[rileyfin]

Wondering af any one can give me advice, kept silkies for 5 years do not buy birds in and have only hatched my own eggs this year. I live in the middle of nowhere, there are no other chickens for at least a five mile radius.
I clean hen houses every day and disinfect every 1 - 2 weeks, hens fed good quality layers and mixed corn, have cider vinegar in water, and every 2 weeks a seaweed based multivit. The birds free range in garden during the day and are fed fresh greens, and I also use Diatom in bedding and worm every 4 mnth with Flubenvet . There are a lot of wild birds, pigeons and phesant around. Think that covers everything  :blink:

A couple of months ago my 18 mth old cockerel died,suddenly, no symptoms, fine one minute dead in the morning, 4 weeks later one of my 4 yo girls developed neck paralysis within 8 hours. There was no weight loss or runs, she was fine and active in morning paralysis when I got home.

Everything was disinfected, bird distroyed nothing for 5 weeks and now an 18 mth old has gone down with same thing. They are all housed together, as I understand it Mareks is highly cintageous would it take this long for symptoms to show. She has a good covering and I had to chase her into bed last night, she was active and well. There is no leg or wing paralysis and her eyes are normal.

I am going to take her to vet 2mora and have the body tested. I also had the Veterinary Investigations dept out just in case it was Newcastles disease.

Anybody got any Ideas?  I only have 15 hens and fear it is going to take them all 

[ANHBUC]

So sorry rileyfin, I have n o experience of Mareks.  Did the Veterinary Investigations department not advise you on what they thought was the cause?

I will pop this on to the Hen House and hope you get a good outcome at the vets.

[Elvira]

From my experience of Mareks the deaths/paralysis sound a bit quick? Also the typical symptom is splay legs which is the first obvious sign of the creeping paralysis? My silkie cockerel started to limp (we thought he had injured his leg but couldn't find any damage) which got gradually worse over a week until he started to developed the splay legs and I took him to the vet (who is a chicken specialist). She diagnosed it straight away and we had to have him put to sleep.

The vet told me that there is a narrow window when the chicks can catch Mareks (i think it was in the first 10weeks or so) and it can then lie dormant for some time (months or years) before it manifests itself, although usually it tends to appear between 12-28 weeks. So if the chicks have been vaccinated before any exposure to Mareks then they should be immune. Also my understanding was that an older bird (over the 10weeks) which is exposed to Mareks and hasn't been immunised when it was a chick is still less likely to catch it.

I have kept an eye on the rest of my birds since then and although I have lost two of them since the cockerel was put to sleep  (nearly 2 years ago) there was nothing in their symptoms which suggested Mareks. My hens and cockerels are from a variety of silkie breeders so I think the poor cockerel (who I got at 20 weeks and was probably around 48 weeks when he died) was unlucky in being exposed to it and I suspect in retrospect had not been vaccinated. The silkie breeders I have come across tend not to vaccinate given the number of chicks they tend to hatch but rely on cleanliness and good breeding stock to avoid exposing the chicks to Mareks etc so it can be a lottery whether they are really as careful as they say.

I think unless the physical symptoms are clearly indicative of Mareks (my vet could feel the tumours and extent of the paralysis) the only way to be certain is a post mortem. Good luck at the vet tomorrow and I hope the rest of the girls stay well.

[barley]

Hi rileyfin

we have had Mareks and unfortunately it took our whole flock one by one

The vet who is absolutely brilliant with  chooks recognised it straight away and said we will probably loose them all ,  and he was right 

He said it can lay dormant in the ground for up to 8 years , we had kept chooks for 5 years before it showed itself , so don't blame yourself ...... we like you kept good hen house keeping but all the disinfecting in the world will not stop it .

it is a very obvious illness and usually starts with a limp and slow paralysis of  the chicken ( very cruel )

my only advice is if you still intend to keep chickens in the future is to buy vaccinated ones from a reputable breeder who can guarantee they are vaccinated ( or ex batt's  as all large poultry flocks are vaccinated due to the nature of the disease being a flock killer  )

I always advise people to have vaccinated birds as it can strike at any time and for no reason !!!! we have had vaccinated birds now for 8 years and have never had this disease again .... they can be a little more expensive but worth the extra

good luck Julie x

[rileyfin]

Thank you for all if you who answered, and the good advice.

Unfortunately the bird specialist vet died a few months ago, I did ring another vet who was recommended for for hens but turned out she did not specialise she just kept hens and was not helpful.My own vets are clueless and not really interested.

I have lost 3 more hens in the last week and another looks like it is on its way out, they all show a wide range of symptoms most commonly they go unsteady on their feet and start to flounder around.  None of them have splayed legs. Some have had neck paralysis, some take a couple of weeks, some just hours. Nothing seems to work vet or otherwise.
 
I have stripped and misted all henhouses with virkon S, all I can do now is sit it out.

My first 6 birds were all un vaccinated 7 day old chicks. All birds since I have hatched myself I have never bought birds. The land they are on has never had hens on it before and ther is no one for approx 3 miles. It is a mystery.

Thanks again