Tamara had a carnival to take the boys to last night so I didnt get to relay the messages, but she will be here today. Thanks for all the help here.
Chicken Doctor 101 Q & A
CMoxon, I'm with you. My first profession was a vet tech but I still take my animals to the vet when anything comes up. I keep basic Vet supplies on hand and antibiotics, both injectable and oral. Also wound dressings. Animals are a huge responsiblility. People don't seem to realize that when they get the cute chick, puppy or kitty. I will not even go on vacation because I can not find someone to farm sit that I trust to care for my animals. Price you pay, but the rewards are a bazillion times better.
inbetween, i don't go on vacation anymore either. can't find anyone who will take care of the animals the way i do.
Just to let you know, she died in the night. Tamara said it was classic signs of Merricks however the heck you spell it. She said today it was text book. She had been sick for just at a week. I am livid.
Talk about wound dressings, when we had goats we had a baby get attacked by some neighbor dogs, before we got the watch dogs, and he was chewed up. mom got the needle and thread and the monkey blood out and we went to do surgery. Mom stitched him right up no problem what so ever. We also had some babies born in mid January and mom left one out in the field, we found her and she was cold and lifeless. We got her and warmed her up and fed her kept her in the house for about 4 hours and to this day they both are still alive and doing well.
This message was edited Oct 25, 2008 7:04 PM
Well I find the Marek's diagnosis odd because the symptoms given here were:
- watery eyes or milky white goo in eyes, eventual blindness
- no appetite
- not drinking
Here are the Marek's symptoms per the Chicken Health Handbook (but similar elsewhere too), specifically for the eye form of Marek's (see p 127 of CHH)
- greying shrunken iris
- irregular shaped pupil
- emaciation
- diarrhea
- blindness
- death
Well, none of those were mentioned except for blindness and death, but the death is not specific to Marek's! The blindness, if it was blindness, can be from many other things. Marek's ocular form doesn't seem to have the symptom of eye goo at all. No mention was made of the pupil shape, or emaciation, or diarrhea, so this does not seem consistent with Marek's, but I am not an expert. Oh, also Marek's doesn't have the problem with the eye gumming shut.
If it was Marek's there is no cure or treatment in any event, so it's nobody's fault if that is what it was - just a fatal virus. Nothing could have been done. If it wasn't Marek's (and I personally doubt it) then it probably needed veterinary attention.
I am sorry for TF's loss, and hope none of the other birds contract the problem, whatever it was.
Good call Claire i don't think it was Mereks either.
one thing she said that made her believe it was the way she dies, her legs (i didnt see them ) where.....................one in front one in back. Ok when I seen the bird this morning( she was still alive last night) she was squatted down.
Ok I dont know what this is.....emaciation.
I said she was blind, I think cat called it what it was, that outer eye stuff. I just seen it last night, like her eyes were open but there was the other skin closed.
Marek's is tricky, because it depends on which nerves and/or organ systems are affected.
what causes Marek's?
A virus. A herpesvirus, actually. Paralysis with one leg forward and one leg back is classic for infection of the sciatic nerve.
She may have spasmed when she died and that was the reason for her legs being that way.
I've seen chickens die and they kind of pedal their legs and finally spasm stiff at the end.
So the position of her legs has little to do with her sickness.
Ok I wnet and rea up what I could understand, no it was not Mareks. She looked good, wings, neck and legs until the application of this eye cream. It started in one eye, gave her ACV and garlic and hard boiled eggs in 2 days she was doing real good, she was eating her grain also. Decided to keep her isolated and then the eye cream came into play. Down hill from there.
Found my glasses.
Terramycin
(oxytetracycline hydrochloride)
Antibiotic Ophthalmic Ointment with Polymyxin B Sulfate
Emaciation is severe weight loss.
Probably just the eyelid then (nictitating membrane) and not blindness.
From what I've read, it seems that the one leg forward/back thing isn't just when they die - they get paralyzed before they die. In fact the paralysis often leads to death because then they can't eat or drink because they can't move to the food. But that doesn't sound like what happened here...
no it was not, she could move. I seen her this morning, and she was crutched down so peaceful like she was sitting on a nest and sleeping(she had already passed). I didnt see the legs sprawled.
Thanks all for the info, i am learning. I didnt give the eye cream nor would I help her give it. Especially after I had seen my bird over come what ever it was she had with the same symptoms at first.
I just seen the weight loss, I could not tell you that, I did not handle this bird at all.