The youngest chick started looking strange yesterday. By this morning his one foot was curled and dragging. I took him out of the brooder and put him in isolation with food and water. He is getting worse and worse. Now one wing is dragging and he doesn't get up much. It is #9 the youngest chick. And #8, the other black one, may be doing the same thing. I am so scared and worried I might lose them all. Is there anything I can do to help them? They are only 11 days old. They weren't vaccinated. I thought they didn't get this until they were older. Is there something else it could be?
Chick may have Mareks, need advice please.
Eleven days seems too young for Marek's, which usually shows up about the time they are fledging--8 to 11 weeks. They become infected much earlier, but it takes a while for the symptoms to show.
Here are a couple sites discussing the disease:
http://www.helium.com/items/1377323-mareks-disease
animalscience.ucdavis.edu/Avian/mareks2.pdf -
Some birds are very resistant to Marek's, others highly susceptible. Silkies are notoriously susceptible and, in my experience, so are Cochins. Some birds show early symptoms, then recover...although they are carriers. But if you vaccinate day old chicks, they also become carriers although most will never have the disease. the vaccine is not 100%.
The virus is carried on the chick and feather "dust". So keeping dust levels down is important, but Marek's can survive on surfaces for months. So once you have it, you pretty much have it. That doesn't mean you can't have chickens. Most chickens are exposed to Marek's at some point in their lives and older birds are assumed to have acquired age-related resistance.
Thanks Catscan. My older girls weren't vaccinated so I'm not sure if they would have it or not. Its really puzzling. I disinfected everything the chicks are in or are using. And I am careful to wash my hands, etc before going outside to feed or coming inside from feeding. I guess it could be on clothing, but I've been taking off coat, gloves, hat, etc.
If there are chickens anywhere in the vacinity--even miles away--the virus can blow in on the wind.
That is why I am starting to vaccinate my chicks. It can be hard to find the vaccine though and you have to buy it in 1000 dose lots that can't be saved once it is mixed up (the lit above says 200 dose lots are available, but I haven't seen any).
Good luck. There are some other diseases, like AE, that can cause young chicks to be unsteady on their feet and fail to thrive. Symptoms like yours appearing so early seem more like AE than Marek's.
Here is some information on AE--it was a big problem with shipped chicks from Murray McMurray a couple years ago. It is egg transmitted and the hens don't show symptoms aside from a drop in egg production, so no one realizes there is a problem until chicks begin to sicken. The age for onset of symptoms seems more appropriate for your babies than Marek's.
http://www.avianweb.com/avianencephalomyelitis.html
Catscan - Thanks again
That looks more like what this chick has.
Okay--the important facts are that AE will only be in chicks from an infected mother that is actively sick while laying the eggs (adult birds recover and are not carriers)--so if you have other unrelated chicks they should not be infected in the egg....but they can become infected from the droppings of the infected chicks.
It is not as contagious as Marek's. So, to protect the uninfected chicks, separate the symptomatic chicks from the healthy ones and change the litter, wash the bowls and feeder. Do everything you can not to spread the disease from the sick to the healthy ones.
Unfortunately, if it is AE, the sick chicks are unlikely to recover. Sometimes you can nurse them through the acute stage... but they will never thrive and will probably eventually succumb. AE can only be definitively diagnosed by a necropsy. In the MM cases, owners had to go to local universities with their dead and dying chicks to get a final confirmation of the disease.
There are other diseases that young chicks can get, like botulism, that have similar symptoms, but may not be fatal in all cases.
I am sorry you are going through this. I know what it is like and it stinks.
Well he survived the night, not any better though. I've been keeping an eye on him. I got up a couple times to give him water, etc. I know I should cull him, but can't do that. No others seem infected as yet. I'm keeping the brooder as clean as I can. And checking on them so often they are probably not getting enough chick beauty sleep.
That sucks about the AE diagnoses. What does MM stand for?
I would buy the vaccine and vaccinate all chicks, including the sick one. This is based off of recommendations from Mr. Peter Brown of First State Vet Supply and his article on Mareks.
MM was for Murray McMurray. The hatchery itself didn't have AE, but they apparently contracted for eggs of certain breeds from an independent breeder that did. So they inadvertently sent out infected chicks.
They are reputable--the real complaint was that, in the beginning, they were blaming the customers for the chicks' illness, and were very slow to acknowledge their part in it. It took a long time to figure out what was happening and the solution came from customers who went to forums, put their heads together, compared symptoms and breeds affected, and then took their chicks in for necropsies and a definitive diagnosis.
I've been trying to find a supplier for Marek's vaccine for about a week now. Everyone who carriers it has it on back order
I just spoke with customer service at VSI and they said that there has been production failure....meaning the company that makes it had a failure in culturing the last batch and it won't be available for a while.
Thanks for the info. That's bad news about the vaccine. I wonder if that affects the big hatcheries as well.
Well the poor baby died on Thursday while I was out. I'm beginning to think he wasn't sick from disease, but just failed to thrive. Maybe had a stroke. While the others continued to grow and feather out, he just stopped.
The others are fine. I just hope they survive the move to the garage they made today. They were too big for the aquarium and had to go in the cage brooder. There was no place big enough to put it inside. The thermo says 86 and they aren't huddling together, so I guess they are OK.
He may have had an internal defect. I have a little New Hampshire that is just weird...he never grew, still had all his down when the others were totally fledged and has a strange hard mass in his lower abdomen. I never thought he'd survive..but he has and is still very small and odd, although he has feathered out.
It is so hard when they don't make it...
If they aren't huddling, they are fine.