[newatthis]

hello, i was woundering if anyone can help me, i've just brought 7 girls and now 1 is very ill and im now worried about the rest of the girls as well, it looks like the girl could have merak's i was woundering what the first sgins are to look for and how long does it take to show any signs, and i think i know the out come with this little girl is going to be, which does upset me, im kicking myself for buying chicks that havent been vacinated, but i just hope that i dont loose any more to merak's( if it is this)
the little girl when we first got her was quite, which we thought was normal, so we left them all to settle in, my 9 yr old was always in the run with them so they could get use to her, then friday i let them out as she was a way for the night, they all come running out, due to me being out and about for most of friday i didnt see much of the girls, so didnt notice anything then saturday when i let them out i noticed this girl didnt come out thats when i noticed it she was sitting there with her head going round and she started to spin, picked her up and that when i noticed her croop was large, and i phone the person i get the girls from to ask him about whats wrong with her, so i took her down to him to check her over and he said sour croop, and he cleared it and she stoped the head spining and started to eat, but 3 hours later it was back and it's worse, so she is now with a friend on antibotic's and she did for a day hold her head to 1 side as she couldnt hold her head up,
but no she just sits the staring in to space, she hasnt eaten since saturday, we have got water in to her and some hand rearing food( she breeds parrots and she is keeping her away from her birds)
i was woundering if any one has had any ideas what it could be or any thing esle we can do
thankyou
zoe and baby

[lisa80]

I dont know a huge amount about mareks but if you say she was quiet when you bought her it may be genetic and something that she was born with rather than an illness .You have done the right thing by seperating her just keep a close eye on the others.Has she been to a vet ? if so what did they say?.As for vaccinations the only people that do vaccinate their birds are the large scale breeders because its only available in large quantities ,and even then people on here have still had problems with poorly girls that have been done.My advice would be that if you bought any more (i would wait to see how your girl does)make sure any chciks or older birds are kept in good clean condition and that they are alert and feeding do some reading up so you know what questions to ask sellers and dont take their answers as gospel check up on what they have said .If your not sure dont buy you can always go back

[newatthis]

thankyou lisa80, my friend has spoke to a vet but they couldnt offer much help, they do treat birds but more parrots than chickens i think, it's just a case of waitting and seeing what happerens

[joyfull]

I am just going to transfer this to the hen house 

[joyfull]

having a bird injected against mareks is no guarantee that it will remain free from it (grumpy dad lost his birds and they had been vaccinated  ).
The are several reasons why she could be spinning - has she received a bang to the head, has she been attacked in the head area? - these could lead to a neurological problem.
What breed is she? Both silkies and polands have a hole in their head where damage can occur.
Are her toes curled up? - this is one of the signs of mareks, but could also be bumble foot.

It could also be a vitamin deficiency causing the problems, or poisoning.

If you click on the search box and type in Mareks you will get lots of threads where people have described their symptoms.
Get her to a vets for a check over, even if they aren't used to chickens they can look up about them in their books. I used to take printed sheets of information with me on what I suspected was the illness that mine could have for them to read. Now I tell them over the phone so they are prepared with relevant fact before I get there.
Parrots aren't a lot different to chickens so they should be able to help.

[newatthis]

hi joyfull, she is a bluebell, as far as i know there hasnt been a bang to the head, i've only had her since tuesday evening,

i've just been told it's not meraks thankgod, it's neumonia(i think i have spelt it right), something,
my friend has been asking a chicken breeder and he said it's neumonia not merak's and keep her on antibot's, so i have asked her to find out if i should give the other girls a dose for a week, just in case, she did say something about tyland( sorry if i have spelt it wrong)..but where can i get it from...

[joyfull]

There are several antibiotics, 3 of which are tylan, baytril and Aureomycin. You would need to take her to a vet before they would dispense these. Your vet may choose to use another antibiotic. It also could be something else wrong with her so I would make that appointment at the vets pretty quickly. Also depending on what she is given you may need to throw the eggs away for the period of administering the medication and for a period after.

[newatthis]

just a quick up date, i've been told it's brooder neumonia, and she is on antibot's, at frist we thought she was not responding, but each day she does something differeant, at first this morning she hadn't changed (which good in 1 way, she hadn't got worse), then tonight my friend has phoned me to say that she has started to eat, meal worms and some cat food, which is great news, so fingers x she may pull through, i hope so as my daughter loves her so much...

[GrannieAnnie]

Apparently brooder pneumonia is aspergillosis, which is what we talk about when people use straw for bedding.  Here it is explained a bit.

I hope your little one gets better!

http://www.thepoultrysite.com/diseaseinfo/7/aspergillosis

[Hawkins]

Good Luck, Fingers crossed.

[newatthis]

thankyou for the link, i've now bookmarked that site so i can go back to it when i need to check something out, i have noticed my chicks drinking alot but i was putting it down to the heat, but they are on antibot now for 5 days, if it's from the straw, what bedding should i use?, should i say something to the breeder?, or is it my fault?, ( i do keep my straw/hay dry i get it by the bag and use all and throw the bag away) i keep a rabbit and 4 ginnies, so straw/hay dont last in my home and i dont have space to keep bales,
i just feel so bad that she is ill like this...

[GrannieAnnie]

She could have got it at the breeders NAT, so don't feel bad.  Hay isn't good for chooks as they can eat it and get impacted crop so I believe.  I've never used hay.

We use wood shavings, but I'd like to try hemcore.

The problem with straw is that when the chooks poo, they wee as well and the straw, being hollow can soak in the wet and mould spores develop that you can't see.

[newatthis]

hi i was told not to use wood shaving by the breeder as the chicks eat it, he was the one that told me to use the straw,
i do have a question to ask thro, with the temp droping down to 2/3, what can i do they are in a coop thats about 3ft by 2ft with straw for bedding is there any thing esle i can do to keep them warm on the cold nights,
thankyou

[GrannieAnnie]

What age are they?  once they get to 7 or 8 weeks they should be fine just cuddling together like they do.

It is true that chicks can eat shavings.  They eat whatever is under their beaks!  What I do when I first put the day olds in the brooder is cover the shavings up with a clean old sheet or pillow case in the case of small numbers of chicks.  let them run on that for a few days to get used to their feed hen take the sheet off.  They still peck at the shavings, but most shavings are quite big for a chick.

As far as I am aware, I've never lost a chick to shavings digestion!!    Also I think someone on here said DEFRA recommend shavings too!

[Caralou]

I've had chicks on hemcore from a week old with no problems at all. They will peck once or twice, but as long as they know where their food is it isn't a problem. The citronella in it helps keep flies away and a nice deep layer is lovely and warm for them to snuggle into on cold nights