Mareks disease or not?

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D.Bates

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Mareks disease or not?
« on: April 03, 2014, 17:26 »
Hi

I'm in need of a little advice. I will have been keeping chickens for 6 years come June of this year and during that time have kept up to 6 Buff Orpingtons, 2 of which died suddenly without warning at approx 3 years+ old and 1 of which I had to humanely deal with due to problems with her balance and one of her legs uncontrollably stuck in a forward facing position high up underneath her body. I now seem to be facing a similar problems with one of my three remaining birds. To look at them 2 look in great condition and so did the 3rd until the last day or two. She has the ability to be able to get out of coop and get herself back in at night but during the day time spends a lot of time sat in one place, her feathers are now dulling in colour and her tail is down. Her comb is also starting to go pale at the tips. She seems to be managing to feed herself and get water. When looking at her tonight I noticed that one of her legs is starting to have a tendency to stay more forward than the other. This bird is nearly 6 years old and the only information that I can find that in anyway relates to these symptoms is Mareks disease but it only ever seems to refer to very young birds in any literature. Does anyone else have any experience of this in their birds? Is this bird suffering from Mareks disease? I'm not sure but get a feeling that she isn't going to be getting any better, she has gone down really quickly. Thanks. 

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grinling

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Re: Mareks disease or not?
« Reply #1 on: April 03, 2014, 19:22 »
does not sound like marek's.   at 6 years old she is quite old and age is probably the culprit. Is she laying and what are the egg shells like (colour and thickness)? when sitting, how is she breathing?

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D.Bates

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Re: Mareks disease or not?
« Reply #2 on: April 03, 2014, 20:55 »
Thanks for the reply. All three birds to the best of my knowledge are still laying quite well and eggs have been consistently good, however I do recall noticing one or two slightly thinner shells lately with a slight mottled effect which I would say was due to slightly thinner shell. Her breathing doesn't seem to be a problem. I have noticed that of the 3 I have she is the heaviest and strangely the bird before her was the heaviest of them too. I don't know if her weight in this respect would give any indication as to the problem. I would be more likely to be worried if she had lost a lot of weight by comparison to other birds. I have shut them in for the night now and checked on them and she has managed to get herself back inside okay and sitting with others so she still has the ability to navigate the steps up into coop. Would you say that 6 years is a good age for these birds? I have read that chickens can potentially have a life span of up to 13 years depending on breed? Thanks.

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barley

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Re: Mareks disease or not?
« Reply #3 on: April 03, 2014, 22:22 »
sorry to hear your problems  :(

I can speak from experience of Mareks disease  :(

I had kept chooks for 5 years before we got it - my cockerel got it first at the age of 3 , he developed a limp over night and gradually he got stiffness in his leg and it pushed forward as you describe - we first thought he was injured

with in a week we had him PTS because he was suffering - we had an autopsy done which concluded Mareks was the cause

within a month or so  the whole  flock got same symptoms and were PTS - all were roughly 4 years old

one did survive - we left it a few weeks and got 4 new birds - within the month the all contracted Mareks and had to be PTS 

my vet who is fantastic with chickens  and a chicken keeper him self told me that Mareks can lay dormant in the soil for 8 years or more  :ohmy:  he advised me to get vaccinated birds as he could almost  guarantee we would get it again and again

the one hen that survived was very lucky but would now be a carrier of the disease ( she lived till 8 years old :))

I now have kept fully vaccinated birds for over 10 years and have never had problems with it since
bear in mind if you do go down this route you will always have to have vaccinated birds

I hope this helps - I do not wish Mareks on anyone but there is light at the end of the tunnel for you



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