a pekin on her own-help please!

[1920bunny]

I posted previously about my 4 pekins under limping pekin and mareks information and people on this form were so helpful-so here goes again
I am now down to one little frizzle pekin aprroximately 5 months old. The other 3 have either died , or been euthanased due to what may or may not be Marek's disease.
Briefly:
1 had a stretched crop?(died at 9 weeks)
1 had partial leg paralysis (euthanased at 13 weeks)
1 went 'quiet' one day, diarrhoea the next, died on day 3 (5 1/2 months)
my last girl looks lovely and fit and has seemed to grow and eat well.She is about 5 and 1/2 months old. The breeder , when contacted said he never had any of the problems I have had.
They are housed in a 7 foot run and coop combination, with an attached 8 foot by 4 foot covered run to protect them from the wet. they also had access to a large run on grass(under supervision) for between 2-6 hours a day. They were fed on organic growers pellets and ACV in water, with yoghurt, mealworms and sweetcorn as occasional treats. I had just wormed them on Flubenvet.When I had the pekin with partial paralysis euthanased the vet said it was most likely mareks. I have sterilsed the coop and ground with Virkon s and stalosan after each incident.

My real problem is the situation I dreaded has come true and I am left with one little girl on her own. If it was mareks could I have 2 vaccinated birds to keep her company or do I have to try and keep her on her own? I know she may now possibly be a marek's carrier, but are there any other options? How would she survive a winter on her own? Would really appreciate practical thoughts or advice, especially if anyone else has had a hen they thought might carry Mareks. Information seems quite conflicting on the internet, so please, please only advice if you have had a similar experience,or practical advice that has worked for you-not repeating information from the internet, as I have probaby read it already and feel so confused and worried about my little bird!

 

[Chuck]

Quite a history and quite a dilemma ! I'd definately look round for at least two suitable companions. 'Most likely Mareks' is not Mareks for certain and there are other possible causes.
I don't understand feeding yoghurt, cider vinegar and mealworms and would just feed pellets and a little mixed corn especially as they have the luxury of a grassed area.

 

[foxy]

Difficult one, from the history and ages I strongly suspect Mareks

Your remaining pekin will either be incubating Mareks or not..(assuming Mareks in this case..) if not she will not be a carrier and will be immune to the disease. Some strains of poultry are able to resist Mareks even if exposed to the disease due to a genetic component. If developing/incubating Mareks she will be shedding the disease and depending on where the the tumours are developing, it is not always apparent that she is infected. Of course it could be something else entirely but I doubt it in this case.

You could find her a friend, the best course in my opinion would be a vaccinated bantam or a young pair of vaccinated hybrids. I say young as this will help integration as they will see the pekin as the top hen.

I don't know where you are, you could always have a pretty vaccinated bantam faverolles from me if you were close enough to Bristol.

I am so sorry you have had such a sad experience with your birds, my heart goes out to you, and hope you can soon enjoy the brighter side of chicken keeping!

 

[chrismahon]

There you go Bunny, an offer that shouldn't be refused. Two vaccinated bantam Faverolles sounds ideal. You are really going to struggle to find vaccinated Pekins I think.

 

[NEWTODUCKS]

Bunny,
You have my greatest sympathy- a very similar story happened to me last year. I purchased 4, one week old chicks of various breeds who when they reached about 4 months started to die of various neurological disorders the vet could do nothing to treat. A PM on one showed nothing.I lost every single one. Fortunately I had several adult hens already so life carried on as before they'd arrived but if that had been my first experiance of hen keeping I think it would have put me off completely.
I did contact the breeder but they said they had had no other reports of problems.
Sorry no advice to give, just sympathy.

 

[1920bunny]

Difficult one, from the history and ages I strongly suspect Mareks

Your remaining pekin will either be incubating Mareks or not..(assuming Mareks in this case..) if not she will not be a carrier and will be immune to the disease. Some strains of poultry are able to resist Mareks even if exposed to the disease due to a genetic component. If developing/incubating Mareks she will be shedding the disease and depending on where the the tumours are developing, it is not always apparent that she is infected. Of course it could be something else entirely but I doubt it in this case.

You could find her a friend, the best course in my opinion would be a vaccinated bantam or a young pair of vaccinated hybrids. I say young as this will help integration as they will see the pekin as the top hen.

I don't know where you are, you could always have a pretty vaccinated bantam faverolles from me if you were close enough to Bristol.

I am so sorry you have had such a sad experience with your birds, my heart goes out to you, and hope you can soon enjoy the brighter side of chicken keeping!

Foxy thank you so much for your good advice. I am in Derbyshire, so think maybe Bristol is too far to travel for your lovely Faverolles, but will definitely get back in touch if I can't find young vaccinated pekins... I was really worried that she would have to be on her own but if people on the forum think vaccinated is the way to go, I will definitely try that. Thanks again.

 

[1920bunny]

Thanks to everyone who has replied so far. I was so worried that my pekin would have to live on her own but will definitely loook for vaccinated pekins if people here think this is the way to give her company.If she is carrying markeks, would the vaccinations protect any other birds I have, or am I taking the risk that they might contract it too? just wondered if anyone has any experience of this. Thanks again,I really feel better for having help from people who know so much more then me!

 

[foxy]

I have a lot of experience with Mareks, and truly wish I didn't, this is why all my birds are vaccinated. I also have some older birds which survived the Mareks outbreak last year, it wiped out 90% of my flock,and I had a lot of birds! It was absolutely devastating, my best exhibition birds, most of my breeders, even some older birds died. None of the older non-vaccinated birds have contracted Mareks since I started vaccinating my youngstock.
Every bird with symptoms (any symptoms at all) was blood tested, and some were autopsied. I had to make the awful decision to cull some birds which looked seemingly healthy but had positive results back, that was gut-wrenching. I was lucky that I have worked with avian specialists so had a huge amount of support and advice from them.