dying chickens

Re: dying chickens

Kate Everett — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 15:56:52 GMT

Hi Catherine,

On a small flock basis the most viable option is Poulvac MD Vac but unfortunately Marek's being a herpes virus the youngesters have almost certainly already been exposed unless their biosecurity is pretty amazing. Vaccination normally recommended at day old or asap but usually at 3 weeks of age maximum because of the high risk of infection from fomites, feathers, dust etc. Not as effective I understand as the liquid nitrogen stored version but that usually isn't something the small flock can organise or afford. If you vaccinate already infected birds you have a high risk of assymptomatic carriers.

Definite breed predispositions eg Silkies and Seebrights. What breed are yours? Seems to be pretty endemic down here in Kent I'm sorry to say

Good luck, Kate

www.exoticsmadeeasy.co.uk

Re: dying chickens

CatherineThomas — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 14:27:22 GMT

The owner doesn't think they are vaccinated. I would assume that it would have been amde clear if they were vaccinated when they bought them.

I would also be interested in finding out about how we go about vaccinating them. They do have another group of chickens who are a little younger and none of them have been affected yet. So I wonder if t would be posible to vaccinate them.

Re: dying chickens

Mark Holmes — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 13:32:31 GMT

Can I cross reference this to my question of vaccinating chickens?

Re: dying chickens

Edward Jones — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 13:29:25 GMT

What's the vaccination status?

Re: dying chickens

CatherineThomas — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 22:00:06 GMT

So I looked at the slides I made and there are loads of lymphocytes of varying sizes and with varying amounts of cytoplasm. So I guess that points to marek's. From what I've read if the lymphoctes are uniform it's lymphoid leukosis and if they are pleomorphic its Mareks. Well heres pictures of the liver, intestines and lung. Sorry they are massive.

Re: dying chickens

Mark Rowland — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 20:50:20 GMT

Highly likely Mareks disease, you need histo of the liver and other tissues

Goodluck

Re: dying chickens

Mark Hedberg — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 19:16:39 GMT

The intestines might suggest coccidia; liver patches and lungs, possibly aspergillus? I'd take an impression of the lung and peek at it under a microscope, stained...just to see if anything blatant lives there.