We are dealing with Mareks

[Mixed flock enthusiast]

Little update:

I spoke with the Pathologist and the Vet, both said basically the same thing. Close my flock, up my biosecurity. Which I planned on doing anyways of course.

This morning I picked up some antibiotic from the vet to treat the avibacterium and some Amprolium to treat the Coccidia afterwards.

So far my other chickens seem fine. I’m of course worried about my chicks in the brooder and the ones due to hatch on Sunday. I wasn’t able to get the Mareks vaccine for the ones that haven’t hatched yet from the vet.. I was hoping I could get it so that they’d have a better chance.

Tomorrow I’m going to gut and sterilize my coop when my mom can watch my littles (Hubby works away so unfortunately can’t do it sooner).

I’m so sorry to hear that you’ve had so many health issues in your chickens! We found out last year that we bought chicks with Marek’s and brought it into our flock. We had some that were vaccinated and some unvaccinated. We’ve slowly lost many, but not all, of the unvaccinated birds. We started with the vaccine that you can order shipped to your door, the cell-free vaccine from online stores like ValleyVet and Stromberg. When we found out we had Marek’s, we did decide to vaccinate all chickens in the spirit of “cant hurt, might help”. Since then, we’ve purchased chicks vaccinated with the Rispens strain, and they’ve done well so far (6 mo old). We’ve also vaccinated our own home bred eggs and they’ve also done well (6-8 months old). We don’t do any special coop cleaning, but do try to minimize stress. Best of luck with your flock - sounds like you deserve a break!

 

[Eggcessive]

Glad that you have a plan. Many people who deal with Mareks will use an antiseptic cleaner tablet mixed with water, called VirkonS to treat their facilities. You can get it here:
https://www.amazon.com/DuPont-Virko...words=virkon+s+tablets&qid=1579902931&sr=8-11

 

[Canuck88]

I’m so sorry to hear that you’ve had so many health issues in your chickens! We found out last year that we bought chicks with Marek’s and brought it into our flock. We had some that were vaccinated and some unvaccinated. We’ve slowly lost many, but not all, of the unvaccinated birds. We started with the vaccine that you can order shipped to your door, the cell-free vaccine from online stores like ValleyVet and Stromberg. When we found out we had Marek’s, we did decide to vaccinate all chickens in the spirit of “cant hurt, might help”. Since then, we’ve purchased chicks vaccinated with the Rispens strain, and they’ve done well so far (6 mo old). We’ve also vaccinated our own home bred eggs and they’ve also done well (6-8 months old). We don’t do any special coop cleaning, but do try to minimize stress. Best of luck with your flock - sounds like you deserve a break!

Thank you so much for the kind words! I’m so happy to know you’ve had success with vaccinating your birds/chicks. I’m not sure if I will be able to order the vaccine without a vet (in Canada) but I will look into it. I think I may possibly be able to get it from a pharmacist..

We are looking at moving next year. My mom would stay on this property with the current closed flock. So I am now debating my best course of action when we move.

I really am leaning towards starting fresh with vaccinated chicks, but I do know people who practice strict biosecurity and have success incubating their own eggs with no sign of mareks. I just think for peace of mind I would be best to stick with vaccinated chicks from now on. Otherwise I think I will constantly be worrying about it.

Glad that you have a plan. Many people who deal with Mareks will use an antiseptic cleaner tablet mixed with water, called VirkonS to treat their facilities. You can get it here:
https://www.amazon.com/DuPont-Virko...words=virkon+s+tablets&qid=1579902931&sr=8-11

Thank you! I actually have some and will be spraying my coop tomorrow!

 

[jolenesdad]

So sorry for your losses and ongoing troubles. Following along to learn, there's a lot of great information here.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

@igorsMistress I agree about closing the flock. That’s honestly why I took some birds to the lab because I was hoping to breed and sell chicks and obviously I can’t do that now. But I wouldn’t be able to live with myself knowing that I could be spreading disease and putting others in this terrible situation.

Last spring I culled my whole flock on the recommendation of the pathologist due to the MG (and the fact that I was hoping to breed/sell). So I do have Virkon tablets left over from that.

We have only been at this farm for a little over a year, built the coops new and got our first chicks last February.. before this I have only had a small number of chickens in a backyard setting.

I have certainly learned some important lessons going forward (whether I cull all these birds or close my flock and deal with the illness).

Another question: if I sterilize everything and cull the remains sick birds (only one other bird at the moment is showing symptoms), will all of my other birds slowly die one by one? Or will some of them live out happy lives? I don’t want to cull all of my birds but feel it would be cruel to keep them alive only to let them suffer..

There are a few facts to consider. Marek's has no cure so that is something to deal with. Marek's is present everywhere in the world. Birds are either resistant/immune or they are not.
I take coccidia reports from veterinarians with a grain of salt because any animal living on soil will usually have detectable coccidia in their feces.
We all learn lessons, usually the hard way. If you have birds showing no symptoms, I would consider them resistant and the basis of future flocks.

People are a horrible species.

The wife of a friend has a saying, "people are scum".

Little update:

I spoke with the Pathologist and the Vet, both said basically the same thing. Close my flock, up my biosecurity. Which I planned on doing anyways of course.

This morning I picked up some antibiotic from the vet to treat the avibacterium and some Amprolium to treat the Coccidia afterwards.

So far my other chickens seem fine. I’m of course worried about my chicks in the brooder and the ones due to hatch on Sunday. I wasn’t able to get the Mareks vaccine for the ones that haven’t hatched yet from the vet.. I was hoping I could get it so that they’d have a better chance.

Tomorrow I’m going to gut and sterilize my coop when my mom can watch my littles (Hubby works away so unfortunately can’t do it sooner).

Are your chicks in the brooder from off your property or from your birds?
If you have the vaccine, it won't hurt to vaccinate the day olds and the 3 week chicks. It will work or it won't. Marek's vaccine is in a race with the virus in the environment. So the sooner they are vaccinated, the better the effect.

 

[Canuck88]

@ChickenCanoe sorry I read your post and then got distracted (hooray for toddlers)! The eggs in my incubator are from a local breeder. I am considering finding them a home the second the hatch (incubator in my bedroom - transport box - new home) instead of keeping them. I feel they may have a better chance somewhere else.

I am sure by now the 3 week olds have been exposed which makes me sad. I shipped eggs and hatched 2 of them and had the others shipped here around a week old. They are in my tack room in my barn, away from the other chickens but I know by just touching their brooder box/food/water/etc I have already passed it along.

I was not able to get the vaccine on short notice (chicks are due to hatch tomorrow).

I am debating culling my flock, something I really don’t want to do. At first I said I wouldn’t, I would just close my flock. But I don’t know if I can handle the thought of them each slowly showing signs and suffering one by one. I have another one showing signs tonight, I will have to cull her tomorrow.

(For the record, if I culled my birds, I would sterilize as best I can and wait before getting more birds. Any new birds would be vaccinated for Marek’s. I realize the vaccine is not a cure but does give them a much better chance at survival).

Out of curiosity does anyone know how Marek’s will affect “new to the flock” older birds? 1 and 2 years old? Most of the information I can find says the mortality applies up to 40 weeks, but I have no idea if it can still affect the older birds since I have no idea if they were exposed to it before or not.