# Some of my silkies



## seminole wind (Aug 22, 2015)

It's so easy to post here!


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

Very, very nice. You shouldn't have any problems finding new homes for those boys. They are going to be stunning when the finish filling out.

I see a ton of molting is going on at your place. The first time I saw that many feathers all at once I thought something had gotten my coop.


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## chickenmommy (Apr 30, 2013)

Very pretty silkies seminolewind. I love the full crest.


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## seminole wind (Aug 22, 2015)

I can't rehome the boys because they've been exposed to Marek's Virus. Unless someone has a Marek's vaccinated flock or Marek's in their flock. 

Since they have to be vaccinated at day one and quarantined for 3 weeks or more, I can't even hatch with a broody. I knew I was keeping everyone when I hatched them. 5 months no roo problems yet. Just some hair pulling.


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

My best friend and swap chicken partner had Mareks in her flock. Confirmed with a necropsy. She vaccinated every surviving bird in her flock. I sent two of my birds to live with her, both were unvaccinated. I received birds from her, none of my flock was vaccinated. No losses. No signs of Mareks.

I guess what I'm saying is that yes, you can vaccinate adults and have it work just fine. The idea behind day old vaccinations is to protect the peeps as quickly as possible since the mortality rate is so high in chicks.


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## seminole wind (Aug 22, 2015)

When I got, "Typhoid Mary" the chickens I had that were 18 months or older did not get it. But then I hatched 10 Polish and they all got leg paralysis one by one starting at 6 weeks old. Funny, Typhoid Mary was a silkie, and out of 9 silkies, she affected 2 with paralysis and I put them down. At the time my flock had been completely closed. I bought one pullet at a swap. Then the trouble started.

If they don't succumb to paralysis, exposed birds have damaged immune systems, and can die from things they should have some resistance to, Like Cocci, e. coli, clostridium , or get enteritis. All a person would see is a chicken who wastes, or is not laying as much as she should. It's like they lose weight for no reason. I've managed to save some of those with a 7 day course of Amoxicillin and sulfadimethoxine. One of mine died from Aspergillosis with the fungus affecting her lungs and heart. No symptoms. But not any way to save her from it either.


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## seminole wind (Aug 22, 2015)

robin416 said:


> My best friend and swap chicken partner had Mareks in her flock. Confirmed with a necropsy. She vaccinated every surviving bird in her flock. I sent two of my birds to live with her, both were unvaccinated. I received birds from her, none of my flock was vaccinated. No losses. No signs of Mareks.
> 
> I guess what I'm saying is that yes, you can vaccinate adults and have it work just fine. The idea behind day old vaccinations is to protect the peeps as quickly as possible since the mortality rate is so high in chicks.


You're very very lucky. But I've had marek's skip hatchlings prior to that with no explanation , only to find that Marek's does not follow the rules, and many times looks like some other illness all together. I have heard of people with a positive tested bird and nothing further happened to the flock. It's unlikely but does happen. I've had one hen get paralysis and walk again 6 weeks later.

A friend of ours on BYC wrote up this big FAQ on Marek's which is remarkable, but I just need to wait for her to give me permission to post it here. She gets busy in her life so eventually she'll read the pM.


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

The thing that triggered the necropsy was the loss of young birds on an ongoing basis. Signs did point to Mareks which is the reason she sent at least one for necropsy. 

We went back to swapping birds back and forth some time after she vaccinated all in her flock. All peeps were vaccinated the day after hatch. She suffered no more losses on a steady basis like she had been. 

She's been ill the past couple of weeks or I would call her and ask for a better time line on when we started moving birds between us again. I simply don't remember any more. I actually still have one of them, she's seven or eight years old now. I just lost the female that had been living with her a couple of months ago. The closest I can figure her age was 8. She went to live with her at 1 and I got her back when she was 5.


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## seminole wind (Aug 22, 2015)

I think that the older chickens in a flock get, the more they get resistant to it. My biggest losses were with chickens under 8 months old with a few older to about 18 months old. But my original flock that was here before Marek's were all resistant by then. And there are 2 hens that left the neighbor and moved in here, and never had a problem. One was only a few months old when I found her.

I do think there's a lot to be said for a "light" exposure or chickens that get exposed, leave, and come back- I have a rooster who was born here, left at a few months old and came back a few months later and is still here.


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