department of Ag and they had him bring her in for a necropsy. They said it sounded like it may be Marek's, and the preliminary examination showed she had lymphoma consistent with that. She came from a flock of at least 50, as did her 6 flock sisters that came with her, and all of those chickens are in seemingly great health.
I'm not really sure what to do now. The department of ag said if it is Marek's then it would be up to us to cull the flock or to just let them live as long as they can. But they all seem in perfect health, none have the eye issues she did, or the lethargy or confusion/uncoordination.
We were planning to get more chicks in spring, is that a terrible idea now? I'm struggling to want to cull the rest of them because they all seem healthy and happy, but I also want to be able to expand the flock next spring. The dept of ag person said that we should try to seek out chicks that are vaccinated in ovo or at a day old, but that it is also very difficult to find that and even hatcheries that do vaccinate often do it wrong.
I'm just sort of at a loss.I've been waiting years to get hens until we owned a place and felt confident I could care for them properly. We finally decided to get some next spring, but then I took these hens last minute because the farm they came from was reducing their flock and these would have just been culled and buried. I was going to wait but I couldn't just let all those hens die without trying to save at least a few, but did I ruin my possibility to be able to have healthy hens in the future now? Any insight is appreciated. Thanks.

 

[Eggcessive]

Mareks is spread through the dust and dander of infected chickens. All of your others should be considered carriers, and some of them could go on to develop the disease. Mareks is thought to remain in the area for months to years after all chickens are gone. If I ever got chicks again, I would have them vaccinated at the hatchery and keep them away from your environment for 2-3 weeks to develop immunity. But Inwould probably wait to get chicks until a later time, to see if any others get symptoms. Here is some info about Mareks:
http://csu-cvmbs.colostate.edu/Documents/vdl-mareks-disease-fact-sheet.pdf

https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/the-great-big-giant-mareks-disease-faq.66077/

 

[azygous]

Unfortunately, culling all your chickens isn't going to get rid of the Marek's virus. It's one of the most long lived viruses once it gets into the environment, often lasting in the soil for a year, and sometimes longer. If you want to start over with new chickens, you would need to vaccinate them for Marek's. You may as well keep your present chickens and get vaxed chicks when you which to expand. Not all chickens will become symptomatic that carry the virus. There is no need to cull unless this is what you decide to do.

You would need to keep them off the soil for two weeks while the vaccine establishes resistance. But this won't prevent Marek's, but they will be far less likely to develop the Marek's tumors. It's still possible for them to pick up the virus from the soil. While they are far less likely to become symptomatic, they will carry the virus and can infect other unvaxed chickens.

I hope you will share the findings of the necropsy with the owners of the flock where these chickens came from. They need to be aware that they are spreading this deadly virus by giving chickens away from this flock. The same goes for your flock. You need to know you have a closed flock. As the song goes, "you can check out, but you can never leave."

 

[Tonyroo]

How sad your going through this, I hope you come to a reasonable conclusion for your flock.