Rural Gardening: mereks? tumors? bites? what hte heck is going on here!, 1 by BackyardHens

BackyardHens wrote:
This is sort of a long post, but please bear with me as I need your wisdom!

so I went away overnight and everyone was fine. when I came home the next day, two of my chickens were acting drunken, couldn't support themselves. etc. I thought maybe they had mereks. Now, I have to admit I forgot to change the water and it had algae as well. And, it is possible that they ingested paint chips, although unlikely. the rest of the flock is so far fine. ( which sort of rules out the algae issue, right?)

my cockerel ( speckled sussex) was the better of the two. He couldnt really support his weight, but he was sitting in a normal chicken way. The easter egger pullet was all stretched out. They both are alert, eating and do not have abnormal stools.

last night I noticed that there was a weird scabby ENORMOUS growth? something! on the pullet. Is this possible with mereks? I thought maybe she had broken her leg, but it appears that is not the case. I have attached a video at the end of this post so you can see what I am talking about. Since I took that video, I also found a strange growth at her tail base on her back. They do not appear to be particularly tender, although her leg is a little stiff.

Now the other weird thing is that both of thse chickens were vaccinated as chicks against mereks, while some of the rest of the flock has not been. I also have no direct evidence that is is a bite site from a predator was in the yard, as no one is missing and there is no other evidence ( broken doors, tunnels, etc.)

Also, this evening, the cockerel is pretty much recovered. He looks great, is eating and looks ready to return to the flock.

So, here are the main questions:
What is going on?
At this point, the mereks issue is sort of a moot point with me, unless mereks can cause these weird tumor things. If not, what can I do about them and what are they?

Thanks!


http://www.youtube.com/v/Doh2t7LP1F0 here is the video