Mareks in vaccinated hens

Thank you for all your kind messages I really appreciate it.

My vet has just phoned after doing the PM and I'm afraid we still don't know what the problem was! I was relying on that to help understand what happened and why. Can't imagine a coroner doing a PM on a human and saying 'well actually I don't know what killed her' and we pay the vets good money for this!!!! Very annoyed as you can probably tell. He said he couldn't find anything at all, but could say that it wasn't Mareks. I'm afraid I can't take that as a definite if he can't tell me what it actually was. He said there were no tumours and no nerve damage (although he couldn't examine the spinal cord - I don't know why). This is where he thinks the problem was so why couldn't he examine it! Just said it's not very easy to do.

Can anyone tell me what would confirm Mareks on PM.

Of course now I'm thinking that there may have been more that could have been done. Anti inflammatories maybe? Maybe she had some sort of infection or swelling in her spinal cord. This is the guilt talking I suppose, but even so I like to know so that if it happens again I know what to do!
 
No need to feel guilty, Sue - and it's most unlikely to ever happen again, sort of lightning never strikes in the same place. There's really only a limited amount one CAN do for birds, they are so different from us, their bodies are so small, they stress so easily, and unless they get one of the easily-diagnosed and run-of-the-mill things for which proven remedies have been developed, often the kindest decision is to PTS, as you did. Hens don't have a very long lifespan in any case, do they, compared with other creatures - I know this hen was quite young, but you gave her a good life and what she had was a reasonable proportion of what she might have achieved if she hadn't become ill. I think sensible economics has to come into it as well at some point, though this will vary from person to person, as does the health of the whole flock if there is any risk in keeping a sick bird alive. Death isn't always the worst thing - I hope someone will knock me on the head before I go totally gaga and incapable, rather than keep me in a state where my life isn't worth living any more.
I agree about your frustration at paying for an inconclusive PM - isn't there a lab. near Oxford where dead birds can be sent for forensic analysis? I thought this was where yours was going, didn't realise the vet having a go herself.
 
I'm surprised your vet did a pm, mine is a poultry vet and he will send them off to a lab but at the end of the day you could have done no more for her.
You gave her an excellent home, she could not have asked for better.
 
I didn't know they were usually sent off to a lab! Surely my vet knows about this, he's a very experienced vet although not a poultry vet. The Chicken Vet's at Lympstone said it would cost over £100 to do a PM when I first went to see them with her. My vet charged £15. Although I wanted to know what killed her I wasn't prepared to pay over £100 to find out (couldn't afford that anyway)!
 
I doubt anti-inflammatories would have helped Sue. He would have spotted inflammation and that wouldn't explain why it got worse when she was less active, when any swelling would go down within that period. Relief to know it's not Mareks anyway.

I wouldn't pay £100 for a post mortem either. Money better spent on the others or, more importantly, you.
 
I am so sorry Sue ,however please take some comfort in the fact you did everything possible for her :( :(
 
Firstly, I'm very sorry to hear this Sue. It's sad when we lose a bird.

If it was Marek's, it lies dormant and doesn't show up in birds most of the time. It is usually triggered by stress. There are several different forms some cause paralysis, often only on one side. Not all vaccines protect against the 6 strains of Marek's that exist and vaccination doesn't always prevent the disease since more virulent strains can appear later on after.

The Chickenvet wrote an article on Marek's here which shows in one of the pictures the tumours you would expect to see during postmortem and they look pretty clear to me so I would think the vet would be able to identify them easily..?

Again Sue, I'm sorry you lost her. :cry:
 
Thank you Tim, that was a very interesting link. The vet confirmed she didn't have any tumours and the paralysis was bilateral. I would just have liked to have a cause for her death so that I could be sure none of the other birds were at risk. But it is good news that it most likely wasn't Mareks anyway.

Thank you for your post.

Sue
 
Sue,
To confirm, all my birds had very visable tumours so you'd know if it was Maraks even if not experienced with poultry.
 
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