so this hand is four or five months old she wasn't from my flock she's from one of my neighbors and
we think she has Marek's disease some of the signs are paralysis of the legs wings and neck loss of
weight there's a few different versions of Marik's disease one will affect their eyes their eyes will
go gray or black but her eyes both look totally normal so she doesn't have that version but she
cannot move her legs at all she's not egg bound like you can feel right in here around her vent
she's just super super skinny there's literally nothing there and if she were egg bound she'd
at least be able to move her legs let's see some of the other stuff skin around feather follicles
are raised and roughened things like that there's some post-mortem things we could do if we wanted
to dig into her body after we dispatch her but I don't care to do that let's see so really the only
thing you can do for a hen or any chicken that you have that has Marek's disease is to basically just
dispatch him she's literally handicapped she cannot move at all she's trying to move away
from me but she can only move her head her wings are barely moving it's really quite sad her crop
is totally empty I've set some food for her and she won't eat at all I didn't see any evidence
of mites which is the other thing that would make a chicken behave like this I believe mites that
would get under the scales of the legs but anyways sadly enough that's what a chicken with Marek's
disease looks and acts like the only thing we can do you can vaccinate birds for Marek's disease
when their day or two old if you do mail-order chickens you can do that it's like five cents
a bird to get them vaccinated but unless they're vaccinated once they get Marek's disease there's
nothing you can do but dispatch them so we're gonna do that humanely they say the meats fine
to eat after that but we're not gonna do that we're just gonna take care of her anyways if
your Birds acting like this and literally cannot move that's the possible problem you can take
them to a vet spend a bunch of money or dispatch them give me your thoughts thanks for watching
so I'm putting this video together and I thought I should talk about a hen when they're egg bound
and the difference between an egg bound hen and a hen with Marek's disease an egg bound hen will
still be able to move their legs they'll typically be able to walk it's definitely probably more of
a waddle look compared to the way they normally walk around you can see when I'm touching that
hen how her legs just absolutely do not move she can barely move her wings she'd been like
this for about 48 hours they said which is kind of a bummer I mean if if the hens egg bound you
can feel back by their vent and it you can feel if there's an egg there and to take care valve
what you would do is you just get a large bucket that the hen can lay in or sit in fill it with
warm water a little bit warmer to the touch than what we as humans like you know like you could
probably go right around a hundred degrees or so on the water and set the Hin in there with some
Epsom salt let her soak her back in she's gonna try and stand up and flutter wings if she's egg
bound but keep her vent and her backside under the water let her soak for about 20 minutes
when you bring her out of the water you want a cleaner vent area maybe get a paper towel with
some vegetable oil and put that around her vent to keep it from being dry and chapped and sore make
it more flexible I guess you you do not want to squish that egg if you feel an egg inside of her
that's bound don't squish that egg and break it that wouldn't help the situation you could
do that for like two or three days if after the second day there's nothing happening maybe take
her to a vet or take care of her another way but that's the difference between an egg bound hand
and a hand with Marek's disease an egg bound him will still be able to move her legs she'll
be able to move her wings around all she wants she'll be able to walk even though it's gonna
be a very different walk she'll be incredibly uncomfortable and the Marek's disease bird is
just absolutely paralyzed there's nothing you can do for a bird that has Marek's disease I might put
some picture and I'm not I'm not gonna do that if you want you can google what the insides and
the organs of a chicken look like with Marek's disease it was clear this bird was not healthy
it was not gonna live we just dispatched her but it is Marek's disease is highly contagious
it's passed through dander and dust off the birds things like that so if you have a hen or rooster
that you think has Marek's disease separate it from your flock you'll have to watch all
the other birds I believe you can vaccinate as adults as well but it would take up to two weeks
for that vaccination to take effect so I don't know if that's gonna help at all at that point
but anyways thanks for watching hit subscribe if you would share it if you have friends that have
small flocks large flocks whatever anyways have a good one