Cockerel a bit under the weather

My beautiful 2year old Pekin cockerel is a bit under the weather. He has also lost some weight and is not feeling upto enjoying his role as the only guy in the hen house as he usually does. He is spending a fair amount of time sitting down, I know the weather has been hot and sticky, but he is the only one who is not quite right, if you know what I mean.

We spotted mites last week for the first time and have been blasting the runs and coops with the jet washer and treating everywhere with the diatomaceous powder, including nest box, bedding and the areas outside in the garden where they like to dust bathe.

All the chooks have been vaccinated for mareks, we purchased some growers 3 years ago, and they arrived infected with Mareks, most of them died within weeks,  so were advised whenever we hatch or get any chicks to vaccinate them. The vaccine for mareks has a very distinctive aroma, well I think so. Today when I picked the cockerel up to check him, I could definitely smell the same aroma on him.

Having had young chickens die from mareks we know what to look for, he is showing some signs,  listlessness, and a little confusion, and is not getting into the food as he used to do, even the hens are shoving in front of him....and he s letting them! His wings are also slightly drooped.

Just wondering if anyone has any advice? Even though he was vaccinated, could he still get ill with mareks?

Laine

sorry your boy is unwell. Yes a vaccinated bird can still get Mareks sadly.
You say you found mites - were these redmites? Blasting your run with a jet washer will not get rid of them but simply move then to a different part of your garden, they will then simply crawl back into your coop. You need to either use an industrial steam cleaner or use Poultry Shield. and repeat this process every few days until they are gone.

We have treated the runs and coups with poulty shield, have sprinkled liberally the spots where they dust bath in the garden with diatomaceous earth, have also used this inside the coups in the fresh bedding and all around the coup and have laid new paving, after treating the soil under the flags as well. We have cleaned the coups twice in the last 8 days, and it will be done again later today.
I have a steam cleaner, so will try that one today as part of the cleaning, thank you. There are still a few, but not many, but I know their breeding cycle is a very short one, so need to keep on top of it.

The smell on him is like nothing else apart from the vaccine itself, and that really does not smell like anything else, it is so pungently distinctive.  We have had others die from Mareks, as mentioned earlier we bought in some growers who unfortunately had it, most of whom died over a period of time. We have vaccinated all chicks born since, and the cockerel was one of them. All the others are fine, no symptoms at all. We had 2 of the original lot that displayed the same lethargic symptoms as he is doing now, they then got confused before getting limp and not wanting to walk or eat.
We are giving them all extra supplements as a booster, especially as some of them are in their moulting phase.

Laine